Fantastic! You understand the value of social media for your business and have your pages set up. Now what?

Take the time to do it right so you don’t have to make the time to do it over!

Creating a growing and engaged community – the kind that rewards you with increased organic reach – is a strategic imperative, not tactical. Our Social Media Assistant service does this thoroughly, and thoughtfully.

A great social media presence begins with great content. Many businesses stop here. But, while great content essential, it is only the start. Social media is practically the main form of communication we now have to connect with audiences, promote and bring in business through this medium. There are supportive structures that can help with this area such as looking to buy active Twitter followers to push up numbers and appear bigger to target audiences, as well as running social media events on Twitter, Instagram, etc. but just like we mentioned before, it is only the start.

The following is a “soup to nuts” checklist of the things that need to be done to be successful using social media for business. You can think of it as a social media audit that helps you to understand where you’re sitting from a business perspective and ensure you are made aware of the key components that can be optimized. It is also a list of all of the services our Social Media Assistant service takes care of for you to guarantee your social community growth and engagement.

• Know your audience. First, consider that your interests may not be the same as your customers’ and prospects’. This is important as it is your customers and prospects that you want to engage. Getting help through an organic Instagram growth service to boost you at the start can help, but that doesn’t replace doing the research to hone in directly on your market. It can simply help you meet it sooner. The closer we match their interests, the more likely they are to engage with your posts. That’s why we always check out the pages and interests that our community members are engaging with. This helps hone your content strategy for maximum impact.
• Post regularly. Our research tells us that the best practice for businesses is to post content at least 5X a week. It’s also important to post no more than 2-3 times a day or your posts turn into “white noise” and won’t get the attention – and engagement – you desire. Our service taps into curated content that will resonate with your community…and beyond.
• Promoting posts is a must: That’s because only 3-5% of your audience will organically see those posts. We know how to target these promotions so that your community is not only engaged, it’s growing!
• Use trusted content sources. While it’s great that businesses create original content, nothing has quite the cache, trust or credibility of an article done by the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, or Journal of the American Medical Association – depending on your business category of course. The trusted content we use ensures you build a trusting relationship with your prospects and customers.
• Make sure your targeting criteria are on point. This is closely related to “know your audience” – we target your content so that it appears in the newsfeeds, or on the pages, of people who are likely to be interested in you and your products or services. Behavioral targeting identifies people who are currently researching what you have to sell or offer. Demographic targeting puts your message in front of people who meet your location, age, gender and income requirements.
• Social channels must mesh with your target audience. Looking for college students? Look to Twitter. Looking for female hobbyists? Look to Pinterest. Our service knows just where to look – and go – to grow your community and increase engagement. Click here to read the Pew Internet Research findings on who’s using the different platforms.
• Communities flourish when they grow – that means Page Like ads are a crucial part of our content strategy. Expert targeting is, of course, part of the “secret recipe” Social Media Assistant brings to bear.
• Ensure that the new community members you attract will find your page relevant (and are ones that you want to have). If you plan to attract or buy real active Instagram followers they should be ones that engage with your content and help to grow your community. For example, it’s highly unlikely that a 15-year-old boy is going to be interested in early childhood education. That’s why our service is so hyper-focused on targeting criteria.
• Be present and responsive. Facebook and Twitter, especially, are today’s versions of an 800#. You wouldn’t let your business phone ring and ring without answering or wait weeks or months to return a voicemail. If you don’t respond to them when they reach out to you the opportunity is lost. Social Media Assistant is on the job watching for conversations, comments and questions across all of your social media platforms. If a question comes in that requires your response you’ll get an alert so no opportunity is ever missed.

Bottom line: Using social media for business can be extremely powerful when executed thoughtfully and strategically. Do you need help managing your social media presence, community and advertising? That’s what Engage121 does for more than 11,000 small businesses! Click here to learn more and schedule a 1:1 consultation and review. Your social media assistant is standing by at 888.607.9655.