So, you?ve decided which social media platforms are best suited to your business.
You?ve set up the accounts.
You’ve added the pages.
Now what?
How do you make sure your social media presence becomes and stays relevant to your potential customers?
Do you make statements on social issues?
Is any post I can think of worth putting up?
We will get to these but you?ve missed the most basic point with these questions.
If a page or social media account exists and there is no content does anyone care?
Social Media: A Page is not Enough!
Before we get into the minutia of keeping your social media presence relevant, we have to tackle another common pitfall.
It is not enough to simply have a presence!
Many companies set up pages and accounts only to neglect them.
Their mistake is figuring that the mere existence of these things in the social media environment will attract new customers.
A page that simply exists or that posts infrequently, full of digital tumbleweeds, might as well not exist.
The first step in staying relevant on social media is taking it seriously.
Make sure these pages and accounts are regularly updated and provided with RELEVANT content.
If this content is not relevant to your business it won?t be relevant to your customers.
The ?So What?? Test
The ?So What?? test is a tool that some will have heard of in their academic lives.
For those of you that haven?t; the ideas something like this:
When writing an academic paper, you should ask yourself before you use any piece of information why it matters both to the reader and the point you?re trying to make.
If the information isn?t relevant or doesn?t add much to the ultimate point of the work then it should probably be edited out.
This can easily be applied to your business?s social media.
Ultimately the goal is to attach whatever post you’re making to potential customers and clients to your product.
If a post can’t be related to what your business does in some way then that post probably doesn?t need to exist.
For example, let?s say you are a cosmetics business.
It wouldn?t benefit you at all to make posts ranking the best BBQ sauces or the Star Wars movies in order of quality (with New Hope being first obviously).
While these could be interesting to some people; they ultimately serve no purpose in getting them to think about your cosmetics.
You would be much better served to illustrate the look, smell, feel etc. of your product.
Even showcase popular style and how your product could improve it.
Similarly, despite the vast audience for it political statements can be a minefield and will have trouble passing a relevancy test.
Should I Talk about Social Issues?
Be wary here!
Social and political issues have a massive place in the social media environment.
In recent years social media users on all platforms have become more and more socially and politically active.
This is an easy way for your company to be very relevant … but it is easy to lose sight of your ultimate goal of having your business prosper.
For example, it?s unlikely potential customers will care what your hypothetical cosmetics company believes is the best solution for peace in the Middle East.
Or gaining a poor reputation suddenly because your company made a controversial statement on climate change.
With one post your company could gain a reputation as environmentally unfriendly and lose swaths of potential customers for whom this is a core issue.
In the most extreme of circumstances inciting a boycott or ?cancel culture?.
That?s not to say your company can?t have a conscience.
Being socially conscious is a great way to gain a following because people will think of your company as a leader on the given issue.
Take our cosmetics company.
A good way for them to stay relevant might be to advertise that they don?t test on animals.
That their products are environmentally friendly.
That they use a diverse cast of models in the pictures that advertise the product.
All of these can be positive elements of your social media presence.
Tread lightly, but be proud.
False steps here can cause permanent damage.
