Social Media is a changing landscape. As such, it may seem like the Wild West: free, unfettered and lacking all order, unencumbered by rules or law.
The truth is that Social Media is more like the Mean Girls lunchroom: there are various groups talking to each other and each group has their own particular way of communicating and their own established norms.
So, there really are some rules for posting on social media for all businesses, small and large. Here are some that we follow:
1. Choose what social media channel works for your business. Where are you likely to find clients? Where do your customers hang out?
2. Plan your posts. Unlike your personal social media channels, your business social media should not be quite as spontaneous. Develop a calendar of big events in your business (sales, back to school physicals, tax filing, open houses) and plan your posts to coordinate with publication of issues and information regarding those events. At K2M, we utilize a social media platform that helps us post on multiple channels for multiple clients. We are always one week ahead of schedule and some posts we have already created several months’ ahead of time.
3. Use your social media posts to sell and advertise, but keep it to a minimum. Customers, patients and clients understand when their “feed” includes direct marketing from you, but they like to see it tempered with information, both serious and whimsical (depending on the nature of your business). Be sure to keep the balance mostly non-advertising, which seems counter-intuitive, but trust us.
4. Hire a social media manager, especially at the beginning. It takes time to really master the tone, timing and content of posts. Unless this is your forte, this is a great thing to outsource to people who know what they are doing.
5. Use the 1st person plural. When you post, say “we” and “our”. This is inclusive, making everybody at your office part of the post. Ideally you should make sure that all employees check the social media sites so they are conversant in the postings.
6. Space out your posts. Don’t over Instagram, or you will be un-followed. Don’t like your own posts on Facebook, or you will annoy your “friends”.
7. Use analytics to determine what time of day or even what days you receive the most likes, reaches or whatever. Utilize this information to tweak when you post or even what topics are the most interesting to your audience.