Although social media has been around for quite a while, it continues to grow. Social media was once used primarily by teenagers and young adults especially in the early days of Facebook and Instagram. Fast forward to today, Facebook is used by every demographic, so it is important to include social media when reaching out to your customers. If you’re running a business, there is a 99.9% chance that someone has looked up your business to see what you’re about. They look up reviews, how many followers you have, your content, address, and anything they should know about your business before reaching out.
If you don’t have a social media account for your business yet, we recommend starting an Instagram page. It’s essentially free unpaid advertising to your audience and we’ll go more in-depth in another blog.
There are many myths when it comes to proper social media management. Today, we are going to talk about the correct social media practices you should follow. Whether you are new to social media or have been using social media for your business, we are sure you’ll take away something from this article. There are lots of tips out there you can search up but we limited it to 4 tips for a quick read without too much filler content.
1) Automation is good
You may hear a lot of people saying that automation is bad. If you have time, you don’t need to automate. But if you’re someone that is constantly on the run, have multiple things to do, or live a busy lifestyle, it’s perfectly fine to automate some of your social media. There are both free and paid apps you can use to automate your posts. Just try not to make it seem like it was automated and no one will know.
Heres a tip: Instead of making a post at the same time every day, vary the time of your post by +/- 30 minutes. For example, if you usually schedule your post at exactly 5 pm every day, change it up and schedule it to post at 5:07 pm the following day and then 5:21 pm the day after. That way, it looks like you went onto Instagram and posted in real-time.
2) Follow others
There is nothing wrong with following others, especially on Instagram. This is especially true if you don’t have many followers on your account. Obviously, you don’t want to have 200 followers and follow 3000+. The question is, why should you follow others? Well if you’re new, you want people to check out your Instagram. When you follow someone, they are most likely going to check out what you’re about by going through your posts. If they see what they like, they will follow back and voila, you got yourself a lead that can lead to a sale. We shared a tip in our previous article that complements with this tip. Check it out here
Heres a tip: Don’t just follow anyone. Follow people that you think will fit your target market. If your target audience is based on demographics such as age, then you obviously want to follow people that meet the age requirement. If you’re following based on psychographics such as lifestyle (for example, let’s say you’re promoting a product that’s aimed at high-income individuals who goes boating a lot), then you’ll want to look at their post to see if they fit your criteria.
3) It’s ok to promote your product or services
There is an exception to this rule of course and this depends on your business. Obviously, you don’t want to spam your post with what you’re selling. It’s fine to promote your goods once in a while but not so much that it will annoy your followers and start feeling like spam. “No one likes to feel that he or she is being sold something or told to do a thing” – Dale Carnegie
Heres a tip: Put a story behind a product or service that you’re selling so it doesn’t just look like the post is about selling. A good story gives value and can sometimes portray a lifestyle him/her could obtain behind using the product/service.
4) Don’t get discouraged by the number of followers
Most people tend to get discouraged to post because they don’t have many followers so they start to think its a waste of time to post. Just remember, your followers aren’t the only people who see your post. Continue to post regularly and you will eventually see your follower count increase. When you make a post:
a) People who follow you see it
b) People who search up the hashtag you used will see it
c) People who look up your Instagram will see it
d) When one of your followers like or share your post, their friends will see it
We have many more tips in our other blog posts but make sure you apply these to your social media account before reading our other tips.
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