Social Media Posts - Help

[Robert Groom]

Hi,

I'm looking for a bit of advice, we're a business cost reduction company and as we cover the whole of the UK, I'm trying to get our sales guys to use social media more in order for us to reach a larger audience.

I've scanned so many different sites that give you tips on this and tips on that and I'm not sure what to believe so I was wondering if anyone on here had techniques that work soundly for them? These are just normal Twitter or Facebook posts, I'm not looking for paid advertising yet.

I've seen sites that say make sure you have a picture on every tweet, one or two hashtags on each tweet and also make sure you @ people in your tweets.

The issue I have is that by the time I've added a picture, added two hashtags and a couple of @'s there doesn't seem to be any characters left for the message I want to convey.

Anyone have any ideas?

Rob,

 

[Spock]

I would suggest your niche is not suitable for facebook, and maybe not twitter either. You could well be wasting your time with those. BUT you could hit the jackpot with LinkedIn as that is business/company focussed. I think I would spend all my time marketing on there instead.

 

[fisicx]

Are you sure this is the right way to do things? Are your potential clients using social media to look for services such as yours?

Engaging existing threads on SM may be more beneficial.

 

[myfairworld]

I've seen sites that say make sure you have a picture on every tweet, one or two hashtags on each tweet and also make sure you @ people in your tweets.

Well that advice is a good way to make sure no one reads your tweets or to make them even stop following you! Why? Well because it is SO boring for the reader. Please note I'm not saying don't use hashtags or @people but use them when it makes sense and happens to be particularly relevant and very rarely all in one tweet.

Social media is supposed to be 'social', it is a way you get to be on good terms, even friendly, with customers and potential customers as well as convey information. So there is a definite place for the occasional tweet that comments on it being a lovely day or you (or the staff member tweeting) had a great meal out last night or that it is your birthday or whatever. People don't want to read all day long about your personal exploits but the occasional spontaneous tweet of this nature makes you 'real' and helps people to relate to you. More focused tweets need to give useful information or comments, if not why will people keep reading them? Photos? Well yes if the photo is relevant and helpful to the message. My business mostly, but by no means always, uses photos on twitter because it is a retail business and we sell rather nice things which make for good photos which may be genuinely of interest to potential customers.

Facebook? Well I do occasionally use hashtags on Facebook but only very very occasionally and I tend to feel irritated when coming across Facebook posts which are full of hashtags and such especially when the organisation is doing this in every post. You've more space to convey information on Facebook so convey it.

I have absolutely no idea if either Facebook or Twitter is of use to a business such as yours but at least focus on your message rather than forcing in hashtags etc for the sake of it.

 

[beasty]

The best social media has interesting content for its potential customers, i am not sure how many people looking to save on their commercial energy bills or minimise their company tax liablity are going on to Twitter to read random tweets on this topic?

It just seems like the wrong way to try and engage with your target market

 

[emmabjones]

You should search for influencers in your niche on Twitter and communicate with them. Ask them relevant questions, leave a rely under some of their posts, etc. This way their audience will notice you very easy and you might even find clients.
If you don't want to invest money in Facebook ads, you should search for relevant groups where you can share your most interesting and good looking posts. This is probably the only way to promote a post without spending money (in case your business page doesn't have 10K+ likes).

 

[Balanced HQ]

As has been said above, its not about broadcasting, its about finding where your target clients are online and how best to approach them. Without delving deep into who your ideal customer/client is your efforts will be wasted.

 

[TLMartin]

My business mostly, but by no means always, uses photos on twitter because it is a retail business and we sell rather nice things which make for good photos which may be genuinely of interest to potential customers.

Hi. I'm curious on this.... I have an online shop and would like to promote products with a photo.... but how do you get around explaining about the product... yes if everyone knows the product a price may just be needed
But what if your product is different and needs you to point out some benefits of it.... what do you do then because of Facebooks 20% text limitation?

thanks

 

[fisicx]

Sell the benefit not the product.

Don't sell hairspray on Facebook, sell shiny healthy hair.

 

[TLMartin]

Oh I agree.... I always look at the benefit route, but sometimes with benefits you have to highlight the risks the benefit solves... that they often have their heads buried in the sand about
(or at least with my current promotion lol)

 

[myfairworld]

but how do you get around explaining about the product... yes if everyone knows the product a price may just be needed
But what if your product is different and needs you to point out some benefits of it.... what do you do then because of Facebooks 20% text limitation?

Well if you are simply putting a post on twitter, i.e. tweeting, essentially you can't though you can get quite good at saying a lot about a product in a few words (bearing in mind that on twitter you don't bother with things like punctuation). But essentially as fisicx says you try to sell the benefit in the tweet and hope this encourages the customer to go to the website or come into the shop or even to look at a Facebook and a lot of tweets do actually 'take' you to Facebook where people have more space to explain. Part of my stock doesn't need much explaining e.g. a beautiful pair of earrings is a beautiful pair of earrings so the photo counts for a great deal on twitter.

If you are looking at Facebook Ads, or promoted posts, rather than just posts on your page's timeline well they can be tricky to construct. But basically it is about intriguing the potential customer enough to get them to explore further.

N.B. I would not use twitter if I wasn't running a business but as I am there anyway I have been sufficiently 'intrigued' by photos & tweets to explore further and buy or get involved.

 

[Robert Groom]

Thanks to everyone that is commenting, there's a lot of food for thought and some great ideas so thank you very much.

Although we don't purely use social media for advertising, it is there to get peoples attention I suppose.

Thanks for all the ideas, keep them coming

Rob