The prospect of using social media platforms can be intimidating, but you must have seen the increasing importance of business presence on these platforms. Various social media platforms are out there, and all of them have somewhat a role in improving your visibility and pulling your target audience to your products and services. Whether you have a start-up or an established business, you will need a social networking site to reach out to your target audience and improve brand awareness. 

The need for investing in networking sites has dramatically gone up in recent years. Even though you are a start-up, you need to build your presence on social media sites. Understanding the importance of social media presence, some young entrepreneurs are borrowing money from direct lenders. Many of you think that social media marketing is all about creating posts and uploading them every other day. 

Getting likes, comments and shares are enough to ensure that your posts are engaging and you are on the right track, but the fact is it is much more about that. It requires proper planning and strategy. If you are looking forward to optimising your social media presence, you need to bear the following dos and don’ts in your mind. Look at them.

Here are the dos

• Set clear objectives

There is no point of publishing posts every other day if you do not know where it would lead you. Almost every business is present on social media sites, but not all of them have the same goals. Some of them may be maintaining a presence on these sites to improve visibility while others would be doing so to generate leads. 

What goals you have will serve the basis for framing strategies. If you do not set goals, you will never be able to know if your social media presence is contributing any benefits to your business. Having goals means having a particular direction in which you will set your efforts. 

• Social listening

Social listening allows you to track your social media accounts for mentions of your brand name and keywords related to your business. Social monitoring and social listening are two different things. 

The former requires you to analyse engagement. However, the latter allows you to get an insight into how people are discussing your brand. You will have to track competitors’ progress and efforts, find pain points of your target audience, what people are talking about on social media platforms, and the context and tone of the message that have a mention of your brand, keywords or products. 

• Post regularly but avoid over posting

When it comes to building a presence on social media sites, you will likely post every day. If you feed your audience engaging posts every day, your audience will not forget you. However, consistent posting does not mean over posting. Otherwise, you will overcrowd your audience with feeds. To begin with, follow these tips:

• Facebook: minimum of three posts per week, maximum one post every day.
• Twitter: minimum of three tweets per day, maximum of 30 tweets. Consider retweet time to time.
• LinkedIn: minimum twice a week, maximum one post every day. 

However, make sure that the post you create is engaging, compelling and spreading the right message to your prospects. Here is an example:

Suppose you are a financial company and offering various types of short-term loans and want to create a post on loans for unemployed.

Case 1: You want to generate leads

Loans for unemployed
Interest Rate – 5.8% Now 4.3%
Offer Valid until 30.8

Case 2: You want to provide informative content

What to consider while choosing for loans for unemployed from direct lenders only

Regular posting is compulsory, but at the same time, you need to ensure if it is justifying your goal. 

Here are the don’ts

• Use all social media platforms just for the sake of it

Many entrepreneurs think that they should feed posts on all social media platforms because it will help them grab more audience. If you are also doing so, you are making a big mistake. You should make your presence on a networking site where your target audience is present. 

For instance, it does not make sense to use Pinterest (commonly popular with fashion and beauty streams) if you are dealing in financial products. You should instead use Facebook and LinkedIn. So, while choosing any platform for the promotion of your products, make sure that your audience is present there, and it justifies the type of content you want to promote it. 

• Ignore questions, comments and messages

You have got followers, so you are all done. Wrong! If you have been receiving questions, comments and messages, you should answer them as immediately as possible. Not responding them on time will tarnish your image and all your effort will go in vain. 

Social media conversation is supposed to be two-way, not one-way. If you respond to the comments and queries of your users, they will get a more delightful experience. 

Now you must have a better understanding of dos and don’ts of social media marketing.