Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media

Glyna: Welcome to Marketing Mix. I’m so glad to see everyone today. Every week we’re going to talk about a different type of segment. We’re going to have a different type of segment that highlights all different kinds of digital marketing topics. We’re going to mix it up, we’re going to have interviews, tips, Q and As, trends just about anything aren’t we Sarah?

Sarah: Yes. We’re going to cover a lot.

Glyna: Yes, we are. And today we’re going to have a social media do’s and don’ts segment. So let’s dive right in.

Sarah: Well, I was grooving out after.

Glyna: I know I was so excited I didn’t even introduce us. I guess they know who we are.

Sarah: They know who we are. Talking about social media, it’s something everybody’s familiar with and it’s a great tool. It can help your business tremendously if done correctly, but we’ve kind of seen it all out there and I think that’s kind of what we want to touch on and what we want to cover today is because we really want to just cover some of the common mistakes that people make that we come across. And then give you the best practices. So the things that will really help you, social media-wise. But before we get started I have to say, well we want to make sure that you click on the notification bell, don’t forget to subscribe and all of this is just so that you can get more videos in the future that can help your business. So let’s get going here.

Glyna: Hey, we are all over the place and we’re so excited about our new podcast, Marketing, and a Mic. You can find all of these episodes as well as our Biz Talk there. They’re all listed for you. But the cool thing is we are always live, really live on YouTube and Facebook and then you can also catch a replay on all the other places. So, we definitely want to make sure you can find us and don’t miss out on any of this great stuff. So, oh boy Sarah social media do’s and don’ts. We’re going to get to our top 10 here in a minute that we hear all the time, but we really want to touch on something first. What do you think about this comment? Since business has slowed, all I can do is sit on the couch, eat snacks, and watch Netflix. It’s like come on people. I know so many people are doing that. I mean, right now there are more eyes and more people on social media and the internet than ever, and it is definitely the time to communicate through social media. Whoo!

Sarah: Truly we have heard that, well we’re on lock-down and there’s nothing I can do. So I might as well just, sit at home and go into hiding and kind of peek my head out when this is over.

Glyna: Well, I know nobody from Fusion One has been binging Netflix during the day. Daniel says, “I wish that’s what we can do.” And hey Roxie, good to see you here today! But yeah, I don’t get it. I mean, I understand some businesses have had to close, they had no options. But here at Fusion One, we decided to pivot, push through it, no matter what it takes. So here we are pushing through it and having a lot of fun and learning new things.

Sarah: Yes. Okay. So let’s get right to it. Let’s go to number one. Okay. My customers aren’t on social media.[WRONG]. Without social media, you are missing out on opportunities and customers. [RIGHT] That could not be more true. I mean really and truly it is… To me, I feel like if you have that mindset of, “all my customers aren’t on social media, I work my business through word of mouth or I’ve been in the business for X amount of years. And so I work off of referrals and I don’t need social media”. To me, I look at it as you don’t know what you don’t have. There’s an entire network of people that are on social media that are looking for businesses like yours. And so, if you take that approach, you’re missing out on a huge chunk. Plus, social media, my gosh, it’s a great way to build brand awareness, to connect with customers, to build relationships with customers and it’s just a very inexpensive, powerful tool.

Glyna: Yes, exactly. So all right, that was a great way to get started. Now let’s go to number two. Everybody tells me this all the time. I’m overwhelmed so I know I need to be on all the social media channels, [WRONG]… or should you slow down, know your target audience, and what social media platforms that they are using? Exactly. The first thing you really need to do, Sarah, is sit down and think about who is your perfect customer. Not everybody should be your perfect customer. You really need to narrow it down and then find out the demographics of where they are spending their time. Like this is a great graphic here that shows you where people spend their time on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. So for instance, if your perfect customer is between the age of 25 and 34 and you’re wanting to build a relationship with them and also make sure that your brand is standing out, probably the number one place you want to be is Facebook. I know a lot of people are like, yeah, but I have to be on Instagram. Well, that’s cool. That’s all right if you want to be on Instagram too, but if the people that you are targeting and the people that are spending money on your products and services are on Facebook, let’s start there. The other thing I try to tell everybody, Sarah, is don’t spread yourself too thin. Learn maybe one or two of these platforms really well and be consistent with them. If you spread yourself too thin, trying to learn every single new thing coming out, it’s just not as effective.

