Facebook
Twitter
There are more than 1.1 million active
Facebook users, with half that number
logging on at any given day. It is an essential
marketing tool as it allows your business to
be available to people in a trusted popular
environment. It has the power of traditional
word of mouth referrals and sets the
stage for you to build a more immediate
relationship.
Companies ignoring Twitter are missing out on a huge potential customer base. Being
followed on Twitter is an incredibly strong signal of online affinity to your business. Twitter
is a buzzing community where people gather in a virtual sense to comment on topics in
which they are interested.
tips for an effective facebook
presence
1. Facebook Pages.
Here your company can build its market
presence, share information, create
loyalty. Be sure to create a business page
after you have created a personal page
and keep them very separate.
2. How to see and be seen.
To show up at the top of as many user
newsfeeds as possible, your content
must be fresh, engaging, current and
compelling. Images, links through to web
pages as well as text are all important
elements.
3. Facebook Groups.
The group feature, as distinct from a
company/organisation page, is useful to
demonstrate your business’ enthusiasm
for a cause and enables you to gather
like-minded people to share ideas.
4. Facebook Promoted Posts.
A great way to kick start your exposure.
It is seen by more people than a regular
post. It must contain strong compelling
content.
5. Facebook Ads.
These are able to reach further than your
fan base audience. It can be targeted
across the entire Facebook user base and
you are able to pre-determine exactly
what demographic profile you wish to
be able to see your ad. Use eye catching
images and compelling language.
tips for a successful twitter account
1. Choose the right username.
The first step in getting started on
Twitter is creating your account. When
creating your account, it’s important
to remember that your username — or
as it’s called on Twitter, your ‘handle’,
is outward facing and will be what the
public uses to identify your business.
Hopefully, your business name will be
available. If not, you’ll want something
that is still relevant to your followers.
2. Create a bio that captures your
business.
Twitter is widely recognised as one of
the most open social networks, in that
most of the communication on the site
takes place in front of people in the
news stream (rather than on individual
pages or groups).
Keep in mind when creating your bio,
more people will find you on Twitter
that have no previous knowledge of
who you are or what you do than on
any other network.
If you had just a few seconds (or in this
case 160 characters) to explain your
business to a complete stranger, what
would you say? That will be your bio.
3. Upload a photo or image that makes
you stand out.
Don’t underestimate the importance
of picking the right picture or image
for your profile. For businesses, the
perfect profile image will be your
company logo.
4. Find the right people to follow.
Who you follow on Twitter will dictate
the type of content you have access to
and the quality of the relationships you’re
able to establish. For this reason, you’ll
want to set up some criteria, based on
your experience, your industry and what
you’re trying to accomplish. People you
want to follow could include professionals
in your industry, other local businesses,
colleagues and even current or potential
customers.
When starting out, the key is to follow
businesses similar to yours that are doing
it well — don’t mimic everything they
tweet, but pay attention to how they are
engaging and the type of content they
share.
5. Get the tools you need.
Like anything else, if you want to be
successful on Twitter, you want to make
sure you have the right tools. There are a
number of tools out there including three
you’ll want to have access to from day
one.
• Monitor your profile on the go with the
Twitter mobile app.
• Schedule tweets and track your reach
with Hootsuite.
• Stay on top of your activity with
Nutshell Mail.
6. Connect your touch points.
A recent study found that 80.5 per cent
of small business websites do not link to
social media networks. Connecting your
website to your Twitter profile will help
drive traffic and organically build your
social following. You’ll also want to make
sure you’re inserting a link into your email
newsletter with a strong call-to-action.
6. Facebook Apps.
These are essential tools, adding extra
dimensions to your Facebook page. You
can feature up to 12 Facebook Apps.
These can be specifically designed for
you or you can utilise plugins to add extra
features to your page.
Multi-Tasking Tools
Managing social media across multiple sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and
others can be troublesome and time consuming. To make this an even easier process,
I recommend using Hootsuite. The complimentary version allows you to manage three
social profiles and schedule one post at a time, across your social profiles.
An extremely good alternative is the Everypost app that allows you to post simultaneously
to multiple social profiles via your smart phone, including scheduling future posts. It’s
available on both the Apple and Google Play stores.
18 Australian Window Association Autumn 2015