Social Media Best Practices

Social media offers businesses massive opportunities. It’s a low-cost way to promote your business, engage consumers, and maximize your company’s online presence. However, that doesn’t mean that branded social media accounts are either easy to manage or a quick solution for creating new business. For social media to be truly successful with a consumer base, businesses have to strike the right balance when posting content. Here are some tips for savvy social media practices.

What should you be posting?
As a small business owner, you need to be focused on what your clients, consumers, and audience want to read. It may seem like a smart decision to post only promotional content, but consumers quickly tune out material that is just advertising.

Post content that stands out. Explore what your customers want to see on their social media timelines and utilize that to generate buzz around your brand.
• Consider linking to news posts that relate to your industry, even if they don’t specifically concern your business.
• Post funny illustrations or memes to entertain your followers and encourage them to share the content.
• Don’t be afraid to ask your followers questions – direct engagement is encouraged.

What kind of tone should you aim for?
Tone can be complicated. You don’t want to sound too academic, but you don’t want to sound amateurish either. You need to strike a balance between professional and fun.

• Include expert detail and industry insights into your posts without overwhelming the laid back flow of social media.
• Find a tone that sounds more conversational than educational.
• End some of your posts with a question to engage readers and avoid sounding preachy.

How often should you be posting?
The timing of social media posting is critical. Once again, it’s about balance.

• Posting too often can lead to desensitization – or worse, unsubscribes.
• At the same time, it’s important to post regularly. Show consumers that they can count on you to be timely and dependent.
• Respond to questions quickly, but keep your feed to crucial, powerful, posts.

Readers should consider your business as a trusted source of information and updates about your business and industry. With the right balance of tone, content, and timing, your social media pages can be great outlets for customer engagement and growth.

OnDeck is a Google Ventures-backed company with an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. The company offers small business loans nationwide to over 725 different industries. For more information about OnDeck small business loans, click here.