new to social media

5 Things to Think About If You’re New to Social Media (Or Even If You’re Not…)

Popular social media platforms tout that their platform is designed for businesses to self-manage and market.  But there’s a lot more that goes in to building and managing a successful business page.

1USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO HUMANIZE YOUR BRAND.

Most brands could use some humanizing, and they certainly don’t do enough of it. Humanizing your brand creates trust and loyalty with your consumers, which means more sales and more importantly, returning sales.  It goes beyond building your brand – it brings to life something that’s tangible for consumers to connect to, engage with, and remember.

2. USE SOCIAL CHANNELS TO FILTER TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE.

This seems obvious, but when you’re trying to weave in social media management in to the million other tasks you must do during the day, stepping back to understand social’s value and strategy doesn’t always happen.  Remember to use your social audience as a channel to visit your website – it’s not all about engagements.  But most social platforms, Facebook specifically has recently moved to a much more “pay-to-play” model.  You’ll receive less organic reach and will need to pay to reach your followers.

3. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE EVERYWHERE, BUT IF YOU MUST – AUTOMATE.

There are plenty of social channels out there, and not all channels will make sense for your brand.  If you take a moment to identify your audience – who they are, their age, gender, interest levels, you may find Facebook and Instagram are better fits than Snapchat or TikTok. But if you just cannot fathom the idea of not being on all social channels, think about automating.  There are a lot of third-party platforms that you can use.  We find that Cloud Campaign is the best value for the money, but research up and find what works best for you.

4. TREAT YOUR SOCIAL PAGES LIKE LISTINGS.

This one is one of the most overlooked tactics by businesses and it can negatively impact your search rank.  It’s so important to make sure that you’re NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number, Website, Email, etc.) are consistent with how you have it listed on other areas of the world wide web, including digital directories and even on your Google Business Profile itself.  Consistency is key and helps search engines validate your website as a valuable result to a search query.  BE EXACT!  If you have your address listed as “Road” on your Google Business Profile, list it EXACTLY the same way on your social channels.  “Road” and “Rd.” are two very different things in the eyes of a search engine.

5. BE AUTHENTIC.

This sounds cheesy, but it’s true! So much so that Facebook itself said that their machine learning looks for authenticity when providing your post organic reach.  If you’re a restaurant, don’t post a picture of a cute puppy to solicit “awwwws” and “squeeeeeee” engagement.  In many social platforms, that’s considered “engagement bait”, and it’ll get your page throttled back.  And you certainly don’t want that.


If you’d like a more in-depth view of how our agency structures our social campaigns, please feel free to reach out to me at kberrier@mddcpress.com.

About the Author
Kevin Berrier is the Director of MDDC Advertising Services, a full-service marketing agency that works with businesses and organizations around the United States on effective ROAS-based marketing strategies and solutions.