Your Business Wants Social Media

November, 2019

Your business has its own identity. Its own needs. You may not use social media, but your business wants to.

Maybe you don’t log into Facebook very often and you only know about Instagram from your kid. It’s feasible that social media is a drain on your energy and time. Perhaps you feel social media is a complete energy suck.

All these things may be true, but what’s also true is that your business needs social media.

Social media is your place to shine on, you crazy diamond, about your business. It’s where your brand voice comes through and you highlight all the grand aspects of what you do.

Here’s what you can do to jump-start your social media activity.

Start a business Facebook page. Your Facebook URL is unique and not easy to change later, so think on this one. Your Facebook page name is more easily changed down the road (at least for now). Optimize your profile by adding descriptive keywords that will help customers find you and fill in the entire About section. Add Services as well, lots of businesses overlook this one. Include photos that make sense for your business. And the most important thing, start engaging with your community; follow like-minded pages, post, comment, share, like.

Maybe Instagram makes sense for your niche. If that’s the case, hop on over to Instagram and start your business account. For this one, you’re going to need to download the app because Instagram on desktop is limited. Do the optimize bio thing and pick a profile pic representative of your business. Make your first post using hashtags and of course, build and engage your audience.

Let’s move straight to Google My Business. Yes, Google My Business is a social media platform. Plus it’s Google, so you can’t go wrong here. People leave reviews, you reply back (you better be replying), you add photos and videos, and you also create posts.

There are 4 types of Google posts you can write. Offer posts are up for a set amount of time and are good for coupons, special deals, gift cards. Event posts are monthly features, events, and general happenings. Product posts are for featuring products and services, obviously. And What's New posts expire after seven days. These are more like your typical social media post. You’ll want to plan to write a What’s New post every week.

The best part of Google My Business is that you are free to be selling your services or products all the time. This is the platform to talk about yourself in every post. And every post comes with a call to action button - buy now, call now, learn more. To get started, claim your business on Google right here.

Now on to Twitter. Is your audience and competition on Twitter? Does it make sense for your business to be on Twitter? Even if it doesn’t make sense, do you just want to be snarky or provocative? Then this is you platform. Setting up your Twitter account is about as easy as it gets. Pick a business account name, write a bio that explains what your business is, and upload a profile and header images. And, of course, engage. #AllSet

On LinkedIn there are two options - do you use your personal profile and/or do you set up a business page. Yancey Red says do both. Your personal profile is where all the connecting is going to happen. Your business page will often remain more static, but it’s still necessary. Be sure to complete all the aspects of your LinkedIn page, since incomplete profiles get less traction.

There are other social media platforms out there that maybe your business fits into it. And maybe some of the social media accounts mentioned here aren’t your jam. Just because it exists doesn’t mean you need to use it. Remember, we started this article with that fact that maybe social media is an energy suck. But now you’re excited to move forward with it. Take your time so as not to overwhelm. Be good to your energy and your business. And always keep it interesting.