Sarah: Yeah, I totally agree, use fewer channels, put more focus into them, really get to know them, and then that way you’re building better content that’s catered to your target audience. So don’t waste your time on a social media channel that’s really not aligned with your business.

Glyna: If you have all the time in the world, yeah, I don’t know any businesses that do.

Sarah: Yes. Truly. Okay, let’s move on to number three. Okay. Should you have the thought process? Should I say “tagging other businesses can hurt your business” [WRONG] or is it more that you should tag share support because it’s just going to increase your reach? [RIGHT] Yeah, It’s just an all-around good move to support other businesses and other business owners. And not only is it building brand awareness within the community. When you show that support, it’s kind of extending your reach as well because now you tagged a business that has got other followers, and guess what? They can come over and take a look at you. So you’ve just extended your reach. And again, it’s like just give credit where credit’s due. If you are showing support for another business, they’ll turn around and show support for you and it’s just a win-win.

Glyna: That’s exactly right. I know I have a couple of fellow BNI people over here with Roxie and Daniel and Daniel says definitely let’s skip the Snapchat. But it’s like what we preach in Givers Gain or BNI – Givers Gain, give to people, help them spread their word. It’s usually an unwritten rule that they will come and reciprocate to you. So it’s just good practice overall for sure. So that is some great info. All right, let’s go to number four. Okay, now let’s make this choice. It’s important to sell and talk about my business as much as possible on social media [WRONG] or help more than you sell. Be a resource to your followers.[RIGHT] Exactly. I think we say what Sarah? Kind of like an 80/20 rule, 80% of the time should be spent on being a resource, doing a lot of other things and then 20% come back and sell. And what we mean by that is not being obnoxious. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. It’s more like informing people about your products and services and you’re still wanting to help though. I have these products and services and this is how they can help you. Right. So you’ve just got to avoid that being a sleazy salesperson.

Sarah: Yeah. Because customers are smart. If they feel like it’s one-sided in and it’s all about you, not about them, they’re just going to lose interest. And we kind of like you said, the 80/20 rule, we look at it as make one out of eight to 10 posts. It should be about promoting your product. Other than that being a resource like Glyna said.

Glyna: Well Sarah, can you think of other types of posts? You and your team, you obviously are working on that all day long. What other types of posts can they do? Maybe they don’t have the ideas.

Sarah: Right? Yeah. It’s hard sometimes to have the element of creativity, but it could be anywhere from something that’s entertaining. You could have some comic relief. You can provide a perspective. You’re the expert, so provide things in an expert manner of, “Hey, here’s some things to help you,” some do it yourself tips. So there’s so much that you can do beyond just like sell, sell, sell.

Glyna: Yeah. And we’re always so busy here at Fusion One, we had never even taken the time to really investigate the lives, but that’s turned out to be a really cool thing that you can do. And I think it helps people get to know you. So it’s so endless and those are ideas we can give you and help you out any time. So hit us up.

Sarah: Hit us up. So, okay, let’s move to number five. Okay. So should you post whenever you can, whenever you have time, even if it’s inconsistent? [WRONG] Or, if you don’t have the time, find a source that does. [RIGHT] Yes. I mean, this is why there are so many reasons behind it in, you want to make yourself visible. And here’s the thing too, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, they’ll actually kind of reward you in a way because they favor consistency. So they’re looking for the ones that are posting more consistently. And that means that you’ll become a little bit more of a preferred account, so to speak. And that’s really important, and not only that, but it leaves a better impression in the user’s eyes because they don’t want to go onto a business’s page and see that it looks like a desert. Do you know what I mean? Like they’ll like no one’s home here. Nobody’s making any posts, I am out of here. When you post regularly, it just increases your visibility and it just gains your chances that it’s going to lead to people wanting to stay on there. So yeah, and we say this too, it’s like if you don’t have the time, that’s not an excuse. Find a resource that does. Like Fusion One! I’m just sayin…it just came to me!

Glyna: First impressions are everything. These days if someone is checking out your business, guess where they go. The first two places they go are social media and your website and your first impression if they look at your social media and there’s nothing there and you’re not informing people, that leaves a bad taste in their mouth. Plus the fact, and I don’t know if these numbers have changed, but recently I know I saw something like only 7% of your audience will see a post at one time, so you want to be consistent, but more out there so that you can get the word spread. It definitely makes sense.

