Building Social Media Presence

There are great social media platforms available for businesses to use such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Snapchat and Tik Tok; however, before creating an account you should decide on your goals and objectives.  While it’s extremely easy to create a social media account, it is important for your startup to think about the types of posts you will contribute, who your audience will be and learn the platform’s functions.  

Respond to Comments

Companies can utilize social media platforms to the max by responding to comments.  Followers may propose questions, praise products or complain about their last experience with the product/service, as a startup you have the opportunity to become “human” and respond to these comments.  This gives you feedback on the product for iteration and development purposes.  Customers will enjoy the attention and appreciate the expressed concern and answers to questions.  The goal of your accounts should be to help, not sell.   

Theme

Developing a theme for your social media accounts will help users on each platform recognize your brand.  If you create a Twitter and Instagram account, you will want to match posts on both platforms and use a similar color/design theme for both accounts, avoiding confusion.   

Designs

Designs are extremely important when it comes to social media accounts, specifically Instagram and Twitter.  These two platforms give you the chance to create graphs, share stories and post product information in a creative way.  Beginners can use software applications like Canva to develop high-quality posts for social media.  You do not want your posts to look outdated or cluttered.  Make sure fonts are big and bright, images are clear and adjust to match your theme.  

Consistency

Consistency is the key to successful social media accounts.  If you post a blog each week for two months and then all of a sudden don’t post for a month your audience will become frustrated and stop viewing the page.  If this is a concern for you, there are applications available that will automatically post to all of your social media platforms.  Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Loomly are great platforms that allow you to do this and organize weekly calendars.  

Upload Account Links

Make sure you upload your social media links to your website and company email.  By doing this you are essentially marketing your social media accounts to anyone who either views your website or sends you an email.  

Talk to your Clients

In a startup situation, it can be beneficial to ask clients to follow and share your social media account.  The goal of these social media accounts is to connect with customers and increase brand awareness, ask as many people as possible to follow and share if they have a relation to you or the company.  

Build Relationships with Followers

When creating social media accounts, you should not think of your followers as a number.  This is important because the goal of these accounts is to build relationships.  What is the point of having an Instagram with 20,000 followers if you average 50 likes and two comments per photo? If you have 200 followers who actively view your stories, like photos and comment, that is more successful because you have built lasting relationships.  

Use Hashtags

Hashtags can be one of your greatest advantages on social media.  If you post on a holiday, add the hashtag, #nationalpancakeday.  When you post regular content, use hashtags that relate to your company or post.  For example, if I post a top five social media trend list on Instagram, I will want to use hashtags such as #socialmedia and #trends.  Hashtags help spread the word on specific issues, get your posts on trending pages, allow for more users to see your posts and make it easy to see related activities.  

            Whether you have already created your social media account or deciding which to use, social media is extremely important for so many different reasons and should be utilized.  These platforms allow us to share information with customers, connect with future customers and build relationships.  Various programs such as Hootsuite and Loomly make it easy to organize your weekly posts.  All of the tips above should help you get an idea of what it’s like to run social media accounts, you might even find some more along the way.   

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