New Year, fresh start! You have had some great down time to prepare your business message and look at your strategy, now to implement both. No matter how many platforms you use it is well worth getting fresh eyes over your Insights and making sure you are still targeting appropriately. It is also important that you look over your social media information today and ensure that it is still accurate. With so many changes happening on platforms these days you need to make sure you optimise your page regularly.
If you are not currently using a scheduling platform you may well be using up valuable time during your working week curating content and then putting it up potentially at the wrong time. Investigate all the free options and priced options of platforms out there. With a strategy and some forward planning you could prepare for post and tweets, weeks or even months in advance. Facebook allows you to schedule on the platform itself or you can use some of the 3rd party apps suggested below:
Hootsuite, Post Planner, Klout, Buffer, Sprout Social and AgoraPulse just to get you started.
Every business changes over time and so does your audience. Make sure you have generated up-to-date profiles/avatars so you can gather content that they will enjoy and benefit from.
Create a Client Profile Check out Useful Downloads.
A lot of businesses will know when certain events fall every year that will have an impact on their business. Most businesses will know their closing or reduced hour times over the bank holidays. Maybe your business recognises special events like Valentines Day, etc, you can prepare content and images now for those events and put them in your new scheduling platform. This is all part of the strategy you can create right now to reach the goals you’ve defined to measure the success of your platforms.
You may want to raise the profile of a product, service or event. To do this you need to know when to start promoting, creating interest and blogs, etc. You may want to set aside a budget also for paid Ads, etc. This is all the things you can add to your strategy and I can suggest using a platform like Asana to keep you on track.
If it has been a while since you last checked these in each platform – then this is the perfect time to do it. Ensure you put a reminder in your phone or calendar app (or Asana) to check weekly or monthly, which ever you feel is more realistic. Gaining improved engagement and sales is a better reflection of the success of your platforms than gaining Likes and Followers. The important part of monitoring your platforms is measurement, so be sure to note pertinent information and make sure you build on your successes and learn from your mistakes.
Ensure you update your profile photos regularly (annually at least). People prefer to buy from people so hiding behind a brand image could potentially be hampering your business. By providing a professional photo you make the brand you are promoting more relatable and recognisable when you are out and about networking or attending events. A reputable photographer will also offer to provide images with different settings and backgrounds and will do headshots already sized to fit your different profile needs. Make sure you think of all the times you will need these images, not just for profiles but for blogs and maybe for stands and business cards. Get your money’s worth out of these images!
If you use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other profiles they all have background and header images. Make sure you change this to reflect where your business is at. If you have previously used this for offers or events, make sure it is kept up to date. Ensure they are clear and the right size and are always branded with your logo. You can change these as often as you want, just make sure it stays branded.
It is recommended that you always have more than one Editor or Administrator on your Facebook Page. Ensure it is someone you can have quick access too and someone you trust. I also highly recommend that any business pages or groups you have, please ensure the owner(s) of the business are Administrators on. At the end of the day your staff are representing your interests and if you are not on there to oversee it you could well lose clients and reputation.
