A recent study stated that 81% of small businesses are currently using social media. Another study mentions that the average Facebook user would see 1500 updates from Friends and Pages they follow in a single day. This all adds up to one thing, there is a lot of noise and competition on social media.
Share Updates Regularly -
With all of this noise and competition, it’s important to make sure that your business is standing out from the average business using social media to grab the attention of your Followers. Lets look at someways that your business can standout and get noticed in a busy online platform.
Optimize Your Profile -
Many businesses are so eager to get involved with social media they don’t take the time to optimize their profiles. Optimizing your profile includes uploading custom images designed for the specific space provided by the platform, filling out all of the information fields and providing valuable information your customers may be looking for when visiting your profile including phone number, address and emails.
By having your profile completely optimized (in other words setup) you will standout from the majority of small businesses that just do the basics. When new or potential customers find your profiles they will be more inclined to Follow you seeing that you've taken the time to customize and brand your profiles. Profiles that are missing pieces risk losing new Followers, therefore losing potential sales and revenue.
Respond To Comments/Questions -
Social media is often times the first channel your customers go to when it comes to asking questions and learning about your products or services. However, for the average small business comments and questions go unanswered, or at best responses are provided days after the question was asked.
News flash, social media users are looking for instant responses, that’s part of the reason why they use social media in the first place. If your brand is able to provide quick responses to inquiries on social media, you’ll be miles ahead of your competition. On the other hand, if you leave comments left unanswered, the customer asking the question isn't the only customer you’re potentially losing.
Because more often than not questions are posted publicly on your profile’s wall or via @mention, other users visiting your profile see these ignored questions as well. This instantly gives the impression to complete strangers that your brand doesn't care or isn't available to answer basic questions, this is NOT a good first impression. If you’re going to be using social media, make sure you’re checking it often enough to provide answers within the same day, within a couple hours is even better.
Share Interesting Updates -
The average social media user is active on these channels to stay in touch with friends and family, not to see your sales pitch or commercials. Knowing this simple truth will make it easier to remind you to share interesting content that your Followers care about and want to engage with. This could include funny images related to your industry, articles, industry news, how to’s etc. Pushing special promotion or product information out every couple hours is a sure fire way to drive your Followers to you competition.
Because you are competing with so many other updates at any give time, it’s important that your updates grab the attention of your audience and make them want to engage. On some networks, primarily Facebook, the more engagement you receive from your Followers will determine how many of them actually see your updates, so make them interesting!
Share Updates Regularly -
Want your Followers to remember you, then make sure you engage with them on a regular basis. The truth is that after initially Following you, there’s very little chance that user is ever going to visit your profile again. This means that the only way they will see your brand is through updates. The more often they see and engage with your updates the more likely they will make a purchase from your business.
However, this is not an invitation to over share. Sharing 1-4 times daily on Facebook is ideal but on Twitter that looks more like 7-10 times. Remember, this is just a guideline, find out what works for your Followers and business, but whatever you do don’t put days in between your updates.
Provide Value -
Last but not least, provide VALUE to your Followers. Give your Followers not only a reason to follow you initially but to continue to. There are several ways you can provide value, to name a few; sharing how to’s, industry news, answering common questions, holding fun contests/promotions, sharing updates about what’s going on behind the scenes in your business, etc. There’s several ways that you can provide value to your Followers, look at what your customers want and learn which solutions you can provide through social media.
Social media is a super powerful brand building, customer generating, sales increasing tool, if done correctly. Try implementing these top tips to make your social media stand out!
