Sizzle Up Your Social Media This Summer

By: Cheryl Hajjar – June 2013 

 

As the end of the school year approaches and families are making their summer vacation plans, both the seasoned and budding entrepreneur are most likely thinking of ways to gear their businesses up for the fall. If you are a business owner, you are well aware of the importance of incorporating social media into your business but just like your business goals need to be re-evaluated and updated on a consistent basis, so does your social media.

 Since most businesses go through several changes during the course of their tenures, a good place to start is sitting down and looking at your business plan. Have you brought on new products? Hired more employees or taken on any interns? Redesigned your marketing plans? Only you will know the answers to these questions so this is the most important step before starting to update and re-organize your social media structure.

 Once this step has been completed, perhaps the most important thing I can emphasize is looking at the “About You” section of your social media accounts. Whether its Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google + or any other platform, you want this section to be a descriptive as possible. This may be one of the things that was written years ago when you first opened your account and it has never been revisited since. When was the last time this section has been updated? Make sure your brand is still consistent with this section as well as your mission statement. Is your current business location, business email, phone numbers and URL still the same? Many times we change these things and never make the updates making it harder for your customers to reach you.

 Updating your images and your business branding is crucial. Do you have a new logo, or new pictures from a recent event your company sponsored? Are there new products in your company that you would like to showcase? Make sure when you do update, you do it across all of your social media platforms. This will ensure consistency within your brand and increase awareness.

 Find new contacts to engage with. Do you feel like you are marketing to the same audience? If you do, chances are your audience feels the same way. Before adding new contacts, do a clean up of the ones that may no longer have interest in your products and services. You want quality of contacts, not quantity. Although it may look impressive to have 4,000 contacts on Facebook, some profiles may not be suitable to be floating around on your business accounts, so keep that in mind when purging. When adding new prospective customers, it might be a good idea to scroll through a current customer’s profile to look for any mutual friends that you might have with them. You are more likely to have a better response engaging with a potential new customer if you have mutual friends. The best form of marketing is still word of mouth so if someone absolutely loves a product of yours, they will tell their friends and since so many of us spend so much time on our social media accounts these days, being present when your company’s name comes up in a conversation will be priceless. You want to be there before a customer even needs your product or services.

Use Twitter more than Facebook? You can do a Twitter search to find people by interests and industries. Websites like Twiends and We Follow help build your profiles. On these sites you are able to be added to directories by category and follow only specific people whom you share the same interests. This will help narrow down the white noise quite a bit and help you form clear and concise lists for prospecting.

If you are on LinkedIn, you know the importance of having credibility within your business peer group. Recommendations can offer incredible validation for your business. Ask friends, clients and customers to say a few kind words about your services or products. A testimonial will go along way and will not exceed your marketing budget because they are free. Review your experience section. Has your company had changes? Have new skills or expertise? This section should be as current as possible. Lastly, joining groups on LinkedIn is a great way to network within your sphere. There is always a conversation going on on LinkedIn. Joining them and sharing your insights on the topic of the day will make you and your company highly visible. You want to make friends with your colleagues because these will also be the individuals who will either become customers at one point or give your business the credibility you are looking for.

The dog days of this summer do not have to be lazy. Consider this your social media revival and map out a plan to clean up your platforms and add fresh and exciting ideas. When the hot apple cider is brewing and leaves start to turn, your business will also be turning new profits.

Cheryl Hajjar

Cheryl Hajjar is a lifelong resident of the Merrimack Valley. She keeps busy by fulfilling her duties as a mother to her young son. She is an entrepreneur and the CEO of Indigo Magic, an interactive children’s company. One of her passions is music, songwriting and classical piano which she incorporates into all areas of her life. You can email her at babiesnbriefcases@gmail.com

More PostsWebsite

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterest