Social Media is the Worst: Six Ways to Make it Easier for Your Business
As a society, we tend to collectively agree that social media is awful. And yet it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. If you own a business, odds are good that at some point someone has told you that:
You have to be on social media,
You need to have a social media presence, and
You must spend time fighting the algorithm in order to be a successful business.
But what if you don’t want to?
*Looks left*
*Looks right*
Well, you don’t have to.
Easy. Blog over. The end.
Alright, we’ll admit it may not feel that simple. But now that we’ve established that you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, what are your options if you know there are potential customers who need your services… that you could reach on social media?
Three Tips to Get Started on Social Media
Pick a Platform, Any Platform
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to do all of the social media platforms. Pick the one where you feel like the bulk of your potential customers are (or where whomever is hassling you to get on social is hanging out — you know you’ll have at least one follower). You could also pick the one that gives you the least amount of the ick.
Complete Your Business Profile
You want all of your business information and images to be noticeably different from your personal profile (if you have one). For some platforms, that means having a business account or clicking into the business profile to post as the business. This is also an excellent time to make sure your hours, phone number, and services are listed properly and your logo is clearly visible.
Smash that Follow Button
Follow a handful of businesses that you like or that are adjacent to your business. For example, some shops near yours in the same plaza or other business owners you know.
Three Tips to Ease the Pain
Make Consistency Easy
You want it to be as easy as possible to post consistently. Pick one day a week that you are going to post and make sure you log in at least once in the next two days after posting to check for comments and questions. One post a week is better than zero posts a week! Did four posts in a month work out okay? Next month, increase that to six.
Also, feel free to schedule your posts ahead of time! Just make sure that if something happens in current events that could make your content appear untimely, you remember to reschedule your posts accordingly.
Post What You Like
You should enjoy your social media accounts. Post about the things you like about work, what you or your team does best, or behind the scenes looks at what makes your business different. Don’t stress so much about what you should post; think about what kind of posts you would like to see from a similar business.
Invite People to Follow You
Let your customers know you are on social media and encourage them to follow you for updates. Include links to your social accounts on your website, in your emails, and on physical signs in your location. Soon enough it will feel less like soul-sucking social media and more like a special space you’ve created for the people who love your business.
Social media is somewhat annoying, but it’s not as complicated as it seems. Take all that energy you’ve been channeling into complaining about the algorithm or our increasingly-online lives and channel it into something worthwhile — sharing your business with the people who care about it.