Social Media Marketing – 9 Tips To Improve Business In 2021

There’s nothing more effective in bringing out sales and traffic to your online store than social media. Social media platforms are the perfect places to build a community and attract followers so you can build brand awareness and eventually generate sales with your social media marketing.

Although not directly, being active on social media can boost your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts. It improves the online visibility of your brand and enhances its reputation through the posts and stories that you share.

Actionable Tips to Manage your Social Media for Business

So how can you manage your social media and adopt it properly with your business workflow? In this article, we give you 9 actionable tips to manage your social media for business.

1. Appoint a manager

By designating a person to keep an eye on social networks, it will be easier for you to limit the risks. He/She will need to be fully aware of your social media policy, monitor your brand’s presence on these platforms, and decide who can post content. This person will also play a fundamental role in shaping your social media marketing strategy.

The ideal would probably be a senior member of your social media marketing team. But it will need to communicate with your company’s IT department frequently so that the two departments can work together to mitigate risk.

2. Choose the right social media platform for your business

There are a lot of social media platforms available to help you with your business and new ones keep popping up everywhere. So how do you know which one is the best platform for you?

• ‘Still on the top of the list, Facebook is a go-to platform to make new connections and share new business promotions. It is popular, the users keep growing, and thus, it is perfect for any business niche. Facebook business has a lot of powerful tools that can help you with your campaigns and allows you to run ads and target the right people.
• This little app was bought by Facebook in 2012 and offered the instant gratification of taking and sharing photos, the fun of using filters to make those photos more attractive, and is primarily responsible for the selfie craze. Instagram now allows businesses to use this platform and test new features that will help it become a full-fledged eCommerce sales channel. You can set your profile for business and let your followers and other users shop from this platform directly.
• This site, recognized as the “virtual bulletin board” has attracted millions of users at an exponential rate since its launch in 2010. The average sales order on Pinterest for eCommerce is $50, which is more than any other social networking site with a marketplace. One of the most significant advantages of Pinterest in eCommerce is that it streamlines the purchasing experience. For example, if a user is seeking new running shoe ideas, they may conduct a simple search and skim through the results until they discover what they want.
• Released in September 2016, TikTok users create short videos with music, filters, and many other features. With its early partnerships with Shopify as well as Walmart, TikTok has indeed taken strides in this direction. According to a news story from The Financial Times, the platform is aiming to introduce some new capabilities to help allow additional eCommerce opportunities and optimize its income opportunities.
• It is a knowledge-sharing platform giving users the ability to ask questions on any topic and get answers from experts. You can’t (and shouldn’t) directly promote your site there, but you can boost your online reputation by showing that you are an expert in your industry. For example, an interior designer on Quora will be able to answer users’ questions about their renovation projects. Add your business name and website to your Quora profile, and you will most likely attract the attention of people who are impressed with your knowledge.

3. Identify the right influencers

Today, customers tend to talk about their purchases on social media. “Influencers” play an important role in the purchasing process, because by posting articles, photos, and sometimes video tutorials on certain products, they guide consumers in their choices. On a related note, if you like editing your images yourself, tools like Removal.AI can remove image backgrounds using Artificial Intelligence to seamlessly remove the backgrounds of your images for whatever purpose you see fit. The best thing about Removal.AI is that it is free, making it one of the best tools to use, whether you’re a beginner or a professional making it the best tool to remove background from image.

Identify influencers in your communities, and reward them with a discount coupon on their next visit, for example. It’s a great way to thank your local customers, build loyalty, and encourage them to recommend your brand.

4. Pay attention to the habits of your clients

Your accounts must therefore be the subject of personalized, dynamic, and sustained animation (in its frequency). But they must also take into account the habits and uses of the consumers who are present there. When Facebook catches the attention of Internet users in the morning and at the end of the day, Instagram experiences spikes in engagement during lunch.

Take this into account when disseminating your messages, but also when responding to your community. It is essential to take the importance of this subject by naturally integrating responsiveness into the purchasing process.

