The social club

Tweets, posts, pins and circles have the power to improve sales, launch innovation and drive you mad. Social media platforms have transformed the way businesses of all sizes communicate throughout the supply chain. Does your social media strategy whisper or bellow?

Find out if you need a few tweaks to your approach or a complete overhaul.

Social media can be a conundrum. It needs nearly constant attention but it creates relationships. It gets people talking about products and services but information has a short shelf life. It provides massive marketing opportunities but has the potential to expose your company’s weaknesses.

You can’t run from it. Well, you can, but you’ll be left in a lonely part of the business world. Instead, create a formal plan regarding how your company will use social media platforms, who you expect to target, and assign someone (or two ot three people) the task of keeping it all in shape.

Just like with any business tool, there are the leaders, the followers and the naysayers in the world of social media. No matter the category in which you belong, we’ve compiled tips from experts to improve your social media marketing strategy.

Dos and don’ts
Don’t use social media to overtly market or sell. Instead educate, enlighten, inform and entertain your audience, said Dave Nelsen, founder of TalkShoe, a service that provides interactive discussions, podcasts and audioblogs. In this way, you’ll position yourself and your company as an expert in your field.

Do the same up-front planning you would for any important business initiative, Nelsen said. Define your target audience and detail how you intend to create value for them. Map out how you expect them to create value for you. Document your approach and objectives for each platform, he added.

One of the most exciting things about social media is you’ll learn from your audience. Followers will suggest valuable ideas you may have never thought of, he said.

It’s OK to repurpose content, said Ashley Zeckman, marketing manager at TopRank, a digital marketing agency. But don’t spit out the same message on all social media platforms. Change elements of your posts to either highlight different information within the post or target a different segment within your audience, she said.

Take the time to interact with customers and prospects. A simple tactic for social media interaction is to ask questions that inspire a response, she said.

Should something negative about your company, product or service appear on social media, don’t ignore it. Have what Zeckman calls an emergency preparedness plan ready if, or when, that happens. Don’t ignore your audience.

Don’t have a social media account just to have one. You must commit to using a platform on a regular basis, she added.

Next, let’s dig into the specific platforms and learn how to get the most out of each one.

Facebook
If you quickly threw together your “about” section on Facebook months or years ago, it’s time for a review, said Alvaro J. Soltero, co-founder The Social U, a social media blog for college students and people in higher education.

The “about” section includes a short description, company overview, description, email and website. Your company’s description is the first piece of information about your business any visitor reads. Keep it succinct but clarify who you are and what you offer, Soltero said. Describe what makes you different, he added. And don’t forget to include your website URL.

With Facebook cover photos, Soltero said businesses have a valuable banner space above their page. The cover photo can make a page, so choose carefully and be creative.

One of the most important things to learn about Facebook is EdgeRank. It is the newsfeed algorithm that decides what comes up on your page and what doesn’t, he explained. The more someone interacts with your page’s posts, the more posts from your page will be shown to that person. The more people that interact negatively with your post (such as selecting “hide” or “report for spam), the less newsfeeds your post will appear on, he said. Simply, more engagement equals greater exposure.

If you’re not posting many pictures, change your strategy. Images are king, he said. Based on Soltero’s page analytics, he’s discovered that images perform significantly better than links or text posts.

Smart posting is one thing. But are you measuring Facebook’s success? Facebook gives users an enormous amount of data for their page under “Insights,” he said. These analytics are easy to understand, and include everything from your audience’s demographics to each post’s performance. To learn more about demographics, click on “talking about this” in your Facebook Insights, and you’ll get an age, gender, language and location breakdown of your page’s community, he explained. You should have a well-defined target audience, and this is where you can see if you’re reaching them, he said.

