CRE Expert – Social Media

Every month we feature an industry Expert who answers some questions about topics related to commercial real estate. This month Tara Rushmer, Social Media Manager and Graphic Designer, brings us some great social media tips for new businesses. So if you are a business owner, and you’ve just moved to a new location, these recommendations will really be of assistance.

Social Media Tips for New Businesses

• Learn how social media works
  • Social media moves quickly so make sure that your business is active and posting consistently.
  • Talk with your followers, not at Create relationships, thought-provoking posts and conversations. Don’t “sell”.
  • Post original content. (content you’ve made yourself and not copied from somewhere else) Graphics, photos and short videos (1-2 minutes) work best.
    • As with any form of marketing, make sure that your pages and posts look professional and follow your brand. That doesn’t mean you can’t use your smart phone for pictures and videos if you can’t invest in a high quality camera
    • Canva.com, Studio.com, and Brandr.com are good resources to create quality graphics.
  • Remember the 80/20 rule: use just 20 percent of your content to promote your business, and dedicate 80 percent to content that really interests your audience and engages them in conversations while still relating to your industry.
  • Respond to questions and comments promptly and use social media as a customer service tool.

• Do your research and pick which social media platform(s) to use for your business
  • Learn about the different social media platforms and how they are used.
    • Social Media Examiner is a good resource
  • Who will your target market be and which platform(s) will help you reach them best?
    • Facebook
      • 22-54 age range
      • Generally works the best for most businesses
    • Instagram
      • 16-34 age range
      • Visual – only photos and short videos.
    • Twitter
      • 16-40 age range
      • More popular in bigger cities
      • Bigger brands generally have better success, with the exception of news sources.
      • Great for events when you have an event hashtag
    • LinkedIn
      • 22-45 age range
      • Great for Business to Business
    • Pinterest
      • 16-35 age range.
      • Female dominated.
      • Visual
      • Great for online sales
    • Snapchat
      • 16-30 age range
      • Visual – only photos and short videos
    • Google+
      • Not great for social media specifically, but using it can help to boost your SEO (search engine optimization) or the ranking of your website in a Google search
      • Also Google reviews may be the first thing read about your business, so make sure to investigate for yourself and respond to comments.
    • Social media takes time and energy. Set yourself up for success by starting with a manageable load. I suggest you choose one or two platforms to start with and make sure you learn how to use those platforms well.
    • Your networks should work synergistically to help you achieve your goals and not just link to each other.
  • Make sure your social media plan is integrated into your overall marketing approach for your business.
    • Determine your overall goals for converting social media followers into customers and customers into followers. What types of promotions/contests would help with these goals?
    • Make sure business cards, flyers, billboards, brochures, commercials, e-mail blasts, etc. show that you are on social media by including the appropriate icon
  • Write social media guidelines and strategy
    • This is very important if your pages will be managed by multiple people/employees
      • When will you respond to comments and questions, especially any negative ones?
      • What is the “voice” of your business?
      • Any off-limit words or topics?
      • How often will you post?
    • Create a Social Media Calendar
      • You can schedule your posts in advance through free programs like hootsuite or on Facebook itself, so that your posts are automatically posted on the day/time you pre-selected.
        • This prevents you from having to remember to post multiple times a week. As, you can just schedule them out at the beginning of the week or month.
      • Plan 10-15 posts for each platform before you start.
        • Go over them with your team and/or socially savvy friends to get their opinions
      • The best way to guarantee consistency is to incorporate social media into your daily routine. Block out time on your calendar for managing your social media accounts.
      • As with most things, maintaining your social media pages typically take more time and planning than you’d initially expect.
    • Launch Day
      • If you’ve planned well, it’s just about execution and observation.
      • Start engaging and posting
      • This is a first chance to show off your new business
        • Introduce people to what the business is and get people excited. Keep it short but still provide enough information so people understand.
      • Invite your friends/family to follow you
    • Post – Launch
      • Stay active, interact with fans, and grow your pages
      • Get to know your followers. Are they who you expected them to be? If not, how might this affect your original social media strategy? Make adjustments where necessary.
      • Go over your results and trends quarterly so you can see how you are doing, who your followers are, which posts have had the best results, if your pages are growing.
      • Boost results with social advertising
        • Once you are up and running start bringing people in through paid advertising
        • I highly suggest this. For around $50-$100 a month you can target potential clients with incredible precision.
          • Geographic location, age, gender, interests, etc.
        • Final Thoughts
          • Interact with your audience. Social is about relationships: businesses use social media to both nurture existing relationships and develop new ones by sharing useful content.
          • Create a community and conversations around your brand
          • Only post about things related to your company and industry
          • Give an inside look into your business. This will make fans want to become customers and will make people want to work for you.
          • Inject your personality into your presence and your brand
          • Be transparent to gain trust
            • If you run into an issue that causes a bunch of criticism on social media, the worst thing you can do is try and hide from it. Rather than delete comments, try and respond the best you can, and don’t become defensive. Work to remedy the issue. Your fans will see that you care about them and you want to resolve issues. It will make them trust you more.
          • Stop sharing the exact same message again and again. It’s lazy and in poor taste to take the same social post or kind of social post and continue to share it over and over again on the same networks. If you want to revisit previous content, get creative with your delivery and reword it or use a new image rather than repeatedly reposting the same stale message.
          • Share without expectations. Just because you’ve started putting time and effort into social media doesn’t mean you’ll see big results right away. Similar to starting out with your business, your reach may be slow at first until you make connections, build a reputation and develop a strategy. Consistency and patience pay off.
          • Don’t fixate on the numbers. It’s painfully easy to get caught up in the numbers game, but don’t. While having lots of followers can be good, it really depends on the quality of those relationships. If you have 1,000 followers that are all spam accounts or aren’t your target market, your messages are being delivered to an audience that doesn’t truly exist or won’t benefit from your social media efforts.
          • Have fun! Just because you’re using social media for your small business doesn’t mean you should stop having fun with it! Try new ideas, post different types of content, and always keep your messages conversational. You’ll quickly learn that you can enjoy this part of your job.