Don’t forget to factor in Social Media.

When starting out in business, we don’t give much thought to social media and what platforms we will use to get our message across to your clients or customers.  As of June 2013, there are 1.11 billion Facebook users, with 665 million people logging on to their accounts every day, and not to mention that 775 million users access their accounts via mobile devices daily (Source: Facebook).  The numbers are certainly impressive, but Facebook isn’t the only social media platform out there.

Pinterest is moving up there it’s 3 years old and already has 48.7 million users, with 2.5 billion page views per month and 9 million Pinterest users have connected their accounts to Facebook. (Source: DMR).  With numbers such as these, why wouldn’t you utilise these free platforms to help get your message across?

I recommend you do some research, look into the social media platforms that are available and determine which ones are the right fit for your business. Check out Social Media Examiner, this is a great site that provides good across the board information. If you are going to use more than one platform, do your business a favour and make sure you are consistent with your message. Don’t confuse potential clients with inconsistent messages about you or your business.  Consistency, consistency, consistency; I bang on about it because it is so important to your business identity.

I would recommend that you don’t use any more than three different platforms, the reason simply is that there are not enough hours in the day.  Ensure you allow ample time to schedule your programming.

Top 7 Social Media Tips for Start Ups.

  1. Choose your social media platforms wisely, not all platforms are suitable for your business.
  2. Allocate time each week to review, update and schedule all of your social media platforms.
  3. Each platform will have an About You, or About Me section.  Make sure you have the same consistent message across all your platforms.
  4. Write blogs and share them on your social media platforms.
  5. Use the same profile photograph or logo in your social media programs, this will make you easily identifiable.
  6. If you are using your logo for identification in social media, make sure it looks good when the size is reduced or enlarged. Distorted logos are sloppy and show ‘no attention to detail’.
  7. When you refer to your social media platforms in your documents, make sure you use the correct logo(s) for the platform(s) you are referring

Don’t forget to maintain what you have created.

You don’t need to make it any harder than it needs to be. Once you put in place what will serve you best, it is a simply a matter of maintaining it and keeping up to date with what changes are being made to the programs you use and how they will effect what it is you are trying to achieve.

I would love to hear your ideas, please leave a comment below.