The role of Social Media for Your Business
On Saturday I took the kids out to a nearby pub to listen to live music. The sun was out and our friends could meet us there. It was amazing. The artist blew our minds. It was only him, his unassuming guitar and a great system. He would create a loop at the beginning of every song. In effect creating his own background music right there on the spot. Now I know many artists do that, but this just added to the ambience. He only sang cover songs, but he made each song his own. I mean the range… There was Barry White, Ed Sheeran, Neil Diamond, The Killers. However, each song was his own. Anyone that knows me, knows I love live music. I also love supporting other businesses or artists. Imagine my horror when I couldn’t find him on social media…
Don’t get me wrong. Social media is only a tool. The pub staff could not tell me his name. They directed me to their social media. I checked both their Facebook and Instagram accounts. No mention of who he was. Luckily my friend went to ask his name and I found him on Spotify and YouTube. However, I had taken some videos of his performance and wanted to tag him.
Although he had a personal Facebook page, it felt a bit stalkerish to friend him with his personal profile. Now if he had a Facebook page or Instagram page I would have been able to help spread his incredible talent and support him.
Social Media is Only a Tool, not a Toolkit
Now don’t get me wrong. You will never hear me say that you should base your business on social media. Actually quite the opposite. For most business models, I would say you would definitely use your website as the base for your information. However… if I want to engage with you and get to know you and who you/your business is, I will find you on social media.
Now that doesn’t mean you have to be on 5 platforms and spend your time crafting and creating ingenious posts and witty comments. Weirdly enough the only platform I found Ben, this amazing artist, who I really hope doesn’t have a day job, was on LinkedIn.
Social media has a lot of negatives. I know… However, it can be good if used in the correct way. It helps you to create a presence in the online world. A world that is growing and becoming the main place for connections. Not a place to keep your content or ground your business in, but rather one that can help you grow those social connections that you are no longer to run into so easily in real life.
So use social media and specifically your favourite platforms as a way to be social and interact with your target market. Whether they are music fans or insomniacs stuck on social media at 3 am.
How do you use social media to it’s fullest?
I love the fact that the Highlander cattle that live in the little back lane down the road from us in our tiny little village in rural Derbyshire have their own Facebook and Instagram accounts. Make sure to keep an eye on these beauties too. We just love them.
How do you do it then? Here are some easy things to do.
- React to your friend’s posts, love them or show engagement in more than a like (as this shows algorithms that you made an effort).
- Engage in their content. Click that link to their blog post. If you are not majorly interested, scan through it, or even just click through it and stare at the screen for a bit…
- Share what they posted if it’s something half-interesting.
- When you share something, tell your audience why you are sharing it. Engage others by tagging them if possible so that your post has a further reach
- Show the personal side of your business on social media. Do a ‘behind the scenes’ post every now and then. People like people.
- Last, but not least. Use it to see what people are looking for. Maybe your business can address their needs, or even better, maybe you can create content around it and answer peoples questions. Questions like:
If you want to get more social on social media, why not sign up to Instinctive Living’s new email list and we’ll send you the link to an amazing group where you can not only learn more about setting up your social media business page on Facebook, we also provide each other with social support.
Also, remember, there are more platforms than you might think. Something for everyone. Here are only a few of them that might not always think about.
Maybe I missed some, so let me know if you can think about any more. You’ll hopefully be able to find me on your favourite platform, so make sure to say hi…
First published on Instinctive Living on 5 Aug 2020 as The Role of Social Media for Your Business.
