When someone mentions social media, you most likely assume it’s a reference to LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc – but social media marketing is more than a series of platforms. It’s a mindset that drives the way your brand thinks and behaves when interacting with your target audience.
Social media is utilized by countless businesses and organizations around the world. This form of digital marketing has the power to help or hurt your business, depending on how you go about using it. When executed effectively, social media marketing builds an engaged community of followers who are ready to be mobilized to generate results in lead generation and sales.
We’ve gathered 10 best practices that you as a business owner can follow to help generate momentum with your digital marketing and engage your target audience.
1. Do you have a company profile on all relevant social media channels?
Your company does not need to be on every social media platform, just the ones your target audience uses. Determine which social media channels you should be using, and then ensure you have a profile on each one.
2. Is your username on all your social media channels the same?
Consistent branding is important for fans to be able to find you online. We recommend changing the names – and handles – of all your channels to stay consistent. Be aware that some channels have a character limit for usernames, so make sure it works across all your channels before making the change.
3. Do you have custom URLs to make your social media channels easy to find?
Most social media channels will automatically create a custom URL for you, but others will require you to do it manually. Once you have a custom URL, use it in your email signature, on your business cards, and on all your marketing materials. This can help drive people directly to your social media profiles, where they can engage with your content.
4. Do you have a branded cover photo and profile photo on all your social media channels?
Considering that most people visit social media from their mobile device, we recommend optimizing your cover photo and profile photo for mobile. Best practices would dictate that you do not include any important information on the outer third of your cover photo, since it will be cropped out on mobile. Additionally, since your profile photo becomes extremely small on a mobile device, we generally recommend you use an icon. (Perhaps a scaled-down version of your logo with no text, or an image that relates to your brand.) The name of your page usually accompanies your profile photo, so it may not be necessary, or advisable, to use your actual logo here.
5. Are your profile photo and cover photo the same across all your channels?
Similarly to having a consistent username, we recommend you keep your profile photo and cover photo the same to create brand recognition and establish one clear message. You may need to optimize your cover photo slightly to adjust all the different formats, but keep the branding similar for consistency.
6. Do you have your business email, phone number, and address listed on all channels?
Make it as easy as possible for your potential customers to get in touch with you by making this information readily available on all your social media channels and local listings. Keep your address formatting consistent for additional local SEO benefits.
7. Is your About section filled out and universal across all channels?
Many potential customers will find your social media channels before they find your website. Don’t miss an opportunity to share information about your business. A compelling About section can spur visitors to check out the website and further their relationship with your business.
8. Are all your employees linked to your company’s LinkedIn page?
There are several benefits to having your employees connected to your company’s LinkedIn page. Most importantly, it makes it easy for people to find your business via your employees’ profiles. It also makes it possible for you to notify your employees when you make a new post, so they can share important company news and help grow your LinkedIn company page following.
9. Do all your employees have a standardized boilerplate on LinkedIn for their job listing at your company?
On LinkedIn, your brand is not just represented by the company page, but by listings on your employees’ profiles as well. Any time a user finds one of their profiles, it is a chance to expose them to the brand. Make sure you are telling the same story, no matter where people find you.
10. Do you have more people following you than you are following on Instagram and Twitter?
The number of people following you is a measure of your influence on social media. The more followers you have, the more people are potentially reading your content. Building a community of followers is a good thing. At the same time, make sure your follower to following ratio is not off balance, for it can indicate that you may not be posting worthwhile content and deter people from following you back.
In today’s landscape, it is crucial that you have the correct digital marketing infrastructure set up to produce optimal results for your business.
Looking to identify gaps in your digital marketing infrastructure?
Download our 55-Point Digital Marketing Checklist to find out if you’re set up to produce optimal results for your business.
