Social Media 101 with Ben Keighley: Top 10 tips for businesses when it comes to their use of social media

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Top 10 tips for businesses when it comes to their use of social media


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Social Media expert Ben is the founder and Managing Director of Routes 4 Media, a leading London based social media management and strategy agency, as well as a Founding Director of recruitment tech company Socially Recruited.

What are your top 10 tips for businesses when it comes to their use of social media?

1. Set SMART goals early on and constantly review them. These goals need to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. Examples below…

Specific: “We’ve specifically identified the social channel (Instagram) and a metric (click throughrate).”
Measurable: “The click through rate can be measured through Instagram analytics.”
Achievable: “Increase the click through rate by 10% over the next 6 months, not by 1000% in 6 days!”
Relevant: “Our goal will have an impact on our sales, making it very relevant.”
Time-bound: “The goal has to be met by June”

2. Create a content calendar and consider using a cloud-based provider, so that the calendar can be updated and seen by anyone in the team, regardless of where they are.

3. Don’t focus on ‘selling’. Make sure you share varied, engaging content and that the balance of content is not leaning towards promotional posts.

4. Identify your target audiences. Research where your potential customers or followers hang out online e.g. which platforms and then you can figure out how best to reach them.

5. Use paid social advertising. Gone are the days of huge organic social media reach and engagement, now you will have to invest if advertising to get the reach and results that you desire.

6. Try micro-influencer marketing. Regardless of what type of business you are, there is likely to be influencers of whom may be able to benefit your business.

7. Stay active and consistent. A basic point, but a crucial one. All of the world’s top brands are very active and consistent on social media.

8. Get visual! Video and image content is king right now, so make sure you fully utilise them on your channels.

9. Social media links on your website. Be sure to link to all your active social media channels from your website, so that people can easily navigate between them and it also helps with your search engine rankings.

10. Add value through content. Always seek to add value to your followers and not just to gain followers, because when you add value, the followers will naturally increase.

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About the Author

Benjamin Keighley
Social media expert Ben is the founder of social media management company Routes 4 Media. Follow Ben's column for the latest and greatest form the social media world.