World Social Media Day 2015

Today marks the 5^th annual social media day! Launched by Mashable in 2010 as a way to recognise social media’s impact of global communication, the national day sees Facebook and Twitter users all over the globe celebrate.

We all know that social media has revolutionised the way that people, businesses and organisations communicate with the whole world. The days of waiting for a breaking news story to go to print are over; Twitter can help a news story be shared with the world instantly to thousands of followers. Finding old and new friends can all be done from your Smartphone or laptop without having to leave the house, thanks to Facebook. Apps such as Instagram, Snapchat and Vine can now allow us to see what our friends had for dinner, you know just in case you couldn’t wait. People no longer have to worry about updating their actual CV when they have their LinkedIn profile to add skills to and Skype allows you to speak to anyone in the world... providing they have Wi-Fi of course.

Here at apt, we love social media and are always interested in the current trends. As a business, we understand that it is important to establish your ‘voice’ before participating in social media. Whether it’s strictly corporate or professional with a pop of personality, ensuring that your ‘voice’ is relevant to your potential customers and is different from your competitors is the first step. It might seem like a lot to manage but once you’ve established the ‘voice’ it can easily be applied to relevant content.

We thought it would useful to share some of our expertise of what we think is great to post as a business on the huge array of social media platforms:

1. 1.    Relevant Industry News – Posting relevant industry news is a great way to keep up to date. Not only will you show you are informed of what’s happening within your industry but you will be able to convey the information across to your followers.
2. 2.    Promotional Offers – Although many people may not be interested in any promotional offers for one reason or another, others will be. So, don’t be put off, promotions, offers and even competitions can be posted with the potential of boosting your business through social media. Don’t devalue your brand with constant offers though – there is a fine line between rewarding loyal customers and making your brand seem overpriced.
3. 3.    Office / Business News – It’s nice to share content showing your followers that you’re a strong team, understandably it is dependent on the business’s voice but posting a tweet with an image at a business networking event or showing that you’ve had cakes brought into the office is always great!
4. 4.    Relevant Days & Local Events – Researching relevant National ‘days’ and their hashtags is a good way to create content to share and get involved. Also local and national events can be researched. Blogs, statuses and tweets can all be prepared in advance ready to be shared for anything relevant that is coming up. If your business is attending a related event, it’s great to post images while there and creating a follow up blog is even better.
5. 5.    Testimonials – Posting snippets of client testimonials is an excellent way to not only show off your business but also to thank those who left the kind words about your business. These are great to post onto LinkedIn, Twitter and even Facebook.

There you have it, some top tips on what to post onto social media all while maintaining your business voice. If you’re struggling to find your business voice or you don’t have the time to build your social media presence, why not give us a call? We’d love to sit with you and discuss what we can do to help, contact our friendly team on 01242 250692 or drop us a line at info@aptmarketing.co.uk