The Social Media Expert’s Best Tips to Small Businesses

Connecting with customers has never been more important or easier – and a direct link through social media is the obvious answer; Facebook, twitter and Instagram (in particular – there are several others too)s popularity means not being on social media is a missed opportunity. Your customers are online all the time and the vast majority a member of at least one social media network.

Giving your brand a voice on social media means you have an immediate link to your audience that feels current, fresh and human.

More competition in the retail space means it is harder to get noticed – both on the high street and online. And these days, customers spend less time searching and more time noticing – direct recommendations from friends, awesome instagrammers or inspiring Facebook posts. So if your brand isn’t there – you’re missing out.

We spoke to Social Media Professional Yani Fish – who has worked with Gail’s, Reebok and the like – for her best tips on getting started online.

1. The first thing to do is to know your audience. Off the top of your head you probably have a pretty good idea – take 20 minutes to sit down and write it down. Who is your typical customer? And who is your ideal customer? These are the people you want to engage.
2. Find and hone your brand’s voice online. This can be tricky to get right, but a good tip to get started is to think about how you want to make people feel when they interact with your brand. Lively? Relaxed? Comfortable?
3. Try to make the voice human. You want your fans to feel like they’re interacting with a real person. Sign with a name if it is appropriate – it doesn’t have to be your real one.
4. Build up a bank of content and imagery. Make sure you have this in place before you try getting followers; you want to give people a reason to stay if they come across your page.
5. Despite what they say – Facebook is not dead. And there are brilliant opportunities for targeted advertising. This means you can pay a few quid per day to promote your page and advertise it to a very defined audience – people who are likely to engage with your brand.
   1. Twitter is also a great way to interact with your audience – if your audience is on Twitter.
   2. Instagram is great for brand awareness, but is less efficient in driving traffic because you cannot do links apart from in your brand’s page’s bio.
6. To build your brand’s presence make sure you interact with people. Start by following people and companies you want to be associated with/that you associate with – engage with what they post, comment and like.

And lastly – don’t be too impatient!

Social media is real engagement from real people and building up a reputation and a following will take some time.

You shouldn’t expect wonders overnight. But if you post consistently in a coherent manner, stick to a brand voice that suits your following and your company, you should be able to see some results after 6 – 12 months.

If you want to find out more about Yani and what she does, perhaps even get her help with your social media, you can find her website here.