These days, everyone from your grandmother to your tween have a social media presence. If you find yourself saying, my business doesn’t need a Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter page, we’re here to give you a few reasons to think otherwise.
Facebook and Twitter serve over 1.5 billion users around the globe. Social media allows you to have a presence outside your geographical area, even crossing the country to create a splash. It’s arguably the most effective (and cost effective) ways for brand visibility and recognition.
Everything that happens on social media happens in real-time, which gives you the opportunity to engage in advertising that is relevant and timely and can give you a leg up over your competitor. This is one of the best ways to gain insight about your customers. You have the ability to engage them and have conversations about your mission, products, events and services. Since your customers are on social media to, you guessed it, socialize, they are more then willing to talk to you about what they like and don’t like.
We can’t forget about search engine optimization (SEO)! If your company is actively participating on multiple social media platforms, it can improve your rankings on search engines and potentially increase your profits. Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic and 70% more leads then those that don’t utilize social media. Those are some big numbers!
According to a report published by Texas Tech University, brands that engage on social media channels have higher loyalty from their customers. A whopping 53% of Americans who follow brands on social media are more loyal to those brands then those who do not have a social media presence.
So how often should you be posting, tweeting, and pinning? Here are some good guidelines we found that you should follow:
Pinterest’s sole focus is visual storytelling, and it allows brands to speak not only to what they sell, but to who they are. If you’re able to capture a consumer’s attention and sell in your brand lifestyle, you will have just converted a new brand loyalist.
- Create exciting board names that still clearly speak to your boards content. Consumers like to know exactly what types of content they’ll be receiving when they choose to follow you or a specific board.
- Pin on Thursday and Saturday from 2-4pm and 8pm-1am, as these days and times have shown the greatest success. However, still pin throughout each day to ensure a balance to your content in the Pinterest feed.
- Do not include .ly links, Pinterest will recognize these as spam.
- Be specific in your pin descriptions, this will make it easier for your content to be found when consumers are searching for pins.
- Use high-quality photos versus user-generated content, and make use of your brand assets. When an image is pinned and then re-pinned, your custom content should still be recognizable as your own.
Twitter allows you to engage with influencers, friends, publications, and celebrities in real time.
- Be a regular – Tweet about 5-8 times throughout the day, but make sure they’re spaced out, so you don’t overwhelm your followers.
- Provide backup – Tweets should include a link to a website, blog post, article, or photo to provide useful information for followers.
- Be strategic with #Hashtags – You only have 140 characters. Limit yourself to 1-2 hashtags maximum.
Instagram is your chance to create quality visual content. Consider it a sneak peek into the personal and intimate things you love, from your favorite food to your cute new baby or puppy.
- Post regularly – Post about 3 times per week to maintain consistency and engagement with your follower base.
- Hashtag it up – Hashtags are the #1 way to get more likes (and attention), so don’t be shy about using a number of hashtags (within reason).
- Make it match – Keep your images high quality and your filters consistent. Develop a creative aesthetic that matches you.
