Much has been written on the Buffer Blog about social media strategy.
In the last month alone, we’ve covered (in great detail) everything from Facebook Messenger marketing and managing multiple social media accounts to creating remarkable content and the rise of micro-influencers.
One thing that often gets overlooked in all of the detail is a more general approach to social media for businesses and entrepreneurs.
What should businesses be thinking about? What are long-term trends that businesses can feel good about investing in? What makes for truly good social media content?
In episode #65 of The Science of Social Media, hosts Brian Peters and Hailley Griffis cover successful social media for businesses and entrepreneurs. After chatting with hundreds of businesses, we’ve dwindled it down to eight super important social media tips that businesses and entrepreneurs should consider on their way to social media success.
Let’s dive in!
8 Tips to Quickly Master Social Media for Businesses and Entrepreneurs
1. Make a commitment to social media
The first thing that businesses and entrepreneurs can do to find success is make a commitment to social media.
Like any other form of marketing, social media for businesses can be a real challenge. It’s hard to grow an audience, create great content, and increase engagement. All too often we see brands giving up on social media after just a few months.
We’ve found that it takes eight months to one year to really get the hang of social. Not only to get a consistent content stream going, but to figure out what your audience resonates with and what they don’t.
It all starts with planning. Create a social media strategy and write it down in order to hold your business accountable. Your strategy should include a basic company mission statement, content plan and goals. And most importantly, a powerful statement on “why” people would follow you on social media, what kind of content you plan on creating and posting, and what you hope to achieve.
2. Show off your personality
The second social media tip for businesses and entrepreneurs is to always (authentically) be you on social media.
Take a second to think about the brands that you follow on social media…. What makes them special? What makes you follow them?
Chances are that there is something special about the content they post or the way in which they post it. We’re guessing they have a personality and aren’t just brand robots pushing out content.
Creating a great social media presence isn’t only about showing the value of your product or service to your audience. It’s about connection and experiences. The best brands out there share a common point of view with their fans.
One of our favorite examples of this idea in action is Merriam Webster Dictionary. They’re a dictionary and they’re seeing tremendous success on social media.
3. Listen to customers rather than promote
Tip #3 is that great social media programs are built around listening to customers, not promoting to them.
The way we like to think about it is that social media offers an incredible, open-ended platform that businesses can use to communicate and engage with customers. That’s why we recommend using it that way!
Social media is becoming a customer service platform and people are coming to expect it. The tricky part is, the better you get at social the more engagement you’ll get, and in turn, the more comments. So be prepared for an influx of love from your fans!
The other side is that your customers are the best source of inspiration for content. Lots of businesses are sitting on a never-ending gold mine of content ideas by simply looking at their frequently asked questions, or what people are asking on social media. If you’re stuck on what to post, look to your customers first for ideas before anything else.
You can also listen to competitor’s customers as well, as funny as that sounds. Tools like Twitter Lists, BuzzSumo, Facebook Pages to Watch, Google Keyword Planner, and YouTube are all great places to find what’s working in your industry.
4. Focus your efforts on a select networks
Social media networks are like shiny new objects. We want to be everywhere at once and try everything because we’re sure that this network will be the one for us. But the fact is we’re all strapped for resources. So if you try to focus on lots of social networks then you’re setting yourself up for a long road ahead.
We tried! At one time we were everywhere. We were on all of the standard networks…
