As with most things, social media marketing efforts for businesses can start slow, and it’s hard to know where your efforts are best suited. Luckily, there’s an element of science to it – at least for the initial setup to get your business started.

This blog post is going to be a broad approach to starting a business social media marketing strategy, if you’d like to discuss specific ways social media marketing can help your business, then come to our FREE event – Social Media 101, where we’ll break down how social media can work for your business. Or we provide a free social media audit for brands looking to get their business out there on social media platforms.

But worry not, there are some immediate steps you can take to get started, and some questions you should ask yourself before posting.

Step 1. Create those pages!

This needs to happen RIGHT NOW before someone else jumps in and takes your business name. It’s imperative that you have those pages created as soon as possible. This simply means nailing down the platforms you want to be present on, setting up the page with the name, and possibly a profile photo and cover photo.

If this is still too technical or general, let me break it down further.

You’re going to need (at the very least) a Facebook, Google +, and Twitter account, and depending on your target audience it could also include Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, and LinkedIn. Use the closest name to your business as possible, and add your logo as the profile photo.

Step 2. Make sure contact information is available

Even though you don’t yet have content on your pages, it’s important to get basic information up there, such as contact info, and possibly a blurb about your business. This means that if someone does find your pages, they aren’t left out in the cold.

Make sure contact information is correct, and visible, and if a platform requires you to verify your website, address, or phone number, do this as soon as possible.

Step 3. Take a step back and think about it

Ok this is where things get hard, but I promise you, if you take the time to think about it, and maybe talk to some experts, you can set up a social strategy that fits your brand before you put any content out there.

The first thing to consider is what you’re wanting to get out of social media. Is it to sell a product? Is it to get information out there? Is it to address a gap in the market? Whatever it is, write it down.

Then, how do you want this message to sound? Really hammering down a voice for your business before it steps online is imperative to a successful social media marketing strategy. You need to decide if your brands voice is friendly, professional, funny, serious, familiar, distant, or anything else before you go out there and say something that doesn’t fit this image.

Then you need to decide what kind of content are you intending to put up, and how frequently. As a general rule I encourage businesses to post, at the very minimum, twice a week, and rotating out different kinds of content. It can be tempting to post product after product, you are, after all, proud of your products and business. However, it’s important for the audience that they get a multitude of value out of your Facebook, rather than solely sales posts. Try putting in an article every now and then that is related to your business. Or if you want to see the funny side of business, memes always do well on Facebook. Video content, self-written blogs, and (if you’re a local business) local events are always a fan favourite.

Try to be daring and different with your strategy, but always, ALWAYS make sure you are thinking of your audience first, and your product second.

If anything about setting up social media marketing for businesses seems unclear, come in and chat, or send us an email. If you’re more hands on, our FREE social media event is right around the corner, and we’ll be able to give you some specific advice for your business.