New year, new social media strategy? ‘Tis the season for New Year’s resolutions, and now is as good a time as any to assess your social media platforms with fresh eyes and do away with tactics that aren’t working for your business. In the spirit of new beginnings, here are three social media habits to leave in 2018.
1. Posting irregularly
It’s easy to get caught up in your non-social media related responsibilities and realize that you haven’t posted on any given platform in weeks. But posting consistently is key if you want to keep your followers engaged and grow your online presence. If you often rely on posting only when inspiration strikes, you likely won’t adhere to any regular posting schedule. To keep your posts consistent, create a schedule for yourself each week or month and stick to it. Creating a schedule can also help you be more strategic about what you’re posting and will help you see gaps or redundancies in your messaging ahead of time. Here’s a basic planner to help you get started and envision what a social media calendar could look like.
2. Only posting promotions
While the overall purpose of posting to your social media platforms is ultimately to promote your business and its offerings, be careful of overdoing the promotions. If all or most of what you post consists of sales promotions and product pitches, your audience is likely to disengage — nobody likes the feeling of being aggressively advertised at. You can absolutely post promotions, sales events and new product images, but be sure to balance these posts out with some storytelling content. People follow you on social media because they want to know more about what your business is all about, who your staff is, what sets you apart and what makes you human. Share behind-the-scenes looks at your showroom, shots from showroom events, insight from your expert staff and blogs about topics your customers care about. Take a hard look at your social media presence and ask yourself if your audience really knows who you are as a business.
3. Neglecting feedback
Whether its a comment on your latest Facebook post or a Google review, generating feedback for your business is important, since it helps you see how you’re doing as a business and shows that your audience is engaged. But neglecting to pay attention to feedback and respond to it when applicable is a big mistake. If consumers, or even other businesses are engaging with your posts, make sure to acknowledge that with a response or a like if that’s all that’s warranted. Taking the extra step to thank someone for sharing a post or commenting something nice about your business can make a huge difference in how people perceive your business. Take a look at your posts from last year and see which ones got the most feedback, and try to replicate those strategies moving forward while taking care to respond to feedback when it happens.
What changes are you making to your social media strategy this year? Let us know in the comments!
