It’s kind of hard to connect with your target audience if you’re not on social media. While the case could be made that if you are hyper local you could get away with no social media strategy, most businesses need to have some sort of digital footprint. However, you need to make sure you are doing social media in a way that is going to help you reach your overall marketing and business goals.
To get your strategy started the right way, you need to make sure you have your profiles set up properly. They need to be user-friendly and memorable. But how do you do that?
Here are six ways you can make the most of your social media profiles on each platform.
Make it easy to find you
Instinctively, users will type in @[company name] to tag brands or to find specific profiles. Keep your handle (AKA user name) simple and use your brand name if it’s not already taken. If it is, find come up with something related and creative. Once you settle on a handle, use it across all of your profiles (where possible) to create consistency.
Avoid just adding on random numbers, symbols, or punctuation to differentiate yourself because your handle will become too obscure and hard to find. Also, it doesn’t look very professional if your handle is @Widgets1234.
Create a visual brand identity
While each social media platform uses visuals differently, you can still have a cohesive, consistent visual style on each. So while your content may differ, your audience has the same experience across platforms.
When selecting your profile image, find something that represents your brand well. If you are a company, use your logo, your product, or your mascot. If you are an individual expert, use your headshot or a professional lifestyle shot. Once you select an image, use the same one across platforms. This will help with brand recall and recognition.
Your cover photo can be different, but you want to make sure that it is in keeping with your visual brand style.
Be descriptive, but cut the extras
Don’t make people guess what you do when they read your profile. Use your brand and industry keywords when filling out your about and description fields to keep it simple and get to the point.
It’s not necessary to use hashtags in your profile set up unless it’s related to a specific campaign you are running and that you want to add extra visibility to – but use them for sure in your regular content on the right platforms!
Be thorough
You don’t want to fill your social media profiles with fluff content, but you do want to get as much detail in there as possible. So, make sure you don’t leave any relevant fields blank when setting up your social media profiles. Some social media platforms give you the opportunity to include much more information than others, so take the time to set up your content properly. And don’t be afraid to change up your profile content to keep it fresh. It could be as simple as putting a featured link on your Instagram profile to showcase new blog content.
Cross-promote your social media platforms
You can absolutely ask for followers on one social media platform to follow you on another. The key is that you need to make sure you are posting different and valuable content on each platform to give them incentive to follow you in more than one place.
In some cases, you can actually add your other social platforms to the profile content itself (ie. On Facebook), but in other cases, posting a simple link to your other profiles can get you more traffic.
Be reachable
While this might seem obvious, make sure all of your links and your emails work. Put in your website, email, phone number, etc. The easier it is to get a hold of you, the more likely your customers are to call.
Social media doesn’t have to be difficult, especially if you take the time to make sure your profiles are set up for success on each social media platform.
Candace Huntly is Founding Partner at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.
Connect with Candace
Check out our Social Media Starter Kit to help you get started on Social Media!