Ask yourself some questions

There are a few questions that you need to be asking yourself when thinking about your social media.

1. Who is my ideal customer/target market

2. What is my social media goal? Is it to get people aware of my business, is it to sell directly through that platform, or is it to build connections. We all want to use social media to help us grow our businesses but you also need to recognise that sales come when a customer knows, likes, and trusts your business. Building that know, like and trust, is what social media is really great at doing.

Thinking about these questions will help drive which platforms you need to be on.

It all starts with your target customer

Understanding your target customer is important for so many reasons. In terms of social media, it can help you find where to focus your efforts. Gaining a deeper understanding of your target customer will help you to create content that resonates with them. If it resonates with them, they will engage with your business. If they engage then they will see more of your content and when they see more of your content they start to know, like, and trust you. One thing I always recommend is to create customer profiles. These are detailed profiles of your ideal customer. By creating them and thinking about what motivates them it helps you to understand why they would engage with your business. By thinking about their demographics, you will be able to get a clearer picture of which social media platform resonates with them. If you’ve never created one before I have a free template that you can download and use here.

Once you know a bit about your target customer, you can think about what platforms they are on. You might love posting on LinkedIn but if your target audience is on Instagram then it’s probably not the best use of your time to be posting every day on LinkedIn.

I know my audience, now what?

You also need to consider the type of content for each platform. It’s easy to think that a post that performed well on Facebook can just be copied across to another platform. The challenge with doing that is that each platform has a different audience. Even if your customer is on multiple platforms they might not want to see the same content from you. For example, their reason for being on Facebook may be different from their reason for being on LinkedIn. So seeing your same post that they may well have engaged with on Facebook might not be relevant when they are in a different mindset. For example when they are thinking more in “work” terms on LinkedIn.

As a small business owner, the world of social media can seem overwhelming but the key element is to understand your customer. By doing this you can engage with them on the most appropriate platform with great content that appeals to them.

If you want to understand more about how to feel less overwhelmed by social media and be able to leverage it to reach your target audience, get in touch here, and I’d be happy to have a chat.

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1. It all starts with the customer

One of the key things for any successful marketing is to understand your customer. A lot of businesses tend to forget to real nail who their customers are. They have an idea of who they are but they don’t really get to know them. You might wonder why that is important? For social media, it is really important to create quality content that resonates with your target market. If you don’t fully understand your customers how can you appeal to them? One way to get a deeper understanding of your customers is to create customer avatars. These are detailed profiles of your ideal customer. By creating them and thinking about what motivates them it helps you to understand why they would engage with your business. Once you understand your customer that’s when you can think about the content that might appeal to them. If you want to start creating user personas then I have a free template here

2. Create content that resonates with your target audience

You might love talking about dogs however if that’s not going to appeal to your target audience then that content isn’t the type of content you want to be sharing on your business Instagram profile. It’s great to share something about you, and that includes your dog but if you’re a tutor and every post is about your dog then you may gain followers that are dog lovers but they aren’t necessarily interested in your tutoring. That’s why it is so important to understand your audience so that you can create content that they will value. The benefit of creating content that is of value to them is that it builds the know, like, trust principle. This principle is that people do business with those whom they know, like, and trust.

3. Building an engaged community

Instagram is about connecting people not collecting people so building an engaged community is really important. Once your followers are engaged with your content that’s a clear example of how they know, like, and trust you! How do you get engagement though? Well, you need to be engaging yourself too. That means commenting and liking other people’s posts as well and responding to comments on yours. People often wonder who they should be engaging with, which is again linked to your user personas/avatars because once you understand your target customer you’ll gain an understanding of what else they might be interested in, and that gives you an indication of types of accounts they may be following. For example, if you are a wedding cake designer you would want to engage with other accounts in the wedding industry as your target customer might well be checking them out too but also because building relationships with businesses in the same type of industry as you can lead to great referrals and collaborations.

Making sure you start off with these three things will really help with growing your business on Instagram. I will also say that if you want growth, you need to remember to show up consistently. You can only build an engaged community if you show up regularly.

Once you understand you, customer, create content for them and start engaging you will start to reap the benefits. I know this from having managed multiple Instagram accounts and I always use start with these 3 things in mind.

If you need any more help or direction on how to grow your business via Instagram then you can DM me on Instagram @socialfactorHQ or contact me here

The post How do I use Instagram to promote my business? 3 simple things that get results appeared first on The Social Factor.

