The countdown begins in just about 48 hours. And I’m not talking about the countdown to 2017. I’m talking about the countdown to when we work to fulfill all those annual resolutions and promises we made to shed those extra pounds, call our parents at least once a week, lay off the Cheetos, Ben and Jerry’s, Big Mac’s and fries, and even do a monthly good deed for someone else. But what about our businesses or organizations? What have you resolved to do in 2017 that will make a positive difference in its success this coming year?
Are you freshening up your brand, giving the font a new look and the colors a new swash of paint? Perhaps you’re adding on a tag line that better describes your brand’s value proposition. Or maybe you’re crafting a new marketing strategy that aligns with your goals for the year. Whatever you’re doing to try and boost awareness and sales, make sure that you make optimizing your presence on social media a priority.
If You Look Good, You Feel Good
You know that saying, “if you look good, you feel good?” Well it’s the same with social media. If your social platforms aren’t up to par, then they may fail to give your company or organization the advantage it needs to beat out the competition. Whether you’re on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Pinterest, it’s imperative that you do this:
- Make sure that you have a strong professional presence
- Understand the audience you want to reach
- Know where your audience is in the digital world
- And deliver valuable content that your audience wants, relates to, and can engage with.
Resolve to do This
So, how do you do all of that? Regardless of what social media site or sites you use, consider implementing this list of resolutions into your social tactics for 2017:
1. Review all your company’s or organization’s social media sites to be sure that the bio and contact information is current. You’d be surprised how many businesses have outdated info on their social media sites. No wonder they never get calls.
2. Aggregate all your social content using an editorial calendar (at least one to four weeks ahead of schedule if possible) for all the social sites you use. But leave room for real-time content. You won’t believe how much time and aggravation you will save not having to come up with stories to post at the last minute. Hootsuite offers six suggestions for editorial calendar templates you might want to consider using. Likewise, Hubspot also offers their take on creating and managing content.
3. Make use of a URL management platform such as Bit.ly to track the number of people who are clicking on your posts. This tool is invaluable as it lets you know the value of your content. After all, if people aren’t clicking on it, maybe you should reconsider how you’re getting your message across.
4. Learn and make use of the proper image parameters for various social sites. If you don’t know that a Facebook link post is 1200 pixels x 628 pixels, you might chop off the head of your company’s new president when you publish his picture in a post. And if you don’t understand that Instagram images should be sized differently from Twitter, well, you never know what might get chopped off next. You can find a great infographic that was published by marketing-software-giant Hubspot, which gives you all the top social media site image specs here.
5. Make sure that you’ve fully optimized your brand’s Facebook Page so that your company’s info and website URL are published in the description portion of both the Facebook cover and profile image.
6. Refrain from spamming your Facebook readers. – Don’t publish post after post. Leave at least two to three hours between stories.
7. Manage multiple social media platforms? Use Hootsuite, Buffer, Everypost, or SocialOomph to schedule your content. Not only will these sites automate your stories to publish at the times your followers are online, but they’ll also help streamline and boost your marketing efforts.
8. If you’re on LinkedIn, edit your personal profile so that it has up-to-date information about you, your work, and your accomplishments. It’s also important to include a statement that addresses why people should take notice of you – what differentiates you from the competition. Also, commit to share at least one valuable LinkedIn update daily and comment on updates posted by several of your own followers. If you want to stay in the game and get business, this is how you stay top-of-mind within your network.
9. Most importantly, whatever social media platforms you’re on, remember to put yourself in your followers’ shoes. Don’t just try and sell to them! Provide valuable content that your readers want to learn about and engage with. They’ll pay you back ten-fold for information they can’t get elsewhere.
Now that you know what you can do to help promote and boost your social media presence, what resolutions will you put into place and commit to for 2017?