Social Media Marketing

This week on the Bright Ideas series presented by Acuity Brands®, Catherine is joined by Ali Smith, the Manager of Social Media.

Social media is not just sharing pictures of your food and watching funny cat videos: it is an important tool to market your company and reach your customers. However, running a corporate social media profile is very different from running a personal one. It’s important to know how to maximize organic posts on these platforms before starting into any paid promotions.

The first and most important part of corporate social media marketing is to recognize that it will take more work than one might initially expect. It’s ideal to have at least one person fully dedicated and committed to the task, in order to research thoroughly and drive the best engagement possible.

 

BEST PRACTICES FOR RUNNING A CORPORATE SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILE

Far more effort goes into a corporate social media presence nowadays, far beyond just creating posts. Account holders need to put a lot of research into understanding…

• Who is your audience?
• What platforms do they use?
• When are they online?
• What are the best times to post?
• What kinds of content do they engage with the most?

From there, users need to develop a variety of content specific to those personas across those different channels.

 

BEST PRACTICES FOR CREATING CORPORATE SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT

To amplify their company’s corporate media presence, a corporate profile owner needs to first begin with good copy. Users should try to engage their audience in as few words as possible. Why? People don’t read social media like a book – they scroll through it.

Site visitors skim quickly and are most often snagged by attractive visuals or particular words that capture attention within the first five seconds.

Those visuals may actually be the most important piece of a social media post, because it is the hook that will reel in a viewer. It needs to balance well with the message being delivered; and, ideally, it won’t be a bland stock photo or an image with a white background that blends into the social platform.

When posting videos (which are more likely to garner attention due to their moving colors), users also should remember that many platforms have a running time limit– some as low as one minute. Videos less than 30 seconds are recommended, and hooking viewers by putting key content within the first ten seconds is ideal. 

Additionally, it’s important to tweak these social media posts or assets based on the nuances of each individual platform.

Which platform should you start with? Well, that depends on the audience you’re looking for. Corporate social media users don’t need to try and tackle all channels at once if they’re just starting out. Begin with a platform that you think will engage your viewers the most, and start building from there.

 

THE DIFFERENT NUANCES OF EACH SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM

Facebook

Facebook is a fairly casual platform – playful, even. It’s a good place to highlight company culture and individual people on-staff. “People love people,” so make sure to highlight any partnerships or any team projects you might be forming. Humanize your company and share fascinating stories there.

Twitter

Twitter is more of a ‘breaking news’ platform than just a strictly social platform. It’s a great place to interact with followers, but also to promote your content and discuss industry topics. Social post turnover is very high on Twitter– tweets come and go at almost lightning speed.

LinkedIn

Like Twitter, LinkedIn is a good place for company news – but it is a far more professional platform and was designed with the explicit purpose of building corporate networks. Content should reflect the professional nature of the audience and should be motivated by a friendly desire to help solve problems– not sell things. Additionally, unlike Twitter’s real-time snappy nature, LinkedIn posts are often shared or re-shared by LinkedIn days or weeks after they were first published.

 

THE UNTAPPED ASSET: EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT

Lastly, before moving into paid ads on social media, it’s also extremely helpful to get employees excited and onboard as well. Word of mouth is an incredibly effective engine, and kicking off an ambassador program that encourages your employees to share company content can help your brand go a long way.

If somebody is looking to engage more with their company’s profile on social media, the first thing they should do is make sure their personal profile is up to date and professional. That means a profile picture in work-appropriate clothing, without any major distracting features like animals or strange facial expressions.

Additionally, most social media platforms also have the option to add a background image to user profiles. This is a great option to take advantage of. It’s a personality-sharing or even branding opportunity.

Users should also make sure their profile summary is up to date: that’s the key place to sell their personality and skills (not their products, mind you).

Be sure to follow Acuity Brands on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Youtube for more! Next week, the Bright Ideas series will dive into some new and innovative marketing tools that brands are starting to use to help users virtually engage with their products.

 

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