Social Media: Let’s Get Started!

We get a lot of questions from our clients regarding social media platforms - which ones to use, how often to use each one, how to use each one, etc. We thought we’d put together a blog post about two popular platforms in hopes of helping you answer some of these questions. During the month of March, we will follow up this post with another that covers 2 additional platforms.

Before we jump into each platform, we want to share one piece of advice with you that we always share with our clients. We advise all of our clients to start with one platform or focus on “mastering” one platform before expanding. For many of our clients, this is typically Facebook, but it could easily vary depending on your business and industry. We say this simply because social media is a very public arena. We want our clients to be prepared to create constant content, communicate regularly with those on social media, and to get comfortable with the features of each platform so you’re able to use it most effectively and efficiently.

Though a big part of social media use and management, we will not specifically address tools to manage or schedule social media posts or paid social media ads because those are completely different beasts. We do plan to cover them in other blog posts, so stay tuned!

With that, let’s get started!

Facebook.

In November of 2019, Facebook had approximately 2.41 billion monthly active users and was the 3rd most visited website in the world. 71% of American adults use Facebook and just over half of American teens use the platform; however, only 10% of Facebook’s total users are in the United States. Facebook demographics have definitely changed since it was released in 2004, as the fastest growing group of users are those over 65.

Businesses are able to create a Facebook page specifically for their businesses. These pages look different and are managed slightly differently than personal pages. Business pages can assign specific people to be Editors, Admins, etc. and you have the option to schedule posts for the future on your business page. This allows you to manage your business page from the page itself. To clarify, when we say “manage your page,” we’re referring to your ability to create posts (text, pictures, video, etc.), as well as respond to messages, respond to comments left on your posts, or review your page insights. Your page insights will let you know how many people your posts are reaching, how many people like your page, and some more in-depth demographic information.

As you’re preparing to use Facebook, we recommend you think deeply about how you most want to interact with your target audience. Do you want them to have images of your product? Do you want to offer interactive sessions where you do a Facebook live video and answer questions that are asked in real time? Do you want to learn more about your target audience through polling? Facebook offers a wide range of ways to reach potential customers just through your posts. If you’re just getting started, write down some of your main business goals or objectives, grab a blank calendar, and then figure out what you’re going to post every other day throughout the month to help get you closer to achieving those objectives or goals. Write those post ideas on the calendar and then get working to create the content (take pictures, make videos, etc.) so you can schedule it ahead of time.

Facebook also allows you to set up a Business Manager account. If you’re interested in advertising on Facebook, Facebook Messenger, or Instagram, you may want to complete this step. Honestly, we find Business Manager slow, hard to use, and overwhelming at times - and we’re in there using it every day. We’re hoping they continue to develop this tool and eventually, it will be more user-friendly.

Twitter.

Twitter is a fast-moving social media platform that has a slight reputation for being politically divisive and causing disagreements. However, Twitter has almost 150 million users and 30 million are Americans. The median age of Twitter users is 40 and over 40% of their users have a college degree and report an annual income of over $75,000.

It’s important for brands to remember that Twitter is a good platform to engage in conversation with your target audience. People expect brands to be personal on Twitter - responding almost like an old friend. Twitter actually completed a survey recently that indicated that Twitter users actually prefer the brands that are more inclusive and transparent. This is important for clients to know because this type of communication requires thought and time.

In the same way you can set up a business page on Facebook, you can set up a page for your business on Twitter. Twitter does not allow you to assign admins or editors, so anyone who will be managing your page needs the login and password for your Twitter business page. 

Because of how fast Twitter moves, you’ll want to post slightly more often on this platform - possibly 2-3 times a day. Keep in mind, Twitter has a 240 character limit for each post and they only allow 4 images to be uploaded for each tweet. You’ll want to use about 2-3 hashtags with each post. Preferably one that is unique to your business and 2 that are industry-related and commonly searched. Be prepared to engage with those who retweet, tag you in posts, or use your hashtags. Users on Twitter can also send direct messages and you’ll want to respond to those quickly.

We hope this helps you get started with social media! Stay tuned for part 2 of this post where we introduce LinkedIn and Instagram.