 

Twitter
There are many people you need to follow on Twitter for business reasons such as customers, suppliers, neighboring businesses, peers and competitors, said Charlene Kingston, founder of Social Media DIY Workshop. But as the number of people you follow grows, it gets harder to hear the important messages among all of the others. Kingston has a valuable solution. Use Twitter lists. Twitter lists are the platform’s most powerful and least-used feature, she said. Lists allow you to group the important people you follow, so you don’t miss an important tweet.

You can create up to 20 different Twitter lists with up to 500 accounts in each list, she explained. You can monitor each list separately using Twitter.com or Twitter tools like HootSuite. And keep in mind you don’t have to put all of your follows into a list, she said.

Did you know Twitter allows you to customize the look and colors of your Twitter profile page? This gives you an opportunity to provide additional information about your business to everyone who checks out your profile, she said. You can create a custom graphic and use it for your Twitter background.

Your Twitter profile bio tells your business story in the length of a text message. That’s a lot of information crammed into just a few words. The best Twitter profiles include these components:

• Tell people what you do
• Explain how you help people
• Show a little personality

Mark your calendar to review and update your Twitter bio in six months, because even the best bio gets stale over time, she said.

When using Twitter, look for replies and mentions. Every time you check Twitter throughout the day, you should first check for direct messages and mentions. Mentions are public messages that include your Twitter handle and direct messages are private messages sent directly to you.

Another Twitter must is search for your business name in case people don’t use your Twitter handle, she said. And make sure to follow everyone who talks to you on Twitter, she said.

Make sure to include your Twitter username on your website, in your email signature, on your business cards, within email newsletters, on paperwork you give to customers and on signs posted at your business, she said.

 
Pinterest
What better way to present green-industry products than with photos? Pinterest allows our industry to share the beauty and benefits of plants.

Don’t show off your products and services directly. Instead, find creative ways to show how those products and services fit into the lifestyles of your target audience, said Suzi McCoy, founder of Garden Media Group.

Add links to the descriptions of your pins, and pin content that represents your company identity and attracts visitors back to your website. Add the “Pin It” button to your website and all other social media platforms, she said. Just like with other platforms, have a conversation. Repin, like and comment on pins.

Something you may have overlooked when you set up your Pinterest account: be sure to keep “hide your Pinterest profile from search engines” checked to off so your profile can be indexed in a search, she said. Need more help? GMG has a free e-book, Pinterest for Business, at www.gardenmediagroup.com.

Google+
Perhaps the most misunderstood and ridiculed social media platform, Google+ is the platform everyone needs to use, said Travis Foster, creative content specialist at Optima Worldwide, a web presence management company.

Google has leveraged its social media platform into one of the most appealing web presence management tools for businesses, he said.

Foster shares his top reasons to get a Google+ page.

Unrestricted data. Facebook and Twitter restrict Google from accessing much of their data. This means your profiles on Facebook and Twitter won’t rank very well. Google Plus eliminates any restrictions and streamlines your company’s data directly to Google results, he said.

Followed links. You can embed a followed link into your Google+ profile. And you have full control over the link anchor text, which is the text of a hyperlink that the user sees. It provides a description for the user of where the link will take them.

Instant indexing. Google indexes a webpage instantly when shared on Google+. Otherwise, it might take days or weeks for Google bots to come crawl your site.

Optimized sharing. When sharing a link on Google+, your entire first sentence of text is considered the title. This method is easy and accurately indexes your links.

Integrated Google accounts. Gmail, YouTube, Google+, Calendar, Drive, etc. are all combined accounts. Optimizing your Google+ page will flow over to each of these Google tools, making it easy to manage each one.

Circles. Similar to LinkedIn, you can filter your friends, colleagues and family members by posting in certain specific groups called circles.

Improved Google places page. Google+ will create a Places page for your business if you don’t. If you claim your business on Google+, you’ll be able to update your businesses profile with better pictures, hours, directions and a sales pitch.

High Ranking. Google+ pages will often outrank all of your other pages with far less effort. And click-through rates are significantly increased using the rel=”author” tag and specifying a Google+ profile. Your picture will appear beside your article, making it stand out among the rest.