Create Conversations with Your Business’ Content
With great content comes great conversations about your products and services.
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Utilising hashtags can increase your discoverability on social media.
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Create a weekly/monthly series, such as #factfridays or #tiptuesdays.
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Giveaways can drive strong engagement and help promote products.
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The more appreciation you show your consumers, the more likely they are to promote your business too.
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Go behind-the-scenes to highlight authenticity and transparency.
With more than a third of the world’s population on social media, it has become the most efficient way to reach out to people. Social media platforms have become a space where we can interact and have open conversations with one another, creating numerous opportunities to connect to current and potential customers for your products and services. The best part? It’s completely free!
Therefore, if you have not created a presence online, here is a little guide to help you get started.
The Benefits of Social Media
As mentioned above, social media platforms are cost effective. None of the biggest platforms require fees to get started. Instead, the only investment you need is time to fill your platform with content. This way, you get to focus your budget on other expenses. Although there are paid options such as advertising sponsored posts, they are not mandatory.
Social media makes communication easier. With a click of a button, businesses and customers are able to relay messages to each other faster than before, including sending real-time updates. Additionally, with social media, businesses are no longer restricted to geographical location or time differences, increasing the chances of popularity and virality.
Perhaps the most valuable asset from social media is its ability to uncover insights — what your followers like, or what the latest trends are in your industry. You can also identify which type of content gets the most impressions, or which features achieve the most engagements. As a research tool, these platforms can give you the potential to measure conversations to find the perfect combination to generate revenue.
Choosing the Right Platforms
Facebook is the biggest social media platform, with over 2 billion active users. That means almost everyone in your customer base probably has a Facebook account. Facebook is best with increasing customer engagement and gaining feedback.
Alternatively, Facebook has a free tool, Facebook Business Manager, which allows you to key in your business information, and manage ad accounts on one platform.
Twitter is the go-to platform for a steady stream of information. Although photos and videos are allowed, Twitter is famously known for its text feature, limited to 280 characters or less. That said, your brand would have to be concise and informative, in one tweet.
Instagram is Brunei’s most popular social media platform. It makes the perfect medium to attract the younger demographic. However, Instagram leans towards being visual based, meaning photos and short videos to catch the eye— not so much text captions.
Instagram too has an alternative profile, Instagram Business, which acts as a social media management service.
Types of Content
Once your page is up and running, here’s the tough part: content. To keep fans engaged with your products or services, you would need a good range of content that could continuously draw them in, or else they may forget about you. Here are some content types to help out your brand!
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Utilise hashtags. Hashtags increase the visibility for your brand. Think of it this way: hashtags can connect social media content to a specific conversation. It would make it easier to track or discover posts around your brand or business. That said, users with similar interests can join a similar conversation and therefore be exposed to your feed. Moreover, hashtags will help encourage fans to post user-generated content in relation to your brand.
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Create a weekly/monthly series. Feature posts such as #FridayFacts or #TuesdayTips will encourage your followers to check in weekly, and build up anticipation for it. This would help diversify your content, and maybe even teach them more about your industry.
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Contest/Giveaways. Contests are the best way to earn following engagement, especially if there are free goodies involved. This would encourage people to interact and increase your brand exposure, whether from commenting or reposting. Perhaps this method might be a little risky in terms of return on investment (ROI), but it will for sure expose your brand unto various feeds.
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Give your customers a spotlight. Showing that you appreciate your customers is vital for your business. One of the ways you could do it is by spotlighting them. If you feel like you are running out of content ideas, why not let your followers do some of the work for you? By tracking your hashtags, you can repost curated content in relation to your business. This lets you show some love to your audience, and have plenty of content right at your disposal.