6 Tips to Get You Started with Social Media
So you’ve decided that your organization needs social media. Now what? Whether you are just starting out or refreshing your online presence, these tips will help you get going.
Set goals. Why are you doing this? Is it for brand awareness, or to share information? Do you want to reach the most people possible, or just reach a select group of people frequently? Decide on some metrics to track your goals - it could be follower count, clicks on links that you share, or the number of times your content is shared by others.
Choose a platform. Figure out who your most important audience is, and which social media platforms they use. For business-to-business, LinkedIn might be best. If your content and/or product is more visual, perhaps Instagram is a good place to start.
Generate some content ideas. Before you start posting, start gathering some photos, article links, or updates that you would potentially share on social media. This will help give you a sense of where this content will come from, and how hard it is to generate. Determine what a realistic goal is for posts per week, and on which platforms.
Get organized. Create a shared folder where you and team members can save post ideas. Develop a schedule for posting that is easy to update. Decide who is in charge of posting, and whether or not they need approval from anyone else first. .
Set reminders, or schedule in advance. It’s easy to get caught up in other work and forget to do your daily post. Set reminders on your calendar or phone to post at the most effective times of day (this article can help you with that). You can also use a site like Hootsuite to schedule your posts ahead of time.
Strike a balance. Make sure that all of your content is not self-promotion. Too much promotional content can feel pushy. Be sure to include some helpful information and entertaining content to keep your followers engaged.
These tips can help get you started, but your social media strategy will always be evolving. Try your best to be consistent, creative, and informative, and your followers won’t be able to scroll past you! And if you need any extra help, we’re right here.