This is going to be a super a simple guide to the different features of Instagram.

Posts

These these can be photos, videos or carousel posts (carousels are just more than one image that you swipe to view). They appear on your profile page and can be viewed by others if you have a public account.

Stories

Instagram stories feature allows you to share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. They do not appear on your main Instagram grid but rather at the top of your screen when you’re on the Instagram mobile app. They’re often the first pieces of content users see when they open Instagram. They also appear on your profile when someone taps on your profile picture.

Lives

Instagram Live are living streaming. It is an unedited stream for your followers to tune into and engage with. Instagram Live’s allows your audience to submit their comments in real-time. Hosting an Instagram Live can also help boost your discoverability on Instagram. Your followers will receive an in-app notification at you are going live. Instagram also lets you go live with with others so you can have people come join in with your lives.

Reels

This is Instagram’s version of Tik Tok. Instagram users can record and edit together 30-second video clips set to music and share them to their stories, their feed, and the new Reels tab on a user’s profile. Reels can be recorded as a series of clips and added together.

Guides

These are a really great way to share curated, scrollable content. It’s great for recommendations and tips as it collates posts into an easy-to-digest format. You can put a number of similar posts together to form a guide. Things like tips can make a great guide. That way people can click on the guide and all your posts on tips are all together rather than the user having to scroll through all your posts to view your tips.

IGTV

This is Instagram’s version of YouTube. Videos can be up to 10 mins long (60 mins. for verified accounts) and must be a minimum of 1 minute long. Instagram also allows you to post one-minute previews of their IGTV videos on their feeds to improve discoverability. You can create channels to categorise your IGTV videos. You can also save your lives to your IGTV so that they don’t just disappear once you have done them.

Instagram has continued to evolve and keeps creating new ways to share content. Each of the features has it’s own benefits. Instagram wants it’s new features to be utilised so easy adopters of their features tend to see the benefits in the terms that Instagram will push their content out to more people.

If you want to know how to best use each of these features to grow your business then get in touch at info@thesocialfactor or sign up to my “2-minute social media hack” emails.

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What is Clubhouse?

Clubhouse is an audio-only social media platform. Think of it as live podcasts where you can actually jump in and ask questions. The thing that makes Clubhouse so appealing is partly because at the moment it’s in beta phase so it’s invitation-only, but that’s not all that makes it so appealing. The fact that it allows you access to insights from plenty of industry experts is great and people are giving away their time and advice on there for free. The idea is that you join “rooms” where conversations are happening and listen (and participate if you want) to live conversations with other people on the platform.

How do I get on Clubhouse?

At the moment as it’s in beta phase, it’s only available for iPhone users (sorry Android users). The only way you can get on there is if you are invited by someone who is already on the platform. If they have you as a saved contact on their phone they can invite you. As a new user, you are given one invite to share once you join. From there on invites are given out based on your activity on the app, and the activity of those you invite.

What do I do once I join Clubhouse?

Once you are in Clubhouse you’ll need to create a profile for yourself which consists of your name, username, bio, and profile picture. Like many other social media platforms, you can start following people. As a new user to the Clubhouse app you’ll have a party hat emoji, this will disappear after 7 days, it’s just so people know you’re new to Clubhouse.

Now you can start to join “rooms”. Rooms are the places where the conversations happen. They have a title so that you know what’s being talked about in the room. Each room will have moderators which are the people that have set up the room. Anyone can start up a room. It’s probably best when you first join to listen in to some rooms rather than jumping in and starting your own room straight away.

There are 4 types of rooms:

1) Open Rooms – These are for anyone to join in on

2) Social Rooms – These are with people you follow.

3) Closed Rooms – Allow you to select the people who can join.

4) Club Rooms – Where you connect with people who are in a club.

Once in a room, you can ‘ping’ someone to suggest they join.

Rooms are live audio-only. There is no replay so if you miss out on a room, that’s it, it’s gone. The thing that I find a bit tricky at the moment is that you don’t know when a room started on when it’s ending. There are some rooms that have been going for hours and hours, even days! The problem with not knowing when they have started is that when you jump into a room, you are not sure how far along the conversation has got. It can be like joining in on a conversation when the majority of the conversation has already happened!

