5 Social Media Marketing Rules Need to Know

Social media marketing is definitely something that virtually every company knows about now. Though not every business uses it, most of them do to some extent. That’s because billions of people worldwide use social media, so it’s an easy way to maintain and cultivate customer relationships.

It helps to have social media accounts for marketing purposes for just about any business entity. However, if you don’t know much about social media, it’s easy to misuse it as well. If you do so, that often spells trouble for you.

Here are a few social media marketing rules that can help if you’re considering getting into this area.

Stay Away from Controversial Topics

Social media can damage your reputation if you’re not careful. Generally, this happens when you wade into territory that your company should avoid. That might include:

• Politics
• Religion
• Various social issues

Remember that using social media for your business is not the same as using it on your own. When your business sends out a social media message, that’s your entire company taking that standpoint. You’re affirming or declaring a belief about a particular topic about which people feel strongly.

If you decide to take a stand on something like Black Lives Matter, the Presidential election, etc. make sure that you don’t alienate possible customers. You can certainly talk about these things if you want to but consider the ramifications very carefully when you do.

Only Use the Right Social Media Platforms

If you are utilizing social media for marketing, you should understand that there are dozens of possible options you might employ. Those may include:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• YouTube

These are some of the better-known options, but there are many more. The reason you only want to use some and not all of them is that if you set up a business profile for every single one, you’re spreading yourself too thin.

You need to create regular content for every one of these profiles. If they’re stagnant, they don’t help you. That’s time-consuming, and you’ll need to pay employees to create that content. In that respect, social media costs both time and money.

Also, not everybody uses every social media platform. You need to go where your demographic goes. For instance, Millennials tend to use Facebook. If you’re targeting Gen-Z, you’ll need to head elsewhere.

You might do some market research to determine which platforms to use. You can set up some focus groups and give the participants gift cards or free products.

Hire the Right Content Creators

You’ll also need to come up with individuals, or perhaps just one person, to create your social media posts. Depending on the number of profiles you have, you might hire just one social media manager. If you’re a huge company and you have many different profiles, you might need a whole team for this purpose.

You need to hire someone who knows your company’s values and can stay on-brand. Your social media should reflect your business’s values. If you’re playful, your tweets, posts, etc. should reflect that. If you’re more serious, your social media messaging should be as well.

You can find content creators on places like Indeed and LinkedIn. This profession didn’t exist a couple of decades ago, but now, many people do it.

You might have possible candidates come up with some posts to see if they have an idea of what you want and need. Make a short list and then hire based on experience and salary requirements.

Post Regularly

You’ll also need to adhere to a strict posting schedule. If you have a Twitter profile, for instance, but you only send out a tweet once every couple of weeks, that’s not enough. You need to have a set schedule, like tweeting twice or three times each day.

You should post enough, but not too much. If you’re posting twenty times per day, that’s probably overdoing it. Your subscribers will get sick of you if you bombard them with content constantly.

You can use a tool like Hootsuite or SocialBee to set up a schedule.

Interact with Your Followers

One final thing that you must do is to reply to your followers when they try to interact with you. You’re attempting to give the impression that you care about what they have to say. If they want to talk to you about something, like a product or service, you must be ready to do that at all times.

You can instruct your social media manager or team to reply quickly when someone reaches out. That way, your customers will feel that your company engages with them and is inclusive.

If your business doesn’t have social media yet, you’re falling behind. Customers and would-be customers won’t consider you a modern company unless you set up accounts without delay.

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