Deciphering social media in the business world

As Head of Marketing for Spiral Orange Business Solutions I work with various client’s on their social media marketing requirements and I regularly hear the misconceptions that people have about social media in business. People tend to think that by having their business on a number of social media platforms, all they then need to do is put out a few posts and clients will come running to buy their product or use their service. It is when this doesn’t happen and they struggle to get followers or any interest in their posts that they get in touch with me. They find out that social media marketing isn’t as easy as they thought and is very different from using social media for personal use.

When a client expresses to me that they expect social media to be instantaneous and that they are expecting thousands of people to follow and then show an interest in their business, I have to inform then that it isn’t quite that easy.

I look to educate the person by taking them through what they need to do to generate any interest online. I inform them that social media is a platform to inform people of your service or product and something people expect businesses to be on these days, but don’t rely on it as a sole way to advertise and market your business.

Firstly, you need a social media strategy in place. This is a way of looking forward to how you are going to interact with your audience and keep them entertained with your postings online. I then look at how the business can stand out from the crowd and what forms of communication are best for the client’s business sector.

You need to stay open minded to new ideas and do your research into the competition. Once you look at how others are communicating online it might give you some idea of a unique path forward for your business.

Stay active online and post regularly, although don’t bombard your audience with irrelevant updates that don’t fit with the image that you are trying to project for your business brand.

Get to know your audience and take an interest in them. Start up a conversation and engage with them, by asking questions and sharing news that you think will get them to clink on your post and share.

Social media marketing is very time consuming and to create a positive vibe and be informative you have to dedicate time to this each and every week. If you would like some help getting started with your businesses online presence or just don’t have time to create your online presence or keep it up to date and engage, just let us know and we can have a chat and give you a quote.