I was one of three e-marketing speakers at the Harrisburg Business Women’s Luncheon this past Tuesday. With just over ten minutes to speak on the topic of social media, I knew there would more questions than answers. I asked the attendees to write questions on an index card, in case I did not have a chance to respond during the meeting.
Due to the volume of questions and my descriptive responses, I have made this into a two-part post! If your question isn’t answered here, please stay tuned next week for the rest.
What is the best way to get started on social media marketing?
Start simple by choosing the right media for your business. Remember, some social media channels are better for consumers and others are better for B2B. Decide your target audience and pick the channel that would be best for communicating your message. Let’s say that you decide that Facebook is best for your business. Start by building a “like” page (if you have a personal account; if not, you will need to get one). Once your page is built, begin trying to get fans of the page. You want to “build your stadium” with this step then “keep them in their seats” with valuable content.
Again, start with just one medium and master it before trying to launch out into everything all at once.
How many times per day it is recommended to post on Facebook and Twitter?
Great question!
For Facebook: If you have an audience of at least 25 to 50 fans, I would start with one message per day (during the time of day your audience will likely be on social media sites). Monitor and track engagement. If your fans are interacting with the majority of your postings, you can likely add more. I recommend one to two posting per day with a maximum of four per day for a highly engaged, high volume number of fans. Two important items to remember: Be consistent (if you only post once/week, be sure you aim to post the same time and day) and be sure your content is valuable to your audience.
For Twitter: That will depend on your audience, influence, and community involvement. It’s common to Tweet up to 10 times per day, but you have to have a purpose for your content. (Not posting just to ‘post’). I would recommend setting time aside to have a conversation with your audience by:
- Posting authentic content and sticking around to see the engagement (if any)
- Generating conversation by re-tweeting or commenting on others’ posts (through mentions, hashtags, etc). Stay put and actually “talk” to your audience
Be following my like page, on Tuesday, for more information as I plan to ask my audience for feedback on this question!
I also promised to include more information on how to use the Advanced Search tool on LinkedIn. Clickhere for instructions on this and how to create friend lists on Facebook.
Remember, the rest of the questions will be posted next Sunday! As always, if you have social media questions, feel free to leave them here or email me at: info@centralpawebster.com.
