When you are starting a new business, there is so much to do and so much to learn and, sometimes, you don’t know what you don’t know. We’ve asked our expert team to give you their top five tips for new businesses. Some tips are from their own experience as business owners and some are from their own area of expertise.
This week, it’s Grace Collyer’s turn, to give you her top five tips for Social Media.
Tip 1: Network
There is so much value in networking! Something which I learnt after around a year of attempting to get my business off the ground. As someone who works alone from home, getting out there and networking with like-minded business owners has transformed my business by having great relationships and even friendships with some.
Going at it alone can be lonely. But by participating in regular networking events that are local to you, you can gain so much knowledge from your peers, form relationships, and improve your personal development through presenting yourself.
Plus, you’ll likely make some business from it too!
Have a browse online at your local networking groups and give them a go.
Tip 2: Read Business Books
Another way to gain knowledge around the world of business is by reading books, particularly ones written by entrepreneurs. Two of my favourites are Grace Beverley’s Working Hard, Hardly Working, and Rob Moore’s Life Leverage. They’re both ideal for new business owners, and are filled with actionable top tips and tricks to be more productive and smarter with your time.
Tip 3: Decide which Social Media Platforms are Right for your Business
Now to the social media part! Chances are, your business does need to be active on social media. Most of them do. But which platforms should you choose? I firstly recommend putting your efforts into one or two platforms, instead of spreading your efforts across them all. Think about the demographics for each platform and if you’re target market are on them. The platforms in a nutshell:
Facebook: ideal for locally-based businesses, great for building customer relationships. Biggest downfall or difficulty in organic growth.
Instagram: suitable for any visual and creative businesses, and it targets a heavily young, female demographic. If you work in lifestyle, fashion, beauty or food it’s a great tool. Or those in construction can showcase their projects.
LinkedIn: it’s “corporate” reputation is changing, with more and more B2C businesses using it and sharing more personable and authentic content. It’s ideal for almost any type of business/business owner, and with only 1% of users posting frequently, the exposure is huge.
Twitter: a hub for trends and news, and creating a community within a niche. If you have the capacity to be “in the know” with relevant trends and topical events which you can also speak on,
this could work for you.
Tip 4: Schedule your Social Media Posts in Advance
A good consistency of posts is 3 per week. Perhaps even 2 if you’re struggling. It’s much better to share less posts and prioritise the quality of the posts, as opposed to putting out “any old thing” every day. Something which will really help you with your social media content is using a social media management tool to schedule your posts in advance. This means you can spend a block of time creating your content for the next week or fortnight, then you don’t need to worry about it for a little while! Buffer is an online tool where you can add up to 3 social media accounts for free.
GET SUPPORT WITH YOUR PEOPLE
