Social Media Marketing! Enterprise – Barnsley College

What is Social Media Marketing? Social Media marketing is when a business decides to advertise on different social media platforms to increase the customers that they can reach. Millions of people use Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis and businesses have realised that it is a good way of advertising to a lot of people that they wouldn’t normally reach, such as people in different parts of the country or even worldwide. There are plenty of Social Media platforms that businesses advertise on: Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and YouTube.

Tips for Twitter! Twitter is a very fast paced social media platform, people are posting daily at all times of the day. If you are new on twitter, you might be finding it hard to link with the right people or finding it hard to get people to follow you in general. One way to find the right people to follow is to follow people that are relevant to what you do. Twitter has a separate webpage that is called Twellow (https://www.twellow.com/splash/) This is where countless lists are created that hold different people in every category. Check these lists and follow people that are relevant to you and hopefully they will follow back – if not send them a quick tweet and they might follow you back then.

Tips for Twitter! A simple information tweet: One thing that all Twitter users should do – Check previous posts! There will be some posts on your twitter that have had more retweets and more favourites than the others. Are these posts any different to the ones that you usually post? Most businesses see that people are more engaging when it comes to posts with videos and images on them. If this is the case, post more of them! If your followers like posts with links in, be sure to post a link at least twice a week. This way you are keeping them interested in what you are posting. Also think of a special hashtag for your business posts such as #BarnsleyIsBrill, people will search for these and your posts will appear! A tweet with visual interaction:

Tips For Facebook! The best thing for a business on Facebook are the insights! On the insights tab you can see everything about the things you post form how many people have seen your post and the split between genders. You can see what your audience will engage with and then you can post specific things that those people are going to like. Again, just like twitter try varied posts. Users on Facebook also engage more with posts that contain videos and pictures. But this will depend on the things you are posting, check your insights and post more of what the people want to see!

Tips For Facebook! Most people on Facebook post at standard times which are known as “peak times” this means that people’s newsfeeds get full and they often miss most of the things that appear on there. One tip that we have found useful is posting out of hours, such as posting after 5pm on a night. This way all of the ‘peak’ posts have gone and it is just the odd person that is posting. Due to less people posting there is more chance that your customers will actually see your post. Another thing that people like on Facebook is when there are ‘sign-offs’ on posts. A sign off is when you’ve posted something write your name after the tweet. People like this because it seems more personal and like you are connecting directly with them.

General Tips! For both sites there are tools where you can schedule posts. If you know you’re going to have a busy week then schedule your posts so people don’t miss out on the things you want to share. For Twitter: https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/ This will allow you to choose the date/time and content that you want posting. You can schedule as many tweets as you like and they’ll post as and when. Its better for people who have busy weeks but still want to engage with their customers. On Facebook when you write a post there will be an option to publish it with a drop down arrow at the side. If you click on the drop down arrow it will bring up a date and time box. From this you will choose the date and time that you want it to post and you will be notified once it has done so.