Manage social media

Business Victoria

Business Victoria
Business Victoria 20 May 2023

Today, most businesses use social media to promote their brand, products and services. However, managing different social media channels, such as Facebook and Instagram, can be challenging.

Here are a few tips to help you manage your social media so you promote your business without harming your brand.

Monitor and listen

Being active on social media doesn’t always mean talking to others. Listening to and monitoring online conversations is also important.

  • It helps you spot opportunities to connect with others, and to offer help and advice.
  • It alerts you to problems or concerns affecting your brand, such as customer complaints. The sooner you spot a problem, the more quickly you can deal with it.

Deal with criticism and complaints

Many businesses are scared to join social networks because they think people might say something negative about them. But if someone is unhappy with your business or products, they might complain on social media whether you’re on it or not.

If you’re active on social media, you’ll be more aware of what’s being said about your brand, positively or negatively. This means you can respond to negative situations more quickly.

Manage negative situations

Here are some tips to help you manage a potentially negative situations online:

  • Acknowledge the person’s question, concern or criticism. Respond quickly and politely.
  • If you don’t have all the information you need to deal with the issue, let the person know you’ll look into it right away and get back to them as soon as possible. Or give them some other information they might find helpful.
  • Be professional, friendly and understanding. Try to imagine how the customer might be feeling. And remember – your behaviour is a reflection of your brand!

Schedule your content

Social media marketing takes time and effort if you want to do it properly. Try to:

  • engage with your audience regularly
  • listen, monitor, and respond, and
  • add value.

Consider tools such as Salesforce and Hootsuite, which can help you publish and schedule your content and manage online conversations.

Know your keywords and improve SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) means creating copy that will rank higher in an online search. Relevant, high-quality content will rank higher in a search. It’s important to publish social media and other content which people are interested in, will link to, and share with others.

SEO requires some understanding of how your customers do online searching. When you’re writing content for your website or social media, ask yourself:

  • What questions and phrases are your customers Googling?
  • What keywords and phrases (search strings) do you want your business to be known for?

From this, create a list of these words and phrases and add them to your content.

Conclusion

Managing social media can seem challenging at times. But if you follow these tips, you can create a successful social media presence for your small business.

Further information

Business Victoria