Social Media – Page 3 – The Flocksy Blog

Social Media For Your Business

Are you looking for new and better ways to advertise your business? Maybe you’ve tried the traditional billboards and ads and they didn’t really work out.

How is your social media game? Are you advertising there too? And if so, exactly HOW are you? Are you taking advantage of the free (and paid) advertising available on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest?

Let’s talk a little bit about using social media for advertising your products and/or services.

When trying to get your business out there (and I know it can sometimes be hard), advertising is not an easy thing to do. However, if you have a social media account it can be just a little bit easier.

Okay, so I know you’re now probably wondering, “how can Instagram or Facebook help with my advertising?”.

Well, probably one of best answers I can give you is that IT IS FREE (yes, you can run paid ads, but that’s not what I’m talking about here)! What I’m talking about is the stuff where you post about your company on your social site and it’s no more work or cost than hitting that “Publish” button. If you post and don’t get sales, then it is okay. It’s not like you just spent tons of money on it and then didn’t have any results from it. But if you do get results from it then that would be a nice bonus that comes without a cost.

Using social media for advertising makes it so you can interact with other accounts that are like yours and by doing that people beginning to see what your business has to offer and they want to learn more about what you do. It’s great for networking, reaching potential leads, talking about sales, and just gaining overall visibility online. You’ve spread your reach and promoted your company without paying a dime.

So if you don’t already use social media for advertising, then you should get out there right now and create the account that is going to help your business!

Instagram

I know I have talked quite a bit about social media in my posts, but there’s so much that social media can do for your business. As I have said many times, social media is a must for your business, and not only is it great for advertising, but it’s free!

Since starting in 2010 Instagram now has over 150 millions monthly users.

Think about it for a sec. That’s a lot of people,

So you know that Instagram is one of the best places to advertise, but you don’t quite know how to start it and make it work. Well, that’s okay because I’m going to tell you how to make your Instagram business account productive.

One: Set up a business account. Business accounts have things that personal accounts don’t, such as showing your business location, phone number, and email, useful stats.

Two: Get posting. Start thinking up some post material and get busy posting on your account. In order to have a successful Instagram, your account must be active. Post at least two or three times a day, the more the better! Make sure that every post has a good caption and lots of hashtags. Hashtags are the key to getting followers, so make sure they’re good ones.

Three: Interact. In order to gain followers, you must visit other accounts, comment, and like photos. The more you interact, the more you get noticed. When people see you commenting on there post they go to check your page out.

Another huge and very important aspect of Instagram is the Instagram Stories. They show up across the top of the “home page” of your app, and if someone starts following your account they automatically see your stories.

There’s so much you can talk about on the “Insta stories”. Do a day in the life, talk about a sale that’s coming up, and hold a poll to see if your follows like this or that better.

You can also save your stories so people that didn’t get a chance to look at them in the 24 hours can. You can put them in different category and they go at the top of your profile above your photos.

Remember, keep things lively and engaging. You don’t want people losing interest! Be more casual in your stories than you usually are. People love having you talk with them like you are friends and not like you’re trying to just sell a product.

Do you need a Social Media team?

“Do I really need a Social Media Team?”

Every good businessman knows the answer to that question. There are no buts, no what ifs, you need a social media team.

We’ve talked a lot about social media, but we haven’t yet talked about what, or rather WHO you need to make those social media platforms work. When you have a business, in order to make the business run smoothly you need hard-working employees, and yes, also a good social media team. Because, as I have said many times, every good business should use social media to promote their company, and in order to make your social media platforms be productive, every good business needs a social media team.

The number of employees on your social media team can vary by the size of your business. 3-6 is a good amount to start with, and if you feel like you should add more, or your business starts to grow, add a couple more until you find an amount that works for you.

A good team for each should consist of: Two people for blogging, one for Instagram, one for Facebook, and one for Pinterest and Twitter. Now you might be thinking, “ Why two for blogging and only one for Pinterest and Twitter together?” That’s a good question!

When you have a blog for your business you’re going to want to have a couple of people writing blog posts, so you can have at least three blog posts a week, if not more. You can have them work together (one writing, the other editing) or separately. And you’re probably going to need only one for Pinterest and Twitter because they don’t get as much business coming through. But if either of these social media platforms begins to grow and get more followers don’t hesitate to hire another employee to take one over! When it comes to your social media platforms don’t risk it. More is better, is the rule in this area.

Each employee should have their own social platform making it so that they can spend more time on thinking up new strategies and be devoting more time to that one platform.

You’re also going to want to have an overseer of the team, someone that the others can go to if they need help with something or have a quick question.

One way to get the perfect overseer would be to have one of the people who curate a platform and you seeing taking a strong lead be that person or you could just bring someone in from the outside that specializes in social media. Either way works, you just have to make sure you have someone to oversee things.

Our social media team has helped us a lot, and we believe that yours can too. So get together that awesome social media team that I know you can have and get busy!

Three Benefits Of Social Media

When you think of using social media other that for recreation you probably think of it being a lot of hard work and time consuming. Yes, you are right, but what about all the wonderful benefits that come with that hard work and precious time?

I’m going to tell you three benefits of using social media for business and than you can decide for yourself if it’s worth it or not!