Sarah: For sure.

Glyna: All right. Where are we? Number six. Oh boy. I think I ran into a real doozy on this one this week. I am sorry because I’m going to have to share it, but I will leave the names out. Okay. “It doesn’t matter what hashtags you use” [WRONG] Or please make your hashtags relevant in strategic.[RIGHT]

Sarah: Oh my gosh. Oh boy with this one, right?

Glyna: Oh my gosh. Well, what people I think don’t realize a lot is that hashtags, they created them for a reason, but the thing, the other thing is that each channel uses them for different things or for different reasons. You can get away with and they encourage hashtags on Instagram. They want you to hit everything that you possibly can on Instagram, but if you turn around and use that same post on Facebook, it’s just not going to work for you. And people, come on, for the love… hashtag shouldn’t be full sentences and we don’t care if it’s hashtag walk my dog or hashtag I’m going to go eat this hamburger and hashtag.

Sarah: I am going to eat this hamburger.

Glyna: And the other bad thing is, okay people, it’s kind of like, “Hey you’re broadcasting.” You put that hashtag out there, you might want to click and see what it goes to. In other words, if you click on it, what topics are you bringing up? Can I tell my example?

Sarah: Please, because this is a prime example of “make your hashtag relevant and strategic”. Don’t just put a hashtag out there to put a hashtag out there.

Glyna: First of all, apparently another social media company was doing social media for a moving company. First of all, I believe they had been posting on Instagram and it tied Facebook to Instagram. So first of all, all the Instagram hashtags were coming on to Facebook. I kept wondering why they had all those hashtags, but I figured it out it had to be tied to it. So, that wasn’t bad enough that it looks just really weird. A moving company, let’s think about this. Some common hashtags, moving day, moving company, whatever. We saw hashtags with “bachelor, bachelorette, love”. What were some of the other ones?

Sarah: It was like, one was like “hashtag one, hashtag love, hashtag song”. It was like this has nothing to do with a moving company.

Glyna: Hashtag love.

Sarah: And Oh gosh, and so to me it’s like if you’re a business, use your hashtag strategically and then as well if you’re going to have some of your own trending hashtags so to speak like we’ve got our Biz Talk series, we will do #BizTalk and that’s going to be our established hashtag so that that will kind of build its own momentum. So, if you have some of those that you want to use or if your business has a slogan or tagline, that’s a great way. If it’s a long one though, one tip I have to give is you need to capitalize the words in it. If it’s longer than two words, you need to capitalize the first word because you know, if something is like “wearegoingtowin”, it’s just hard to read. So, that’s just kind of another thing. But really just…

Glyna: Can you tell us a pet peeve?

Sarah: Don’t abuse the hashtag!

Glyna: Please?

Sarah: Okay. All right. All right, we’ve covered that. Let’s go to number seven. Okay. So should you have the mindset that there’s no use for video and especially in my industry? [WRONG] Or, video is huge, it has the best reach? [RIGHT] This is one of those things where it comes down to the fact that you just need to get over yourself with video really because it’s hard. I know it’s hard, but a video is really one of the best forms of content. It’s the best way to show your personality. It’s a great way to connect with your audience. And let’s face it, we love to watch more than we like to read. So, we’d rather check out and watch something the next shift of rewords nonstop. We could go on and on about this, but the fact of the matter is video brings such a larger audience if done the right way. It’s just such a powerful tool and there’s so much variety with video. Whatever your business is, don’t think like, “Okay, this is my… We’re in this industry and there’s just no room for it.” That’s not true.

Sarah: Again, it’s using yourself as a resource and using yourself in a way of being there for your customers. So you could give them, do it yourself tips. You could do a question and question and answer series. You could do a tutorial, it’s endless.

