Whether you’re a small business with aspirations of being the next Amazon.com or a large business with growth potential, or somewhere in the middle, you need an active social media profile. It’s a necessary evil in today’s world, whether you’re selling siding or accounting, and as long as you do it right, it will benefit you.
Social media is just that – SOCIAL. It’s not commercial media. It’s not advertising. Social media doesn’t follow any of the rules of traditional marketing and advertising because it’s not designed to market you in a normal way. This can mean that applying traditional rules to it can backfire in major ways, which is why smart businesses hire a firm like Venture Rich to handle their social media posts. With each platform having rules and algorithms about when and where your post will show up, it’s important to understand how to take advantage of social media for the benefit of your business.
Your goal with social media as a business is NOT TO LOOK LIKE A BUSINESS. If you use social media to sell your services, you’ll be failing. Instead, use social media to BE SOCIAL. That means that your business account should share interesting stories, be goofy, use GIFs and memes, and develop engaging content that people enjoy seeing and want to share. Can you relate it back to your business in some way? Yes, if it’s organic. Don’t force it.
If you stay perfectly still our chicken strips will eat directly from your hand.
— Denny's (@DennysDiner) August 5, 2018
Denny’s is a perfect example. They post to their social media accounts with absurdist humor and creative original content that gets attention from customers, media, and more. Many fast food brands have started to follow that trend, and you’ll see that it resonates with the audience.
Here’s the reason why this works. If you post seven days a week on your social media account, and five of those posts are funny, silly posts that may or may not relate to your business at all, but they get solid engagement and shares from your audience, when you use the other two posts to promote a product for sale, a new service, or even your own website, those posts get better engagement as well.
Still confused? Try this analogy. If a college professor makes her students laugh with ridiculous jokes and antics while slipping in actual educational information, her students will learn because they’ll want to pay attention. They won’t want to miss the fun stuff, so they’ll inadvertently hold onto the educational stuff too. Social media works the same way. In an ADD world, you gotta play ball, even if you don’t know what the game is.
You don’t want your audience to scroll through their timeline and think “Oh, there’s another ad,” and then roll their eyes and move on. You want them to look at your post and react to it with a like, a laugh, or something more – maybe even a share! Social media is a place to engage with your audience on a social and personal level, which means content that may not always be directly relevant to your industry or services. The more people like, laugh, and share your posts, the more your business will show up in their timeline and network on a regular basis, which means that when you have a new service to offer, or a promotion to discuss, they’re more likely to see it. By balancing your social media with 95% engaging content and 5% marketing for your business, you’ll maximize your exposure without burning out or turning off your audience.
Finally, here are some dos and don’ts for managing a business social media account:
DO. . . . . . have consistent content that will get genuine reactions
DON’T. . . post too many ads for your business
DO. . . . . . have a little fun with social media because your audience will appreciate it
DON’T. . . pay for fake likes or followers since this will negatively affect your exposure and ratio
DO. . . . . . use natural and informal language to be more approachable
DON’T. . . apply normal marketing rules to the social media world
DO. . . . . . trust a company like Venture Rich to be the experts and do the job right!
Start a conversation.
