How to use social media appropriately.

Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.

Some common platforms include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and You Tube.

Using Social Media for your business can have the following positive impacts;

• Grow referral traffic to your website
• Drive lead generation or e-commerce purchases
• Increase company credibility
• Exhibit a corporate identity and culture that makes people more likely to want to do business with you
• Cultivate the quantity of feedback that they receive from customers and leads

In order for Social media to have these positive impacts, you will need to be clear of why you are using social media in the first place.

Below are some appropriate ways to help manage what you share so it keeps you on track and engages with your audience.

1. Ensure you have social media goals, know what you want to achieve. Make your goals measurable
2. Get the resources for your social media plan. Put the tools and staff in place to meet your objectives
3. Share relevant facts, statistics, research, and industry knowledge only to your followers
4. Let the passion for your cause come out and highlight the stories by using pictures, videos, and a narrative to tell the human stories that inspire
5. Use your social presence to create new relationships and strengthen existing ones
6. Share updates about your programs, mission, and events to show customers how their business/contribution are used
7. Connect and develop relationships with social media leaders to further spread your message and have a supportive voice
8. Spread positive messages to gather interest. Sharing positive experiences might encourage others to learn more about you or share your message
9. Thank your community. Whether it’s a comment on your blog or a helpful recommendation, it’s important to acknowledge the kind gesture
10. Promote your company events. Attract a larger following by sharing your message on the social web
11. Share messages about others more than messages about yourself. Retweet other organizations’ posts, share web content relevant to your industry and post kind words and questions
12. Use social media to reveal data about your audience. This includes market demographics, relevant conversations, where they spend time on social media channels

Monitor your social media activity and take time to analyse and take stock of if you are achieving what you set out to achieve. If not re-evaluate and perhaps drop a particular platform and concentrate on the ones that work for you and your audience.

• Philip Divilly, Recruitment Consultant.

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