Social media is a continually evolving realm with amazing potential for business communications, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Below we have outlined some basic information on the social media that WRD implements. Not everything will work for you. You need to find what suits you and your company best and utilise that platform within your business. Remember, social media is free but can land up ‘costing’ you in time, so we highly recommend that you have a social media plan to keep you from wasting time online.
Facebook
Facebook is a popular social networking website that allows users to create personal and business profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. For a business this is the human voice of your company. Facebook allows you to share regular content about your company and the industry you work within without a word limit. It’s important that you don’t just share the corporate side of your company, you need to invite your audience in – connect, entertain and engage with them. Share some of your internal activities, team adventures – open up and share some of your “brands personality”. When you have a grown audience, keeping them engaged and interested is as, if not more challenging than building the audience in the first place. Regular posts help, however do not over do it. People like to see variety in their news feed, and if one company takes up the majority of their feed they are likely to unsubscribe.
Useful Facebook facts:
Facebook cover image dimensions: 851px x 315px
Facebook profile image dimensions: 180px x 180px (shrinks to 125px x 125px)
Facebook pages terms: https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php
Twitter
Twitter is a micro blogging service that creates a great opportunity to reach a larger audience and grow brand awareness. Not just locally but globally. Unlike Facebook you share short 140 character long tweets (twitter version of posts). You can also add “#” tags which work like keywords and allow trends to be created or followed. In Twitter it is also very easy to browse the tweets of those you follow due to the 140 character tweet length, and if you find something you like, it’s simple to re-tweeting the comment to share it with those who follow you. Twitter definitely functions a lot differently to Facebook, and this is often a deterrent for the new user. But the benefits for connecting to a greater audience are attractive, and make it worth the effort to get your head around it if you can find the time.
Useful Twitter facts:
Twitter background can be customized; upload your own image up to 2Mb large or choose one of the theme options.
You can also add customer photo (appears next to all your tweets)and header image (appears asbackground on your profile header 1252px x 626px).
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a networking site designed specifically for the business community. The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally. Some see it as an online CV that people have access to. Unlike other social media channels, LinkedIn is a great resource to use to connect your business with other businesses. Assisting in services you may need to call upon, and potentially lead to generating more business as others discover what you have to offer. It is not a well known fact, but you can also share content on LinkedIn, by sharing updates of you company. Alsoproducts and services can be shared to encourage potential business from your connections. We encourage our team members to have personal profiles on LinkedIn that are connected to our company page. This is not to just build connections and awareness but also allow potential / existing clients an introduction to our specialised team members and the expertise that they all bring.
Instagram
Instagram is one of the easiest and most popular photo sharing channel available. Users take and share photos from their mobile devices, include a brief description, possibly using ‘#’ tags (keywords) and ‘@’ tags (users) to share their images. This part works very similar to Twitter but has a stronger visual element. Due to Instagram being an app based program it is downloadable to most mobile devices. It creates very honest and real content and opens up an opportunity to share great visual insight behind the scenes into your company. In this day and age the best marketing does not only sell a product, however a personality engages and relates to the market – Instagram offers this opportunity. This is a chance to share imagery that sells the personality of a company. A behind the scenes look at the culture, professionalism and environment potential clients could experience when dealing with you.
Useful Instagram facts:
Instagram is for use on mobile devices. You will need to install the app on your device to share your images. You do have a profile that lets you add a picture and a brief description with a web link to your website.
YouTube
A picture says a thousand words and a video says more. Creating engaging content is everything when dealing with an online audience. So what is more engaging than moving images and sound? YouTube not only provides a great platform for sharingvideo, but it also allows storage of the video so you can share this across other channels you are using. Code can easily be generated within YouTube for embedding into websites; you can also share this on other social media channels. With the creation of YouTube channels you can now add branding to customise the look for your audience as well as set up playlists so similar videos you have uploaded can be linked. Videos can include keywords and location, which assist with your video being found in search results. An interesting observation comes when you look at the most popular videos on YouTube, these are not necessarily the clips with the best effects or most creative storyline, but are often just simple clips that share some form of expertise.
Useful YouTube facts:
To get started you need to create a Google account.
Note: This cannot be created under a business name initially, first set up a personal account and then create you business channel.
Pinterest
Pinterest is a social curation website for sharing and categorising images found online. Pinterest requires brief descriptionsbut the main focus of the site is visual. Clicking on an image will take you to the original source, so, for example, if you click on a picture of a pair of shoes, you might be taken to a site where you can purchase them. An image of blueberry pancakes might take you to the recipe; a picture of a whimsical birdhouse might take you to the instructions. What this means for the business user is if you create a board featuring some of the great products you have to offer, and this shows up in the search of a Pinterest user, they could potentially find their way back to your site to purchase the product from you. A good tip for Pinterest would be to keep in mind it is all about the visual. Linking to good quality photographs of your products that is visually stimulating is of utmost importance.
Useful Pinterest facts:
Pinterest is not just exposure for your business, but is a great tool for a business to use to create mood boards of what other business are doing or gather together ideas for inspiration to help you move forward.
If you are interesting in getting your Social Media Marketing up and running (or any marketing for that matter), please call our knowledgable team on 0481 846 481. We are also able to help with social media marketing plans as well as the implementation of these.
