Social Media Management

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Social media channels provide access to millions of potential customers around the world.

They help to spread the word about your brand, product or service – and they cost nothing.

And those businesses who refuse to embrace social media are either out of touch, self-consumed or stark raving bonkers.

And before anyone starts with that ‘Facebook is for the kids’ nonsense, just don’t.

Those that criticise or belittle social media channels like Facebook and Instagram simply do not understand them.

There are now 3.2 billion people currently using social media. That is just shy of half the world’s population.

What most businesses fail to grasp is the connection between social media and their business.

Social media channels are designed to be a stress-free way of raising brand awareness.

It is a way to communicate with customers in a non-invasive way. Generally, users log onto social media channels as a ‘break’ from work.

Yet, because of the way social media platforms collect data and record user activity, it allows businesses to publish content to very specifically targetted audiences.

With so many social media options how do you choose the one suitable for you?

Well, why choose one when you can have them all.

Some of the comments made by those that don’t understand social media channels are crazy, particularly the whole “Facebook is for kids” rubbish.

Facebook is used every single day by more than 2.5 billion people. It is the most widely used platform by a country mile.

Users go online as a break from work, to switch off for a moment. But, because of the way Facebook collects data, we are able to produce content targetting specifically for users who will find it interesting.

So that coffee break, that two minutes taken to wish a friend Happy Birthday, can result in them engaging with your brand, product or service.

Instagram is owned by Facebook and is an incredibly powerful tool – after all, they say a picture says a 1,000 words and is more memorable.

Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest, Youtube, Vimeo and TikTok. Taking advantage of this free online real estate is an absolute no brainer.

Think of social media channels as fishing rods, all set up on the same stretch of river. Who cares which one catches the fish! Just catch the fish!

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So what sort of content should you publish to social media – and how often?

Well, think of the posts that you read, or the videos you watch?

And for those that don’t use any form of social media (seriously are there any?) think about conversations in the pub or coffee shop.

Sometimes those discussions will be about work, new contracts, successes, changes to the business – sometimes they are about social activities or commentary on global events, or things that make us laugh.

Social media channels are the same. A mixture of content that is designed to be interesting. It is a way of building brand awareness, brand association.

We would hope that the majority of postings showcase the business or brand by publicising things that are interesting. Breaking news, things users didn’t know about the brand.

They should be linked to the news page of your main website and will include articles on business wins, new contracts, successful projects or knock about content designed to help others, for example, a recipe or instructional video.

They could be posts that shows the human side of the business, sporting events, charity work, things that users will find interesting.

Posts should be frequent but published at a pace which can be maintained. There is no point publishing 30 posts on day one and then nothing for a month! It looks like nothing has happened or you can’t be bothered.

But beware. Too many businesses leave their social media channels to a junior member of staff simply because they are on Facebook. Social media posts represent the online version of you and so, misplaced posts, inappropriate content will have repercussions and undermine your brand.

Onside PR understand these pitfalls and know how to take advantage of the opportunities that exist.

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Social media advertising is a terrific way of connecting with customers.

It is extremely cost-effective and is limitless in terms of scalability.

The key is the ability to target the customers you want – and bypass the ones that are not of interest. And all for a very modest daily spend.

The cost depends on the chosen model and this should be considered.

Cost Per Click (CPC) does what it says on the tin. You only pay if the advert is clicked on. Cost Per Impression (CPM) means you pay for the number of times the advert is shown – though you would set daily or campaign limits.

It provides advertisers with control as opposed to traditional advertising, which is a bit of a leap of faith with no guarantees of reaching a specially targetted audience.

But thanks to the way social media users willingly share information, mostly without even realising it, the way users search for content, the people or things they follow, the subjects of interest and of course basic demographics such as age, location etc allow us to specifically target customers.

This is particularly useful for an e-commerce business. They are able to design adverts to sell specific products and only show them to customers they know will be interested.

Content marketing allows us to raise build brand awareness and build an audience. It allows us to place stories, images or video content in front of social media users who we already know are likely to be interested in the subject matter. And are therefore likely to engage further.

Influencer marketing can be costly but produce rapid, and impressive returns. This involves paying a celebrity or social media influencer to promote your brand, product or service in the hope that their followers will also engage.

The best thing about social media advertising is the real-time performance analysis of campaigns. If it’s not working you change it immediately.

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Social Media Management