Social Media: What Do you Post?

With so many social media platforms, it can be hard to distinguish what you should post where. Generally, as a business, your social media messages are probably the same across the board, but should you be differentiating them?

If you look at the most popular platforms, it’s safe to say that most businesses would have a presence on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn as a minimum. 

I generally post the same message across platforms but recently I realised that some of my posts aren’t necessarily relevant across all channels. Why? I believe each social media platform has its own personality. You might think this is a strange term to use but it’s probably the best term I can think of to describe my thoughts and give credence to those same thoughts. My findings come from my own experience.

If I had to compare mediums, I would say Facebook and Instagram are more casual. If I look at followers on my business page, they are made up of personal friends and acquaintances, business acquaintances and business owners. 

LinkedIn is, in my mind, solely professional with some water cooler humour thrown in at times. The followers of my LinkedIn page are predominantly businesspeople who I may have worked with in the past, current business associates and anyone who may be interested in what my business has to offer.

So, why would I communicate a different message to each group? The main aim of social media is to engage with followers so it’s important that your messages encourage those they have reached to engage. 

I mainly communicate messages that are applicable to both groups. Whether its communicating changes on my website, a new blog post or even a motivational message. These I post to all my social media accounts. 

But, if I look at my Facebook page, I know that most of my followers are mums in business. Being that I consider Facebook a more casual social media platform, I at times post messages that may be targeted towards working parents, for example wishing those parents in Victoria all the best for home learning (we’ve had quite a bit of that in VIC!) etc.

I guess I feel that social media should be treated as you would treat any social event. LinkedIn would be your business conference or networking meeting where most conversation veers on the professional side with a little personal thrown in for good measure. Facebook and Instagram on the other hand could be considered a bit like Friday night drinks, work will be discussed but there will be talk of weekend plans with the family or home renovation projects.

Whichever mediums you are using, the right message will go a long way to getting you that coveted engagement.

Do you tend to post differently on each platform?

What is a Social Media Plan?

A social media plan outlines your strategy and specific objectives for each social media platform you have outlined in your marketing plan. 

Your social media plan should outline which platforms your business is active on and how often you will post content.

A social media plan is effective in: 

-       Maintaining consistent posting schedules across all social media platforms

-       Avoiding last minute panic and rushing to find content to share

-       Allowing you to keep up to date and utilise trending topics.

Of course, it’s important that you recognise the differences between social media platforms when it comes to creating content and the frequency in which you post. You need to also understand that a post that may work on Facebook may not be suited to LinkedIn and some platforms such as Instagram will lend themselves more to visual posts. It’s imperative you acknowledge the strengths of each platform as you put your social media plan together.

As with any type of plan in your business whether it’s your marketing, content or social media plan, it should have some flexibility to adjust with the changes that may take place within your business or industry.

If you would like help putting together your social media plan, contact Absolute Marketing Communications.

How Many Plans Does My Business Need?

Planning is important to any business. Every business should have three key marketing plans; a marketing plan, a content marketing plan and a social media plan.

What is the difference between each?

Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is your strategic plan for marketing your business. It includes your brand and product strategies, who you are targeting and what you are going to do to achieve your goals (PR, content, advertising etc). 

 While it outlines your overall plan, it doesn’t go into detail about when and how you will implement these marketing activities which is why you need a content plan and a social media plan.

Content Marketing Plan

A content marketing plan outlines your topics and the type of content you will produce (blogs, videos, live streams etc) and where and how you will publish and promote this content.

Social Media Plan

A social media plan outlines your strategy and specific objectives for each social media platform you have outlined in your marketing plan. It should detail how often you will post and how you will use that platform to support your broader business.

By having these three plans in place, you will have a good foundation for setting your business up for success.

If you would like assistance with developing any of these three plans, please contact Absolute Marketing Communications via email.

Working on My Business. What I've Learnt.

While taking my own advice from my last blog article and working on my business rather than solely in my business, I finally managed to set up my business LinkedIn page. I must say I learnt a lot.

While I know about LinkedIn and its power as a networking tool, until I created a company page, I wasn’t in a position to view the interactions between followers and the content posted.

 Since having my LinkedIn page, I can see exactly how many organic visitors view my posts. Why is this important? Organic visitors are visitors to your site or content that are unpaid, so they are not captured through paid advertising campaigns. They are captured through the quality of the content, SEO etc.

The number of organic visitors can help you gauge the type of content that works. Whether it be the topic or keywords. This is useful when it comes to planning your content as you will be able to focus on topics that are of interest to your audience and further enhance engagement.

Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/absolute-marketing-communications

Clickbait. What is it?

How many times have you scrolled through your social media posts and come across a headline that sounds intriguing, if not possibly ridiculous? Chance are every time you visit your socials you will encounter one of these headlines and as ridiculous as the headline may sound, you will most likely click on it. 