5. Create a policy on the use of social media

If your business uses social media on a daily basis or is about to embark on it, you need to have a policy in place regarding its use.

Below are recommendations that can help your employees use social media more responsibly. This will help protect your business from threats, but also avoid bad publicity and legal trouble.

At a minimum, your social media marketing policy should include:

• Branding guidelines that will explain how to talk about your business on social media.
• Rules relating to confidentiality and the use of social media in a personal capacity.
• The departments or employees are responsible for the different accounts.
• Copyright and privacy guidelines.
• Guidance on the most effective passwords and how often to change them.
• Your expectations for software and hardware updates.
• How to spot and prevent frauds, assaults, and other security risks
• If an account’s security is breached, who should be notified and what should be done?

6. Teach your employees the best security practices

A great social media marketing policy won’t be enough to protect your organization if your employees don’t follow it. It should of course be easy to understand, but only training will allow employees to interact, ask questions and understand why it is so important. These training sessions are also an opportunity to study the latest threats on social media and review your policy to see if it needs to be changed.

Don’t worry, there are more positive points you can talk about as well. Thanks to social media training, your team will also learn how to effectively use the tools available to them. Once your employees learn the best practices to adopt, they will feel more confident when using social media, whether for personal or professional purposes. Most of the companies are currently making the most of social media, even you can hire a company to enhance the aspects of their online networks and websites.

7. Limit access to social networks

If you’d rather focus on threats outside your business, know that PWC has discovered that employees are the most common rooters of cybersecurity incidents, not hackers. The best solution to protect your accounts would therefore be to limit access to them.

You may have assigned different teams to manage messaging, create posts, and customer service on social media. However, not all of your employees are posting content. Therefore, you do not have to give each of your account passwords.

The first step is to limit the number of users who can post content to your accounts. Then choose carefully those who will be in charge of the publication.

Once you’ve made your decision, use software like Hootsuite to assign the right people to the right accounts. This way, they won’t need to know your account login details. If an employee decides to leave your company, you can simply deactivate their account without having to change all passwords.

8. Monitor your accounts and practice social listening

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, accounts left unattended are ideal targets for hackers. So it’s best to keep an eye on all your social media whether you use it or not. Appoint a person who will be responsible for verifying that all the content on your accounts has been published by your employees. You can start by comparing your posts to those shown in your content calendar.

Watch out for anything that looks suspicious to you. Even if a post looks genuine, it’s best to do a little extra research if it doesn’t match the content you intended. It may simply be human error. But it could also be that someone has gained access to your accounts and is watching your reaction before posting more dangerous content.

You should also make sure that no one has usurped your accounts, make sure that your employees (or anyone associated with your company) do not inappropriately mention your brand, and check that there are no negative comments about your brand.

9. Perform regular audits

Threats on social media are constantly evolving. Hackers are always finding new tactics, and never-before-seen viruses and scams can pop up anytime. But by scheduling regular audits of your security measures, you can stay one step ahead.

At least once a quarter, don’t forget to check:

• Social media privacy settings. These settings are updated frequently, which may affect your account. For example, a social network can modify them to give you more control over how your data is used.
• Access and publication permissions. Perform a scan of who has access to your social media management platform and accounts and has the right to post content there. Please feel free to modify this list to suit your needs. Also, be sure to revoke access for all former employees and be sure to check which people have changed jobs and therefore no longer need the same permissions.
• The latest security threats. Communicate regularly with your company’s IT department so they can keep you informed of the latest risks that have appeared on social media. And also keep an eye on the news: Big hacks and new threats will surely be mentioned in the media.
• Your social media policy. This policy must evolve as new networks gain in popularity, as security practices change, and as new threats emerge. By reviewing this document quarterly, it can stay relevant and continue to help you secure your accounts.

Conclusion

Several of the techniques described in this post are underutilized and underappreciated; thus, if you are reading this article, you have a rare chance to fully utilize the suggestions listed above. We can’t wait to see how some of these tactics help you develop your online empire. So, once you’ve launched your campaigns and promos, please share your experience with all of the readers in the comments section below.