Complete All Aspects of Your Social Media Profiles

Social media accounts that are only partially completed are hard to take seriously because they automatically appear less professional. Choose a name or handle that easily identifies you and your business, and take the extra few minutes to thoughtfully fill out the “About You” information. Use your logo or a tasteful portrait of yourself for the avatar. First impressions are important and lasting.

Don’t Confuse Your Clients With Multiple Profiles on the Same Network

While it’s a good strategy to have a presence on all the social media platforms that most relate to your business, managing multiple profiles on the same network is cumbersome and may not be worth the extra effort. If you choose to keep your personal and professional personas separate on social media, be sure you’re consistent with the types of content you share via your business profile so your clients know which account to follow.

You Are What You Share

Use common sense when you share. What you put out there becomes a representation of you or your business in the social media landscape. But don’t let this stop you from making yourself known on topics that matter. Having no voice pertaining to your business and industry could be worse than a few people disagreeing with you. Be proud of who you are and what you represent as a business while staying aware of the image you’re crafting as a result.

Social Is About Relationships

Businesses use social media to both nurture existing relationships and develop new ones by sharing useful content. How often should you engage with your online “friends”? OutboundEngine automates updates to clients’ social media accounts about a dozen times a month for each of the big three networks — Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. This keeps fresh content front and center while freeing up our clients’ time. Plus each client is still able to post on their own, and they’re encouraged to do so.

Prioritize Your Networks

It may be tempting to try every new social media platform that sprouts up, but it’s dangerous to spread your marketing efforts too thin. To start, focus on the three top social platforms — LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Providing quality content via these outlets has a broad reach that’s worth your time and effort, no matter your industry.

Interact With Your Audience

Providing helpful content is nice, but it’s not all social media has to offer. Interacting with your followers is also key. See a question or comment on Twitter that you can answer? Send the person a friendly reply! Looking for recommendations? Ask your Facebook audience. Did you write a helpful, industry-specific post on your blog? Share it with your LinkedIn network. Build connections online just like you would in person.

Don’t Be Needy

Don’t ask your Twitter followers to “please retweet,” and don’t beg your Facebook friends to “like” your page. Instead, get creative. You can still accomplish those tasks, but you’re better off earning them with helpful, shareworthy content.

Avoid Poor Grammar and Spelling

Few things reduce your credibility as quickly as grammar mistakes and spelling errors can. To help avoid them, prep your social media updates in a document or spreadsheet and have a colleague proofread before you hit “share.”

Be Visual

Photos and videos can boost your social media strategy. Tweets that feature images earn 150 percent more retweets, are favorited 89 percent more, and lead to 18 percent more clicks. If your industry relies heavily on visuals (like real estate or interior design), consider adding social media platforms based on visual engagement, like Pinterest and Instagram, to your marketing repertoire.

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