Once you finish reading the article you may find it has nothing or very little to do with the headline you clicked on and in most cases you may think it’s the most silly or irrelevant story you have read. But you clicked on it and that’s what the poster wanted. That’s clickbait! 

Why is Clickbait used?

Clickbait is very common and used by brands to entice readers to click on the post and through to their website. You may come away thinking that was an interesting read or you may think it was a waste of time. Usually comments on the article will give an indication of what other readers thought. Over time you will come to recognise who the repeat offenders are and possibly just scroll past. 

 Needless to say, over the last few months, a lot of clickbait articles have centred around Covid-19. Articles related to this are nothing more than scare mongering and posters have been called out; not only for not disclosing all the facts but also for it not being relevant to Australian readers.

Do you encounter clickbait often? If so, what are some of the headlines or stories claiming to be about? Do you think clickbait is a fair way to entice audiences to read content?

To Social Network or Not To Social Network?

Social Media is such an integral part of everyday life and business. Most businesses now have a social media presence whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram or a combination of any of these. But its not uncommon for a lot of business owners, in particular small business owners to shy away from promoting their business on social media. The main reason for this is they fear that they are open to negative feedback and for a small business negative feedback can have a big impact.

Businesses survived many years without the internet and social media but we now live in an age where people rely heavily on websites and social media to make decisions when it comes to purchasing goods and services. It’s safe to say that if a business doesn't have an internet presence then it needs to rely on its reputation and word of mouth but unfortunately it doesn't always have the desired results. 

So how can small business have a social media presence and minimise negative feedback where its not warranted? By exploring the options of your desired social media you can tailor your page to ensure you are able to monitor any content that is made public. 

In the case of Facebook, you can set up your page to not display posts on your time line unless they have been approved by you. This allows you to police what is made public. If you do this bear in mind its not an excuse to bury your head in the sand if you don’t like a comment that has been made. 

One of the golden rules of social media is to address all comments whether they are positive or negative. Someone may comment that they left you a voicemail message but you didn’t reply to the message in what they believed was a timely many. Rather than ignore the comment, offer an explanation. You may have been in a meeting with a client or some other legitimate excuse. People need to understand that you are running a business so there may be times when you can’t answer the phone. Of course if you feel that a comment is detrimental to your business and unfounded you are within your rights to not publish it but I would still reply to the person directly.

Social media is such an effective marketing tool that I believe it’s important to have a presence. Consider it a passive form of word of mouth.

If you would like assistance in setting up your social media profile you can email Absolute Marketing Communications at arizzo77@tpg.com.au

Knowledge is Power!

People are often surprised when I come out with a tidbit of information that seems so obscure or unlike me. They give a strange look and ask how on earth I knew that. The age old saying ‘know a little about a lot rather that a lot about a little’ is so true. I swear by this saying, not just personally but also professionally. 

When you work in an organisation it is so important to know what your competitors are doing or what current trends are. Especially if you are in marketing. Can you imagine if all your competitors had a Facebook presence and you were still trying to figure out what Facebook was? That’s an extreme example but a valid one I think. 

It is so important to be on top of current trends. This is especially true if you run your own service based business. Just because you’ve held a client for 10 years doesn’t mean they won’t call you tomorrow and say they’re leaving you for the new agency down the street that’s more edgy and on top of current trends. 

It’s not just the mechanics of your business that you should be on top of, it’s all aspects of life. It seems impossible to know absolutely everything and you don’t have to! What I’m saying is if your client is in the electronics industry be aware of what their competitors are developing, where they’re advertising, what sponsorships they’re currently working on. If they’re in the fashion industry know which celebrities are wearing their competitors brand or if there are opportunities for your clients brand to be worn on a red carpet event. Most of the time reading mainstream media will keep you in the know so it’s not really a chore and doesn’t have to take up precious work time. You’ll be surprised what you may discover just by reading a weekly gossip mag!

Just remember: Knowledge is Power!

Are Syndicated Messages Worth the Time They Save?

It’s a given that most businesses are now promoted on social media. The more platforms you use the more time you need to update posts and keep your followers up to date with the goings on in your business. There are programs that make it easy to write one post and broadcast it across the various social networking mediums you use. These are called syndicated messages. This sounds business savvy and time efficient but is it the best move? 

Your followers want to know that you’re thinking of them when you post. Sometimes a syndicated message can in fact contribute to the loss of sincerity in your message. It can also give the impression that your post has been seen before and isn’t worth further investigation. You can promote the same message across different platforms but just change up the wording a little. You may find this will help with customer engagement and your audience will feel that you are personally communicating with them. It may take you a little longer to get the message out but the results will be well worth it.