Owning and running a business is challenging, every business owner will know this. With the increased demand for an online presence business’s are feeling the pressure to keep up, adding social media marketing to their ‘to-do-list’. Yet in our experience many businesses come to us because they struggle to balance the needs and demands of their business; or they don’t have the resources or the guidance on how to master both.

Stress not – because we are going to provide you with the essentials to help you understand the do’s and don’t of social media.

THE DO’s

Do be relatable to your audience

So many business’ jump into getting the ball rolling without actually having a strategy in place. Just like your goals, if you have no roadmap, direction or step by step on how you plan to achieve it, then the possibility of your goals remaining a dream is highly likely. Why? Because if you don’t know where you are going, then its very easy to get side tracked.

This is the same for your business’ social online presence. If you don’t know WHO your target audience is or WHAT they want from you, then your posts can start to become meaningless and wasteful without a specific purpose behind it.

Think about your business goals; think about your audiences needs and find a strategy that will serve both of you. You might advertise that you have a new product that you can offer your customers, however do your customers understand how it relates to them?

For example, you have a beauty salon business and your goal is to increase your customer base and sell beauty services and products. Your audience is interested in beauty trends, beauty products, services and specials. When posting about the new product that has just arrived, let’s use “false eyelashes” as an example – how can you make your post relatable to the audience who you know is interested in this product?

Instead of posting about the new false eyelashes product that has just arrived, make it relatable. An example would be “our new hybrid eyelash extensions have arrived and best of all, they feel light weight and look absolutely natural. The good news is that it lasts 1 week longer than your normal lash extensions.”

What you’re achieving with this is relating to the audience and telling them about the benefits of your new product. This would be the audience who wants long, natural looking lash extensions that doesn’t make their eyes feel heavy and lashes that last longer than the ordinary lash.

So think carefully when it comes to posting your content. Have a plan, is it relatable to your audience? Does it achieve your ultimate business goal?

Do think before you post

Keep in the mind that the things you post on social media will affect how people view your company. If your posts aim is to start a conversation or encourage commentary, make sure you’re available to reply to comments. Avoid topics related to religion, politics or gender issues. Keep a good relationships with your audience no matter how big or small or how relevant to your company.

Do be real

No matter how laid back or corporate you are, one of the best ways to engage with your audience is to show the real side of you. Show that you actually have real people behind your brand.

Behind the scenes, special events, staff achievements, and videos are all ways to assist you with building trust and loyalty and will help your audience relate your brand.

Do be realistic

Social media can certainly influence sales, but businesses need to realise that social media on it’s own cannot grow sales.

Social Media is great for many things, from creating and influencing your market with regard to your brand and reputation; to generating awareness and interest for your products or services. Other areas of your business play an important role in attracting and converting those into paying customers.

Do be understood

Focus on making your content understandable. If you are a very corporate logistics company, make the process of your operations easy to understand. Use language that is easily understood by your customers whilst achieving the impact of what you are trying to convey.

WHAT NOT TO DO

Don’t engage negatively online

Just don’t do it. Leave the frustration, anger or hurt for your stress ball. Always respond to a negative comment with the aim to take it offline. Remain positive, apologetic and determined to improve. Do not keep a conversation going online for the world to see.

With that being said, don’t use your social media to engage with haters, trolls or any other negative influencers online as battling with them will always result in a lost cause as you will waste your time, energy and creativity that could be spent serving your customers and building your brand.

Don’t try to do everything and be everywhere

Pushing yourself out on too many platforms will result in you becoming overwhelmed, less focused and it will eventually dilute your effectiveness on each platform.

Instead, try to remain active only on the accounts that are giving you the best return on your time and efforts. This means that it is okay to put all your energy into Facebook and LinkedIn and to leave out Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter if those platforms aren’t delivering results for the type of operation that you run.

Don’t post in irregular patterns or 1 month apart

Posting regularly will build trust for your brand. If your audience sees that you post once a month, they aren’t really getting the value out of your online presence and will consider your brand just there for show.

Having weekly conversations and building engagement will help your brand in the sense that even if you are posting once a week, those audiences can look forward to hearing from you once a week.

The same can be said for if you post everyday for a month and then all of a sudden only post once a month, audiences will be lead to believe that there is something wrong or out of control behind the scenes and this will impact if they want to do business with you. Your performance online should reflect your performance offline. So be consistent!

Don’t post without proofreading

If you don’t proofread what you put out there, you are likely to miss spelling and grammar mistakes. This will reflect a negative and careless image of your brand to your audience. 

Don’t ignore messages, questions or comments

This can quickly lead to hard feelings and missed opportunities and in return can damage your brand image. If you ignore an online complaint, then newcomers will feel that that is how you will treat them in that circumstance.

Respond quickly, keep tabs on your activity and help your audience with any queries they have or any feelings they share with you. 

Creating the perfect social media platforms for your brand isn’t rocket science. Yet it does require detailed planning, focus, interaction and consistency. Follow these few dos and donts to build a creative and unique platform to meet both your business and audiences goals.

Janine Wood

Janine Wood is a digital marketing specialist and business owner-manager of Ignite Media. Her experience spans brand development and digital marketing roles including management and strategy. Janine helps clients create memorable brands, increase their online visibility and attract, engage and convert their ideal customers. Janine is passionate about entrepreneurship and empowering others.