2015 is here and it’s time to takes some steps to ensure that we’re really going to connect with our audience and see some ROI on our social media efforts throughout the new year. Website Design Centre proudly presents the 7 steps to improving your social media in 2015. If your business isn’t using social media yet, there’s no better time to start.
1. Build Relationships – people don’t want to be ‘sold to’ all the time. Build an authentic relationship with your target audience and the sales/conversions will follow. They are also then more likely to recommend your product/service/brand to others.
2. Increase Credibility – Focus on the aim to establish your business as a thought leader in your industry, professional and/or location. You can achieve it, in part, by ensuring that company news, press releases, media bits, and interviews are shared via your social media channels.
3. Share Blog Content – Creating, posting and sharing your blog content has the potential to increase your reach and therefore your engagement. Consider re-sharing blog posts that are still relevant and were popular the first time around.
4. Share Curate Content – By sharing relevant information in your industry or area of expertise you cement your social media pages and business as a source of timely information. Curated content is not content you have created yourself but other people’s content that is still of value to your audience.
5. Encourage Conversation – Social media is still based on being ‘social’. Conversations between you and you audience as well as your fans themselves will improve engagement and the sense of inclusiveness that audiences are seeking in today’s online world.
6. Comment – When you comment on current events and new you will integrate your brand into the current lives of your readers. This needs to be completed in an appropriate manner in order to be effective. Some words of advice – don’t force a connection between your business and the news event, wait for a natural connection.
7. Create CTAs – CTAs are Calls to Action – things like ‘Contact Us’, ‘Buy Now’, ‘Download’ – they will easily guide the reader to complete the action you would like them to do. And this is about to get a whole lot easier in 2015 with Facebook rolling out a number of Call to Action buttons which can be simply added to the cover photo area of your Fan Page.
We said 7 but there really are two more tips we’d like to offer – be authentic and be up-to-date. Despite the virtual aspect of social media you are still asking people to take a chance on your business and to trust you so always be true to your brand, your mission and your philosophy – be authentic. Social media platforms and how they work is constantly changing and while our steps are likely to be valid for the long-term, you will need to stay on top of the changes as they occur throughout 2015 – if you don’t have the time, resources or interest to do this just contact the team at Website Design Centre and have a chat about out social media management services.
