Make sure your business has a complete profile on all seven major social networks. Whether or not you choose to communicate on these social pages regularly, you should at least have a current profile. It’s free and exposes your business to new audiences.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Google+

Include logos, cover art, and unique about us content to present a complete and professional profile.

Connect your Twitter accounts to Facebook. Connect YouTube with Google+. Allow your WordPress blog or website to auto-update Facebook or Twitter when new content is published. Continue to connect the dots between these networks until a few are nearly “self-maintained” due to the automatic connections you’ve established. Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube will always require a bit of extra care, but these platforms run with very specialized content – so they remain unique by their very nature. Also explore the potential of curating content with respected and credible industry resources. Create a Paper.li newspaper using related media and other authorities in your business segment then auto-publish the paper weekly with updates to your Facebook or Twitter accounts – or even both. Whatever you do, don’t automate Facebook posting using any third-party solutions. Facebook automatically reduces a post’s organic reach when it’s not executed through itself.

Vow to complete regular posting and engagement in your most important social networks each week. We often recommend creating a schedule that details posting throughout an entire month showing network and content direction for social media buzz. Depending on where your primary audience hangs out, you’ll want to prioritize according to frequency and intended platform. For example, if your business is mostly business to business, you may prefer dominant communication in LinkedIn rather than Facebook. If your audience is primarily consumer-based, you’ll likely want to emphasize Facebook.

Think of content development from a multi-dimensional perspective. Perhaps you’ll encounter a common customer need or want that you offer a solution to. Think of creating this content for roll-out through your website and relevant social media networks. Fit the format to the intended platform. Video content is booming! Take advantage of recent innovations on Facebook and Instagram by incorporating more video content into your mix. Then use this content to breakdown into smaller bits for even more mileage! In looking at all content development in this way, you’ll get more accomplished for every bit of your hard work in research. This integrated approach is not only a time saver, it’s also very effective at instilling a comprehensive marketing approach to your entire business.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help – social media engagement is hard work.

Developing an influential presence for social media buzz take a lot of work. Extend your outreach further by asking for some help. Choose trusted members of your internal team to create social media ambassadors to champion your engagement in these networks. Or, consider outsourcing this part of your marketing to seasoned experts with the focus and execution to extend your social media reach further.

Whatever you’re working to achieve, there is a growing population of social media users in today’s marketplace. Every business should do what it can to be noticed before their competitors and build a living dialogue with online customers and prospects. Expand your presence on the most popular networks, then commit to a regular schedule and you’ll find social media to be quite manageable. Contact us to learn more about how we can help to craft genuine, sustainable social media buzz for your business.

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