Social Media Best Practices

Four Ways to Help Your SMB Climb the Social (Media) Ladder

When it comes to social media marketing, some brands are exceptional at creating interesting, engaging content that truly resonates with their intended audiences. Others misuse it as an extension of their advertising campaigns. Still others avoid it all together, like a kale recipe they know is ultimately good for them but…ew, kale.

Social networking is here to stay and having a strong social media presence is vital for businesses of all sizes to connect with current and potential customers. Managing your company’s social media account is work, but with the right tools and strategies in place, the effort you put in can really pay off in the long run. Here are four best practices that will boost the SM in your SMB.

	Define Your Network Who follows you? Are they more young than old? More male than female? From another country or living right in your backyard? (In which case, you should look into that.) Without a solid definition of your audience’s profile, you can’t ensure you’re putting your message in front of the right people. Regardless of the platform, there are many built-in social media analytics tools that offer insights to the demographic of who is following you, from Twitter Analytics to Facebook Page Insights to YouTube Analytics. The social media management company Sprout Social offers a list of their favorite analytics tools to track performance, as well as a Google Analytics beginner’s guide.
	Consistent Branding and Voice Everyone loves a good puppy or baby video on social media, but viral content isn’t for all businesses. It’s important to establish a strong, consistent brand, and part of that is considering the tone, voice and subject matter of your posts. This rule also applies to trending topics and breaking news (especially anything political). If it doesn’t align with your SMB’s branding, it’s best to stay away from it, no matter your personal views or opinions. So that video of monkeys reacting to magic tricks…unless you’re a magic shop or sell monkey supplies, it’s probably best to just share that clip with friends.
	Engagement A strong, consistent brand doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll achieve optimal engagement. The old saying, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it even make a sound?” applies to social media marketing. If a brand tweets and no one replies or retweets it, did anyone even see it at all? If you’re not seeing a response from your audience, it’s time to consider re-working your content strategy to identify what your audience is interested in. But when your audience does respond, respond back! It lets them know you’re there, that you’re reading their replies, and that they matter.
	KPIs and Reporting Before jumping headfirst into a social media marketing strategy, it’s important to set goals. But be careful because key performance indicators (KPIs) shouldn’t be blanketed across platforms, different algorithms reward different behaviors. For example, getting “likes” on a tweet means relatively nothing for your SMB’s Twitter presence but retweets will ensure that your message is being seen by a new audience. It’s best to review your analytics on a bi-monthly or monthly basis to review your KPIs and see if your analytics are matching up. Pending results, it’s a clear indicator you’re going in the right direction if your content is performing up to the level you have determined based on your KPIs.

Those are our four solid social media best practices.

Contact us today to learn how you can reach those same objectives with Astound’s (well-reviewed) suite of communications products and services.