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How social is your business?
»»WE’VE SEEN THE WAY
businesses promote
themselves change drastically
over the last 10 years.
Businesses no longer rely
solely on word of mouth,
face-to-face and copious
amounts of networking.
Some businesses only use
online platforms to attract
new business and customers.
With the growth of online
and digital, new trends are
always coming into play
and it can be a tough one to
keep up with. Lee Nicolaou,
Digital Marketing Manager at
Bussinesagent.com, discusses
how to be more social with
your business and to stay in
the forever changing loop of
trends…
FACEBOOK
Facebook suits all business
sizes. You should have a
Facebook for your business no
matter what you do. Here you
can keep customers up to date
with what you are up to, new
products and any deals you
may have running.
The ‘Facebook Buttons’
feature also allows you to put
great call to actions on your
page such as ‘Call Now’, ‘Book
Now’, or even ‘Shop Now’,
where you can integrate your
online store and products onto
your Facebook page. Its great
free marketing, especially if
you are sharing strong content,
you will see an organic
growth.
If you are really looking to
excel growth using Facebook,
you will be interested in using
its ad features. You can push
out adverts and contents to
Facebook users in order to
increase your page likes for
brand awareness. You can
tailor your ads to exactly where
you want them to be and who
you want to see them, by age,
location (great if you are a local
business), likes and dislikes
and gender. So you can really
get your page in front of the
right audience.
Remember to stay engaged
with your page users and try to
respond to questions quickly.
This will help your page gather
a better rating and will keep
users from leaving.
TWITTER
Twitter is essentially a big
conversation where you and
others can discuss topics,
articles and latest trends. It’s
one of the best places to show
the values and the personal
side behind your business,
what you stand for and what
you are about.
Your business can come
across more as an individual
and engage and empathise
with others on topics you
believe in and feel passionate
towards. Again, using strong
content, you will be more
likely to receive Retweets
and likes, which leads to
organic growth and a larger
following.
Following strong influencers
will help you see what’s
on trend and what to be
discussing. It’s important
to keep on top of whatever
is also ‘trending’, using the
Hashtag you can be a voice in
the conve rsations and a good
post can really boost your
presence.
Twitter also offers a great
advert feature, which is similar
to Facebook. It’s good to note
that they both offer a Pay Per
Click service, meaning you
only pay for the actual clicks
you receive.
LINKEDIN
This is a more professional
platform to connect with users
and customers, with a huge
profile of professionals, all
categorised by job title, work
place and the groups they are
part of.
Joining groups and posting
discussion topics is a great way
of engaging and drawing in
new users. Linkedin has great
features for posting articles
and creating groups, as well
as educational and mutual
interest areas.
LOCKSMITHJOURNAL.CO.UK | SEP/OCT 2016
INSTAGRAM & SNAPCHAT
These are two slightly
different platforms based
on images rather than
lengthy articles. You can use
Instagram to post engaging
and interesting photos,
displaying your work, office
or the more fun side of your
business. Instagram is huge
and has millions of daily
users, if you can figure out
what will catch the eye of your
target audience, it’s a solid
win.
Snapchat is slightly different,
you post images and videos to
your story and your ‘friends’
can view this and also reply
to you. This isn’t one for every
business but for some it can
really work. One way might
be to display before and after
pictures of projects you’ve
worked on.
HAVE FUN
Some of the most
successful accounts are from
companies who really have
a laugh with customers and
can laugh at themselves too.
It’s not a constant sales pitch
online and users will soon
leave if you are plugging your
product and service 24/7.
They want to see a more
down to earth side of the
people behind the business
in order to build up a level of
trust and respect.
Images always work well
too; a post is much more
likely to gain attention with a
nice image to go along with
it, rather than just lengthy
text.
Remember, there are
also many more platforms
than mentioned above but I
recommend these as a good
starting point.
www.businessagent.com