How to Use Social Media for your Business

By Josephine Kim, Business Manager

For most business owners, they have a website and one or two social media sites. Usually the company’s social media will have content that they posted 3 months ago or possibly last year! It is challenging to post content on a consistent basis when running a business that requires 24/7 attention. Marketing is normally the last item on a company’s priority list, however this can cost sales and opportunities to connect with customers.

Companies will be missing out on the potential to reach 3.5 million daily active social media users worldwide (Emarsys, 2019). According to the Global Web Index, 54% of customers use social media to research products. Potential buyers and customers are using social media to look for companies to alleviate their problem. Social media also serves as a platform to allow existing customers to advocate for your brand. Lyfe Marketing reported that 71% of consumers who have had a positive experience with a brand on social media are likely to recommend the brand to their friends and family.

With all this in mind, how can one get started? We, at True North, compiled a quick list of steps:

1. Formulate a Marketing Strategy: Decide on what the company’s business objective is. Growing the brand, turning customers into advocates, and driving leads and sales are some examples. Understand what matters to the company and develop social media goals based on the business objectives.
2. Conduct a Social Media Audit: Companies should have no more than 2–3 platforms at most. This way, the messaging can be focused on channels where the target audience is most active. Look at the company’s description, followers, and content to assess how customers are engaging with the content. What content received the most engagement and why? Also, ensure that the social media profiles are complete with high resolution images, latest brand message, company description, and how a customer can get in contact with a representative.
3. Develop a Content Strategy: To maintain social media engagement, create a plan on what types and form of content is appropriate for the target audience. For example, at True North, we post a blog once a week and formulate topics beforehand that are relevant for our audience. Because we are a small team, each member alternate weeks to write up a blog. We found that this helped to increase our followers and engagement such as likes, comments, and shares. Make sure the content plan aligns with existing bandwidth and resources. Do what’s realistic, and do it often.
4. Set Metrics and Measure Success: There are several metrics available to measure how well a company’s social media is doing. This is why it’s important to set business objectives and social media goals. For example, if the objective is to grow the brand, it would be best to focus on followers, likes, and comments. Also, companies can learn more about how customers are engaging with content and what types of conversations they are having.

Through these steps, a company’s social media can become discoverable and potentially reach customers outside of their existing networks. Social media isn’t just a nice to have anymore, it is essential. Companies, who do it well and have a presence online, stay competitive against others.

Looking for help with your company to scale and grow? Send us an email at info@truenorthadvisory.us or learn more about us at www.truenorthadvisory.us !

Looking for help with your company to scale and grow? Send us an email at info@truenorthadvisory.us or learn more about us at www.truenorthadvisory.us !