Whether you’re in start-up mode or you’re celebrating your 5^th year of business, social media is a great way to increase your brand’s awareness, interact with your customers, reach more markets, and cultivate relationships that can lead to your brand’s growth.

Over the next few weeks, I will provide tips to assist you with marketing on 3 of the major social platforms—Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Let’s start this week off with Facebook…

• Complete your company’s “About Me” section to help your visitors find useful information at a glance.
• Claim your URL. When you first sign up to Facebook, a random URL will be linked to your account. Choose one that better reflects your brand, such as your company’s name.
• Recycle your content. If you use something once and it gains traction, it’s okay to use it again! It’s a great way for new members in your audience to see past content—as long as it is still relevant.
• Pin posts. If you have something incredibly important that you want your followers to see, pin it by: 1) viewing the post in your timeline, 2) hovering over the drop down menu on that post, and 3) clicking “pin to top of page”. This will anchor the post to the top of your page until you decide to unpin it.
• Promote, promote, promote. Share your Facebook link/like button in your email signature, on your LinkedIn profile, on your company’s website, blog, etc.
• Use Facebook ads. To get your posts in front of your specific target market(s), spend some dollars utilizing Facebook ads. Doing so will ensure that your posts are reaching exactly who you are trying to reach at a much quicker pace.
• Create a Facebook contest. Running a contest on your page is a great way to increase interaction with your audience, gain more followers, have your content seen by the masses and really drive people to your page.
• Use hashtags. Hashtags aren’t just for Twitter! Check out trending topics, and if it makes sense for your brand, join the conversation.
• Create eye-catching content. People scroll tirelessly through many social media platforms day in and day out. Make sure your audience stops on your posts. For tips on how to make your content pop, click here.
• Use infographics. If your company is data heavy and regularly relies on such data to sell your product/service, try using an infographic as an alternative to display your research. Infographics are fun, visually-pleasing, and are shared regularly.
• Use GIFs. These moving images are a fun way to convey a thought, message or mood. For more information on their many uses, check out this post here.
• Encourage reviews. Let your customers know that you appreciate their feedback. Be sure to respond to all reviews—both positive and negative—and publicly respond to any issues or concerns and offer a mutually beneficial resolution.
• Highlight testimonials. Once you receive glowing feedback, turn it into shareable content! This will allow your audience to see how happy others are with your product or service.
• Use a variety of content such as blogs, polls, live video, photos, quotes, testimonials, infographics, and more to constantly keep your page vibrant and refreshing.
• Always include a call-to-action. What do you want your audience to do? Learn more by visiting your website, provide a testimonial, share your content, tag a friend? Let them know in your caption!

That’s it for now! Check back next week for more social media marketing tips to help grow your business. Do you have any recommendations for others? Feel free to leave a comment below!