Glyna: Exactly. And it’s the perfect way to show that you are the expert and we’ve been saying video for years. You need to do a video. Well, you really do, this is the year of video just because of the situation we’re in. You would be trying to compete to catch everybody’s attention. So absolutely that’s definitely the best way to do it. And I know maybe some people are like, “I can’t, I just can’t do it, I can’t bring myself to do it.” Look, Sarah said, maybe we should say hashtag get over yourself, no I’m kidding! Sarah said, get over yourself. It doesn’t have to be all that fancy and produced. Get your phone out and try some. I mean that’s a great thing about video versus lives is you can do it over, over and over and over and over until you get it the way you want it. Even though you kind of wants to be more natural then practice. But anyway, it is awesome. Alrighty, so number eight. Thank you, Kelsi. I love Kelsi. Kelsi is helping us today. She’s in the background so she’s keeping us on track. We were going to have a hard time counting to 10. So what about this? It’s okay to repeat the same post often [WRONG] or your audience will lose interest if you don’t mix up your content.[RIGHT] Exactly. Now you just want to keep them interested. You want to do a lot of different things. You don’t want to just keep doing the same boring posts over and over and over. Some of the things that you could do to make it fun, you could do giveaways, you could do polls, you could do a video like we just mentioned, Q and A’s, be funny. I mean, Sarah does Fusion One Marketing’s page, our social media pages- go out, check those out. It is a perfect example of do’s the way she does it, she really mixes it up and she’s hilarious but at the same time makes points about what we offer to our customers. So just mix it up.

Sarah: Yeah, exactly. Put yourself in the place of your followers, they don’t want to see the same thing all the time, so just don’t be boring.

Glyna: Hashtag don’t be boring.

Sarah: If there is something to really blunt about it I guess.

Glyna: I’ll stop the hashtags, I promise.

Sarah: Okay, let’s move right along to number nine. Do you think that you really don’t need to interact with your audience [WRONG] or, interacting with your audience is key? [RIGHT] Do not be one-sided. I get passionate about this stuff.

Glyna: You’re passionate, girl!

Sarah: Oh goodness. So you know what we were saying, providing helpful content is nice and it is nice to be a resource, but that’s really not all that social media should be about and interacting with your followers it’s key because to me it’s like if you’re a business and they’re coming on and asking a question and you’re not getting back to them and you’re not commenting, they’re going to move right along because that’s how we are. We’re creatures of… We want instant, so if you’re trying to get an answer and you’re not getting an answer where you’re like, well guess what? That just like to put my opinion down the tubes. As well as just reaching out. Reach out on your page. If somebody makes a comment or posts something nice and they give you a good review, be right there thanking them. It shows a lot and it tells a lot about your business and followers really appreciate that. So for sure interact. It’s very important.

Glyna: It’s called social media, people. You’re supposed to be social on it. Don’t hide, but be helpful, and yes, make sure that you’re interacting. Alrighty. And drum roll number 10. When it comes to social media, it’s all about the numbers or focuses on quality, not quantity. And the numbers will come. Excellent. Yes. And I’ll tell you, you can tell a lot from insights on your social media pages, most of them have it. Check your insights regularly. Find out what your audience likes and do more of that. Find out where the interaction is. And again, do more of that, it’s all about reading your target audience. Like we said at the very beginning, who’s your demographic? Who’s your target audience, and what do they like? Because it is about your business, but it’s also about giving your potential customers what they’re looking for. And B is a helpful resource.

Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. It’s got to be a two-way street. And again, if you’re on your audience and you’re putting the right content out there and you’re knowing the to post and all that kind of stuff, then the numbers will follow. So it really truly is. It’s like if you’ve got quality stuff out there then the numbers will come and people will notice.

Glyna: Yeah. I see this out in motivational talks and that if you are not failing, then you’re not moving forward. You can’t expect to have every single post being, an excellent post. But you can learn from past experiences or past posting and make sure that you are doing more of what your customers love. Anyway, did you have any more of that or do we brush dry through that, didn’t we? Obviously that’s not the only thing that we can bring up, but those are the things that we do here on a day to day basis. So we just want to kind of cover them in hopes of helping you all out to know what to do on social media. But before I go, I always want to mention that if you don’t have time to be consistent or you don’t know where to start, you have no idea what you’re doing. We’re here to help as always, Fusion One marketing. We love social media and we have an excellent social media team headed up by Sarah. And again, we would love to help you and answer any questions that you have. That wraps it up for our Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media.

Sarah: Yes, absolutely. And again, this will be our weekly series. So tune in next Thursday, we’re going to cover a new topic and it’s all in the name of just helping you with your digital marketing strategy. So thank you. And don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for Biz Talk with our special guests, Cindy Edmunds, who we are so excited. Thank you so much. See you all next time.