Tip 1

Whether you are planning to be active on social media or not, make sure to create an account on major social media platforms. For most businesses, this means Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and perhaps TikTok. For some businesses Pinterest and Youtube are also important platforms to consider.

Here is why: 

• To  protect your business’ social image and prevent others from taking advantage of your business name or brand, especially to gain followers. 
• Some users aim to monetize the lack of a brand’s social media presence by creating fake business profiles and requesting payments in return for transferring the name. (Sometimes you may be able to fight this, but better to be safe than sorry).
• Social media is increasingly becoming the most cost effective to find and target your audience. Even if you don’t want to consistently post organically, you need a profile to implement paid ads.
• To take advantage of influencer and word of mouth marketing. By having a digital presence, you allow and encourage your customers to talk about you, your brand, and to tag your business.  

Tip 2

Treat your company page as a sales pitch. On hashtag dominant platforms, include hashtags related to your target audience in your about section to increase the chance of being searched. Also use related keywords (words your audience search when they need your product/service) on your username, name, and bio (about section) so that your page indexes well on search engines. Social media pages rank better with search engines than websites. 

Tip 3

If possible, use the same name (ID) on all platforms. Apps or a platform’s share option are commonly used to automatically share the same content on different mediums. For example, imagine your ID is @company on instagram and @my.company on Facebook. Your customer posts a picture of food she’s ordered at your restaurant and posts, “really enjoyed my dinner at @company” and chooses to automatically share on Facebook. Followers on instagram can click on the tagged name and find your contact details. But her friends on Facebook won’t because your Facebook ID is not @company.    

Hope you enjoyed this episode. Stay tuned for the next one.

Daniele Buzzurro – ICCNZ Member