When you are in the room there are three sections. The people that are speakers so are on the “stage”, people that are followed by the speakers and then everyone else in the room. If you want to speak or ask a question you can use the “raise hand” function and the speakers/moderators can invite you up onto the stage.

Is it worthwhile being on Clubhouse?

Now, this all depends on what you want to get out of it. I have found it’s a great way to have conversations with people that you will never get to chat with in real life. I was in a room with Gary Vaynerchuk and Paris Hilton recently. I never asked a question but I did get to hear their point of view on a topic. There are also lots of great people there giving their time and advice away for free. I also think as a small business owner it’s a great way to increase your visibility. Talking in rooms on social media has definitely got more people connecting with me on social media. It does take up some of your time though so it’s all about balance. Be warned though it can be a bit addictive!

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This blog isn’t about him though, it’s about knowing the power of twitter and how it can help your business. If a tweet by a novice can get the attention of people, think about what can a well planned twitter account could do for your business.

Why is twitter great for your business?

Brand awareness

It’s a great way of giving your brand an actual voice. So you can add some personality to it. A good example is Innocent drinks, they do a great job of using social media to give their brand personality. Being on twitter also gets you seen and heard. 47% of people who follow a brand on Twitter are more likely to visit that company’s website. If you’re out there tweeting and engaging with people it is getting your business seen more. By posting engaging content, people will start to want to follow your business and join in with conversations.

Engaging with customers

You can have conversations with customers and potential customers. You can get real time thoughts on new products and feedback. This may not always be positive feedback. However it allows you to learn what customers want and provides you with the opportunity to handle a customer service issue in a way that shines a positive light on your business

Networking

People often forget that Twitter gives you opportunities to talk and collaborate with people in a way you previously couldn’t. It’s a great tool for business to network and get involved in industry wide conversations. It gets you seen by people you may even be looking to hire or companies that are looking to use your services.

Making it work

I have to remind people that although Twitter is great, you can’t just open an account and expect to get followers. It does take work. It’s just like a networking event. You can’t go in shouting about your business and expect people to want to talk to you. With Twitter you need to engage with people, join in with conversations, don’t butt into a conversation promoting your business though. Hijacking a conversation is never good.

On your marks, get set…..Tweet

Twitter is a great way to get talking to a wealth of people. It’s a free form of advertising and PR so why would you not try it? Get tweeting! If you’re completely new to tweeting, Twitter have a simple guide

To really get Twitter working for you it does take dedicated time. There are some more detailed guides but if that’s not something you can commit to then The Social Factor can help you leverage Twitter. Whether that be through offering social media management or training you to help leverage it yourself.

HAPPY TWEETING!

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What makes social media so great for your business is that you can actually compete with the bigger brands because social media isn’t about spending money, it’s about spending time. Time to engage with your potential and current customers. It gives your business a voice that can be easily heard.

If you’re thinking that you’ve tried and it doesn’t work for your business, it might just be because you are having trouble making it work. I wouldn’t expect my iron to be able to get the creases out of my clothes if I just plugged it in and looked at it. It’s the same with social media, you can’t just have a social account (twitter, facebook, instagram etc) and just post on them and expect results from that.

What makes social media so great for your business is that you can actually compete with the bigger brands because social media isn’t about spending money, it’s about spending time. Time to engage with your potential and current customers. It gives your business a voice that can be easily heard.

If you’re thinking that you’ve tried and it doesn’t work for your business, it might just be because you are having trouble making it work. I wouldn’t expect my iron to be able to get the creases out of my clothes if I just plugged it in and looked at it. It’s the same with social media, you can’t just have a social account (twitter, facebook, instagram etc) and just post on them and expect results from that.

Have a strategy in place. Know what it is that you want your social media to achieve, think about your target customers.

Don’t think about what you want to push to them but rather think about what they would want to see. Remember social media is all about being social. Engage with others and in turn you will get engagement back.

Post rich content, things are are not just pushing your business but that are interesting enough to get people wanting to follow you. If you need some help with content then this is a great checklist.

You also need to understand what platform is best for your business. They each have their unique benefits. Social media is great for building brand awareness, learning about your customers and increasing web traffic, which in turn will all boost sales. This can only happen once you have a good following and an engaged community.

As with anything you need to invest time into it to make it work. Once you do though you will start to see the results.

If you don’t want to do this yourself remember The Social Factor can help. Whether it be with training, setting up platforms or managing them for you.

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