{"id":10225,"date":"2016-06-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insulation.org\/io\/articles\/social-media-101-for-small-businesses\/"},"modified":"2018-10-02T16:56:20","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T16:56:20","slug":"social-media-101-for-small-businesses","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/insulation.org\/io\/articles\/social-media-101-for-small-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media 101 for Small Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Caitlyn Freitas, Leslie Emery, and Julie McLaughlin<\/em><\/p>\n

An online social media presence is no longer an option. It is a must\u2014even for small businesses. It is not enough, however, to create a social media account and then leave it to languish; an active, strategic presence must be maintained in order to reap the benefits social media offers. When a small contracting company, with limited employees, wants to have a social media presence, they should spend some\u00a0time considering the following and creating a plan before creating an account.<\/p>\n

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“Anyone in charge of social media needs to have appropriate training in the area, and should have a strategy for communications. Moreover, it is important that the person in charge of your social media marketing\u2014or members of their team\u2014have sufficient knowledge of the company\u2018s products, services, and their\u00a0particular segment of the market. If they fail to appreciate the intricacies of the industry, they will not be able to draw in the audience you are looking for.”<\/h4>\n

\u2014Julie McLaughlin, Senior Director of Publications at NIA<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Strategy<\/h2>\n

The first part of establishing a social media strategy is deciding what your overall goal is. Companies may use social media to help define their brand, share information about new products, drive users to their websites, or to recruit new workers. Once you have established the overall goal, you can then establish benchmarks for measuring how effective your social media strategy is.<\/p>\n

One mistake small businesses make is not having separate strategies for different platforms. If you are sharing identical content over multiple platforms, your audience\u2014who is likely on all the same platforms\u2014will lose interest. Instead, create different types of posts that take advantage of the characteristics of the platform you are using. While you want to create varying content, the one thing\u00a0that should be consistent throughout different platforms is your branding\u2014you want users to be able to easily identify and recognize your company. Additionally, in evaluating your social media strategy, it is important to define your audience. Write down as many relevant details about your intended audience as possible (age, location, career, interests, etc.), and use this to help guide your messaging and\u00a0choose which type of social media will best reach your audience. A little research will help you determine who is on what platform and what they use it for. Determine if Pinterest and Snapchat are where your targets are and what they would be looking for while they use those sites. Not every platform is useful for every company and people may ignore work-related posts if they use that platform for recreation.<\/p>\n

Avoiding Pitfalls<\/h2>\n

Selecting the Right Staff<\/h5>\n

Of course, the process of starting and maintaining a social media presence can present certain pitfalls that must be carefully negotiated. One of the biggest mistakes small companies can make is assigning social media to an intern or junior employee. While younger workers, such as those from the Millennial generation, are well known for their love of social media, personal use does not necessarily translate into\u00a0professional social media expertise or an understanding of marketing and branding. Anyone in charge of social media needs to have appropriate training in the area, and should have a strategy for communications. Moreover, it is important that the person in charge of your social media marketing\u2014or members of their team\u2014have sufficient knowledge of the company\u2018s products, services, and their\u00a0particular segment of the market. If they fail to appreciate the intricacies of the industry, they will not be able to draw in the audience you are looking for.<\/p>\n

Timing<\/h5>\n

Once you have established a social media presence, it is important to commit to regular postings and interactions. Make sure you update your page regularly and engage with your users frequently. However, you also do not want to post excessively, which could cause users to block or unfollow you. Make sure you post at different times to see which posts times are most effective. Which platform you are posting on\u00a0makes a difference\u2014you can post more on Twitter than you can on Facebook since Twitter feeds tend to be updated more frequently than Facebook\u2018s newsfeed.<\/p>\n

According to GRC Direct, a marketing and communications consulting company, the following times are ideal for social media programs:<\/p>\n