In October, I had the awesome opportunity to talk to the OR Society Independent Consultant Network about our use of social media marketing at Bays Consulting. It was really fun to share the story of how we’ve managed to use social media to grow and generate leads since starting my role as Media and Communications Manager in 2018. It caused me to reflect on the immense journey we’ve come on…and a journey we are still taking!
When I started at Bays, the world of social media marketing was completely new to me. Month by month, often through trial and error, I have picked up some useful tips for people starting out their journey using social media for marketing in their business. Here’s some of them:
- Be Visual: Images, emojis, GIFs and videos are just some of the things you can use to grab people’s attention. Did you know Tweets with images are 34% more likely to get retweeted than tweets with no images? (postplanner.com)
- Be Active: Find people in your industry, make meaningful connections and engage with these connections on a regular basis.
- Be Kind: A given really. But tone is a super important element to consider when formulating social media posts. Walking the line between being fun, personable and relatable, yet keeping a corporate image is an art to be mastered.
- Utilise Helpful Tools: Some of the best tools we have come across at Bays include Hootsuite (for scheduling posts), Canva (for creating pretty images and gifs) and Ritetag (to find relevant trending hashtags to include in posts)
- Enter Competitions: Getting involved in competitions can open doors for gaining exposure and making connections with people. If you are a small business and haven’t checked out Theo Paphitis’ ‘Small Business Sunday’ award yet, take a look – it’s a great place to start!
- Get Stuck in: Get started. It’s a simple as that. It will be a journey of trial and error, and the only way to figure out what is and isn’t working is to simply get started and stuck in. What are you waiting for?
Abbie Jenkins