In the beginning of the social climb, I found Twitter and Facebook intimidating. I don’t think it’s that I am not great at sharing; I just had a hard time with putting thoughts or information about myself out into cyberspace and not knowing what would happen. I think a lot of clients are unsure or intimidated by these mediums as well. There isn’t a real plan, nor guides to “follow steps a-z and see results.” So some of us freeze and just start to post the old standards – specials, promotions, company information or worse….. building a page and posting nothing at all!
The principal behind being social is to not overthink but to let the conversation get a little casual. Step outside the company to just share a little. It should be easy and fun and can help establish brand reputation and ideally drive conversions.
Here are tips to gain social momentum , help grow your fan base and keep your existing fan base engaged and hopefully sharing:
Delegate – Often times I see clients have only one person posting to Facebook. The people who like your page can get a little bored with the same language, etc. over time. Start a chain in your company to have several employees contributing to Facebook and Twitter everyday. Maybe a funny joke or a short story about a local adventure or even better a local event and why you love it. Your employees are interesting and the best resource for content. Use them and mix it up! Don’t let one person get bogged down, share the social love!
Example: Go “like” our friends over at Midgett Realty who use several employees to generate content, post and respond to comments and likes in an efficient, effective and interesting fashion.
Re-purpose your existing website content – We tend to forget all of the content already in existence on our websites. Take an old blog post or an event and use that to inspire a short post. Keep it simple but interesting. Use events that are coming up or old pages about activities in the area that maybe you forgot about. DRIVE traffic to your website!! The content is there, find it, write a short post about it and link your fans to that page.
Example: Go “like” Farm and Ranch Publishing to see how they make sure to share their blog posts and existing website information as content for their Facebook page.
Create a buzz – do an easy contest – Contests do not have to be a ton of work. It can be a “Caption this Picture” contest that when done right, can generate a ton of opt in users and “likes”. Start on Facebook and ask users to add a caption – the best one wins a sticker. Take it to the next level, build a form on your website to send the user to enter to win. Make sure they opt in to receive email communications from your company as well! 2 birds, 1 stone.
Example: Go “like” our friends over at Southern California Vacation Rentals who run fun contests all the time.
In general, you don’t have to be super social to be social. Don’t be shy…try it, have fun with it, make it easy and bring social media into your company marketing plan today. Remember, if you are not there…someone else is! If you are struggling getting involved in Social Media or would like Blue Tent to help your company “get social”, please contact us today and let us help!