Webfusion

Everybody in business nowadays thinks they have tobe on social media. It’s true it can have massive benefits for your business, but it can also be massively detrimental to your business if you don’t use it right.

If you treat social media like a spare tyre, as and when you can be bothered, it will do your business and brand much more harm than good. Social media is about being reponsive and responsible, it is about interaction and positive action, you can’t get away with leaving it for weeks, days or even hours. If you launch with a social media arm make sure you give it the resources it deserves and demands to properly serve it.

One step towards that is to set a daily and weekly routine. Social media is most effective of course when you are reactive to changes in the news, or questions from your customers, but in order to reach the stage where that will be effective you first need a solid base, building up followers and serving them on a regular basis.

We don’t claim to have all the answers but the following may form a good basis for those starting out in the social media sphere or those looking to realign what they do:

1. Check your social networks at the start of the day and the end of the day.
Make sure you act upon any questions, queries or complaints too.

2. Run google alerts daily to email you
When you received the emails with mentions of your website, brand and products and check through them- if somebody is talking about you you need to know what they are saying and be able to act quickly and appropiately.

3. Keep a note of your brand advocates
People who talk positively about you are well worth keeping track off. With Twitter you can  favourite any positive posts and also build lists so you can keep a better eye on what they are saying.

4. Add regular content
How often really depends on your project, but weekly is probably the bare minimum. It can be a comment, blog, photo or video, but it needs to be something your followers can interact with. Social media is all about engagement and interaction with your followers.

5. Keep track of your traffic
There are statistic tools built into the likes of Facebook and countless tools you can sign up to track twitter and your website visitors, just make sure you are using something and paying attention to those stats. If a particular day brought in much more traffic, it pays to know why, so you can possibly try to replicate it.

Just 5 quick tips, but important as at the very heart of every successful business nowadays lies social media, and while you need not be a social media guru for success you do need to do these basics correctly.