The Most Asked Questions About Social Media
The Most Asked Questions About Social Media | Outfit Details
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The Most Asked Questions About Social Media | Social Media
Before I start this post, I want to clarify a few things. I may not have the largest social media followings but I have been doing this for almost 5 years now, 2 of which I have also been doing it at work. I have learned A LOT and there is a lot out there that people don't know about. I get a lot of questions from people about how to use social media and what they should do, so I thought I would put it all in one place. This gives people a place to start, but it is by no means a full guide! I am only one person and I only know so many things!Social media is really any kind of platform where you can interact with other people. That includes Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tick Tock, and so many others. While there are a lot of options and platforms out there, I only really truly know a handful of them well. And that will be the case with most people. You really can't be an expert in all of them, there is just too much out there!
The Most Asked Questions About Social Media | Should I Use Social Media for My Business
The answer to this question is ALWAYS yes! I am not saying you should use every single platform all of the time, but you should always have some kind of social media presence if you are running a business. Even if your clients aren't on social media. Why would you be on social media if your clients aren't, you ask? Excellent question! Because when someone Google's your company, your social media pages will show up in the results. Having any kind of social media presence, in addition to your website, gives you credibility & more results in searches!
My suggestion would to pick 3 platforms you are the most comfortable with and start with those. Set up accounts, try to keep the usernames/handles similar or the same if possible. Use one consistent profile picture. And post to those accounts DAILY. Which 3 should you pick? Let's talk about that.
The Most Asked Questions About Social Media | What Platforms Should I Use
Facebook is for old people, or so I am told. I can't tell you how many conversations I have had recently with people who own businesses, who are younger than 50, who have told me that doing business on Facebook is too hard or impossible. This makes me want to scream! It is estimated that 1.56 BILLION people log into Facebook every single day. That is a lot of people. Don't try to tell me you can't do business on Facebook! This should be your #1 place for a social media account. Start a Business Page. It takes 5 minutes to set up.
Instagram is where everyone is shopping or learning about the newest diet or getting ideas on how to run a business. And you don't have to have pretty images that you have taken on your nice camera DSLR to get likes and followers. Instagram is all about engagement now. So as long as you show up and engage with our followers and other people, you will be successful. There are also Instagram Stories & IGTV to utilize. You can show behind the scenes of your business, insights into how you do what you do and bring a new kind of attention to your business. Don't forget to show the hard things. It makes you more relatable.
Twitter is incredibly fast paced and people are doing all kinds of business on Twitter. You now have more characters to work with and can link to pretty much anything. While being successful on Twitter does require a lot of time & attention, you can still have a Twitter presence without committing all day to it.
YouTube is great for longer videos. You can post tutorials and how tos or even unboxing videos. Did you know there are people who make MILLIONS of dollars a year from just uploading themselves playing video games to YouTube? It doesn't have to be fancy but you can definitely get more followers with YouTube!
Pinterest is an incredible search engine that most small businesses don't even think about. When you are looking for a specific kind of outfit, you type it into Pinterest. When you are looking for a recipe, you type it into Pinterest. The same goes for inspirational quotes and business tips. The amazing thing about Pinterest is that you can post pins that link back to your website or blog posts and you will start seeing more traffic than ever before!
LinkedIn is where everyone goes to find a job but it is also where everyone hangs out during work hours because it's not as frowned upon as Facebook. So having a presence on LinkedIn and interacting with people there is going to be way more helpful than you think, I promise!
The Most Asked Questions About Social Media | What Tools Should I Use
Buffer is by far my favorite tool and I talk about it to anyone who will listen. They have a free plan and paid plans but I would highly recommend the $15 a month for the paid plan. You get 8 social media accounts that you can link and you can schedule up to 100 posts per account. This means you can schedule out posts for a month in advance on all of your social media platforms and then go focus on your customers and actually engaging with people on those platforms. You can read my full post about Buffer here.
Tailwind is going to be your best friend for Pinterest. This is how you grow your Pinterest following and increase your site traffic without spending hours pinning and repinning content by hand. Trust me, this is how you change your business!
Canva is a secret that no one knows about and EVERYONE needs. Canva is an online platform where you can create images for ANY social media site using graphics, stock images, shapes, colors and so much more. You can have a free account and pay for the use of certain images/graphics or you can have a paid account and have access to so much more. If you aren't using Canva, stop whan you are doing and go get it RIGHT NOW!
The Most Asked Questions About Social Media | How Often Should I Post
This is a hard question because it depends on you and your business. I suggest posting at least once a day on every platform. It is helpful to post on most platforms (not YouTube) more than once a day because it increases the chances that people will see your content. But again, it is more about engagement that how often you post.
What you need to decide is what you can reasonably keep up with and how much you can take on. If the posting schedule you come up with is too much, you can always scale it back!
The Most Asked Questions About Social Media | Should I Do Ads
This is always going to be a yes. Obviously not everyone is going to have the budget to do ads but you should at least have a goal to include ads in your budget down the line. Social media ads are so incredibly powerful, much more so than Google Pay per clicks. You can narrow down your target audience on social media ads so only the people you want to see your ads will see them. And those ads are so inexpensive in the long run!
If you aren't ready for ads just yet, that is ok. Start thinking about who you want to target with ads later down the line so you can set those ads up easily when you are ready for them! If you are ready for ads, be ready to experiment. It will take a little trial and error to see what works but once you find your groove, it will make a HUGE impact on your business.