Today, having a social media presence is as important as having an informative website. Many companies have increased customer engagement and even generated new leads by regularly posting engaging and educational content across their social media platforms. However, it can take a lot of time and creativity to maintain several engaging social media platforms at once. So how can you improve your company’s social media presence?
No matter which platform you use, the No. 1 tip to remember for maintaining a social media presence for your business is to be consistent. For example, if you usually post pictures on Instagram three times a week, don’t suddenly drop off the map or starting posting twice a day.
If your social media presence has been inconsistent recently or has just fallen off your radar altogether, here are five tips to refresh your company’s social media for the new year.
1. Conduct a¢n audit of your current platforms.
It’s essential to have an idea of where your business stands before you start making any changes. Create a document that contains the information for all the social media accounts your company holds, including usernames, URLs, handles and who manages each account.
Next, identify the weak points of your pages by reviewing your engagement levels and how much referral traffic each page is actually sending to your website. If a particular platform is giving you little to no ROI, it may be time to drop that account.
Take note of what you would like to change across your platforms and ensure the information is complementary across all of your accounts so that search engines can easily identify your presence. Once you have accounted for all your social media pages, you can begin to clean up your online presence.
2. Delete accounts with no measurable ROI.
While there are endless platforms to choose from, five or six extremely popular social networks have the most potential to help your company gain significant traction. Most businesses use a combination of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest to share content.
However, depending on your industry, it may be wiser to use only a couple of platforms that are used heavily by your customers, rather than wasting time posting in places your audience is not spending their time.
Facebook and LinkedIn can be incredible resources, but it’s worth digging into analytics to see which other platforms are performing well with your audience. What works for one company does not always necessarily work for another. Focus on the platforms that are providing the most ROI and audience engagement for you now.
3. Make a plan for the next few months.
You don’t have to know exactly what you’re going to post when, but you do need to have a plan for how often you’re going to post and what kind of content you’re going to share. I like to take a bird’s-eye view of the year before narrowing in on each month.
Lay out a calendar of the year in a way that works for you — paper or a whiteboard can help you visualize your plan more clearly — and highlight any key dates for your company. Note any launches or holidays that could be used to promote your content. Make sure you prepare any promotional materials long before the date and share them across all your platforms, so they reach your whole audience.
Next, make a plan for how often you will post. Consistency is key in social media. After my real estate company had a Twitter lull, I made a plan to share at least one helpful article for home buyers each day, if not more, to keep our audience engaged. We also consistently update our Instagram with new home listings daily.
Once you’ve decided where to focus your energy, commit to your plan. There are dozens of apps that help automate social media posts for your accounts, and even a few that are industry specific. Set your social posts and ads ahead of time every couple of weeks, so you can maintain your brand without constant upkeep.
4. Start a community.
People often go online looking for community. But with so many platforms, many people feel lost in the void. Starting an online community, such as a Facebook group, around a specific topic is a great way to boost your engagement with prospects and refresh your social media presence.
A few months ago, I created a Facebook group to empower real estate professionals. The group is a platform for discussion and open sharing of information about tools of the trade that are working in the current business environment. Since its inception, the group has swelled to 2,000 members and is an incredibly honest way to get the pulse of the industry.
5. Use visuals.
Roughly 65% of the population consists of visual learners, so it’s no wonder that tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images. Your visuals don’t always have to be photos and videos; Facebook users tend to watch more Live feeds than regular videos.
Running a real estate business, my team tends to focus on high-quality images of available listings and videos of homes from the inside. Though some companies lean toward a mix of casual office candids and sleek product displays, we maintain consistency across our social media networks by sticking to professional-quality photos and videos. Whatever your plan, stay true to your brand.
If your business has been lackluster on social media, these tips can help you realign and reassess your strategy. Make a plan in the next few weeks, and stick to it throughout the year. You can always make changes, but starting with a written plan is the best way to assure you stick to a schedule for your social media. Start the year with a fresh social media strategy that showcases your brand in a new, exciting and engaging way so you can keep delighting your audience.
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This article first appeared in www.forbes.com
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