How to Create a Social Media Presence in 7 Steps

Afraid to start social media because it seems like such a daunting task and you have no idea where to start? Follow these simple steps to get your business on social media and interacting with an audience that will soon be paying customers.
I promise this will help set you up for success and make maintaining your social media pages a breeze!

Find your branding voice

What personality does your brand have online?
How do you want to be heard and seen online?
Ensure it aligns with your values and business brand!

Identify the Platforms Your Clients are on and What you Should Be on

The options are endless! If you were a retail store that will have a lot of merchandise to show, Facebook would be great to show your followers your new stock. If you were a service-based firm, become an expert in your field on Twitter by providing great content to your followers so you are top of mind when they need your services. The trick is to have a presence, not just an account so only commit to accounts you can support.
Just because your competition is on a social media platform, doesn’t mean you need to be. Be where your customers are the most and would willingly interact with you.

Create the Accounts and Follow/Like Pages that Align with Your Business

Create the social media account. Be sure to properly add profile pictures, descriptions and company information to the pages.
Follow/like other pages that will provide you with good content for you to share and pages that your customers also like. If your customers have business accounts, follow them – show you CAN support them as much as they support you.
I encourage you to link all your accounts through a Hoot Suite account – it is free, allows you to see all of your accounts in one window and allows you to schedule posts to all your accounts ahead of time. However, recently Facebook has penalized users who schedule posts using Hoot Suite. Within the newsfeed, posts used with Hoot Suite do not show properly because it is registered as spam. Funny because Facebook’s many sponsored ads are not seen this way. Anyway, a way to get around this is to use Facebook’s built in scheduling function by following these instructions.

Set Up Your Social Media Process

Identify what content you will share with your followers. Set up Google Alerts for the specific topics if possible so something else is collecting all the content for you. For an example, if you are a retail store specializing in sleep attire, set up Google Alerts to send you articles on good sleep habits. Locate additional resources you will visit for content to share (articles images, quotes, stats, etc.)
Determine your post frequency and schedule for all accounts.
Set up weekly analytics. All of this can be done through Hoot Suite so you can see how each post is performing, what time of day is best to post and how many people are engaging with your posts.

Set Aside 1-3 Hours of Social Media Time A Week

Remember, what you put into social media is what you get out of it. The more time, the more return. At the beginning of the week, plan out your social media for the week.
Find content you want to share from the resources and Google Alerts you just set up. Please note that it is important to not do all self-promotion. You need to mix in information-rich content so it is not a one-way communication street and people are getting more from you than just your weekly specials. A general rule of thumb is 1 in 3 or 4 posts is fine for self-promotion.
Create and schedule posts in Hoot Suite for the week (general schedule: 2-3 posts per day on Twitter, 2-3 posts per day on Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+).

Check Into Each Platform Daily for a Few Minutes

Catch up on interactions to show your followers there is a human behind the account.
Take the time to thank people for sharing or retweeting your post.
Be sure to welcome new followers and likes (Twitter specific). Take a look at their profile and try to make it personalized. People love it when you show interest in them and you will learn new things about your customers.
Give shout outs to good content providers or people who stand out to you.

Review Your Analytic Reports in Hoot Suite