Free advertisement: When you get a Facebook , Twitter, or Instagram account for your business you get free advertisement for your business. In my opinion there’s nothing better! You gain interested followers and potential clients and with one click your post can reach out to them. Advertising is a big expense for your company, so by getting a social media account you’re cutting that expense in half.

Interacting one on one with customers: Getting to interact with your customers one on one is a huge benefit of social media. You have the opportunity to talk back and forth with your customers, being more relaxed and casual than you normally would on your site. They can ask you questions on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest that they may not feel comfortable asking you on your site. You get to see a little bit into their personal life, and you can show them a little bit of yours.

Tell People about the Latest Happenings: Think how easy it is to tell your customers about the 40% off sale you’re having, or those new arrivals that are in the shop! You can let your customers know about the latest deals that they probably wouldn’t have known of otherwise. And don’t forget, the more excited you are about these deals, the more excited your customers will be. If you tell your social media followers about a sale ahead of time you can almost be sure that you’ll have twice the amount of customers coming to your store for the sale you told them about!

This is a tried and true approach that many people are already using to gain clients, communicate better, and have a greater growth reach. We see it working in our business and know it can work for you too!

Best social media platforms for you

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumbler, YouTube. In a world of so many social platforms how do you know which ones you REALLY need? Obliviously it would be nice to have them all, but, let’s be real, you can only focus on so many accounts at once, and there’s got to be the best one, right?

Facebook is a no-brainer. Come on, even your Grandmother is on Facebook. Even though many are moving on and Facebook is not used quite as much as it was a couple years ago, it’s still the most used social media platform. You need a Facebook page for your business, and you need to use it.

Instagram is up and coming. More and more businesses are finding a way to reach their clients though Instagram and it’s working well. We really recommend Instagram as a way to reach out to your audience, let them know what’s new, and engage with them.

Twitter is also a must-have. Let others know what’s up, keep is simple, to the point, and fun. Got a new product, a update, a fun fact? Tweet and let everyone know in seconds without having to spend to much time writing it out.

Pinterest might not get used quite as much as other social media platforms, but it is just as important, maybe even more important, for your business as other social media platforms. People are able to pin something faster then they are to post on Instagram or FB and save it for later. Besides being more time efficient Pinterest is also great for your business in many others way. Unfortunately there are too many to include in one paragraph.

Other social media accounts are good, and important, but this is what we think are the best, if you’re only having four, start with these and then add more. Give it a shot and see if they help you has much as they have helped us!

Thank you for your time, please feel free to ask any questions you might have.

Pinterest for Your Business

Pinterest, though it may seem like one of social media’s more insignificant platforms, we think it can help you build your business significantly.

I am here to share with you a bit of advice on how to use your Pinterest account to the best advantage for your business. We personally like to use Pinterest as one of our more relaxed social media platforms. While Facebook and others tend to be more business-like and serious, we use Pinterest to be a little wittier and laid back; overall a more casual part of our business.

It could also be a more serious social media platform, depending on how you want to use it. For instance, although we would go for ideas like ‘Silly Sunday’, good ideas for a more serious account would be ‘Quote Wednesday’, or ‘Motivational Monday’. Or if you would like to keep it strictly for posting your product, that too can get you customers. Either way, we believe that Pinterest can strongly benefit your business, no matter what type of account you decide to use.

Boards: Pinterest sets up boards that you name and then add each post to a separate board. This makes it easier for your followers to find what they’re interested in. Get creative with your board names. For instance, if you had an online bookstore, good board names would be ‘Mystery Books’, ‘Children’s Books’, and ‘Classic Literature’. This also can make it so your followers can only follow which boards they’re interested in.

Filling your boards: This is very important as it helps people see the different things that you have to offer, having a smaller selection on each board makes it appear as though you don’t offer as much as you really might, so be sure to keep them updated with the latest!.The more boards you have and the fuller they are the more people will visit to see the updates.

Captions: These are also a great way to get people interested. If you’re going for a more casual Pinterest account then use funny and witty captions, or if you’re trying for a more serious one than keep it formal and business-like. So use captions quite a bit.

Hashtags: These are a big part of how to attract people to your account, play around with them, figure out what works. Then use this to your advantage by keeping track on the ones you get the most views on (you can see how many times each hashtag has been used to the right while typing it in) and use them on other posts. Hashtags really do make a world of difference so try hard to find the perfect ones to help promote your business.

You will be amazed how fast your Pinterest account will grow after using these tips! Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see a difference right away, it takes time. But it will be worth it in the end.

Do you have any other tips for Pinterest? If so, we’d love to hear your thoughts. We’re always looking for ways to improve our account and are always interested in learning something new!

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Sophia

Facebook

Facebook has over 2 billion users. Think about that for a moment. 2 billion. That’s a lot of people and I’m guessing that quite a few of those are business accounts. We use Facebook for our business and think that it is one of the best social media platforms we have. If you don’t have a Facebook account for your business then you definitely should get one.

There are so many great social media platforms. You might be thinking, “why Facebook?” Well, I am here to tell you that although there are many social media platforms out there, you will definitely want to use Facebook. I’m going to tell you a little bit about how we use Facebook for our online business.

We get quite a few messages on Facebook requesting to learn more about our business, and a lot of our customers like our page and keep up to date on the going on’s and the latest updates.

But not only do steady customers come to our page, others that may be thinking about becoming a customer in the future and would like to see and learn more of what we do, will check it out, as well as keep up with what we’ve been doing. It also helps for people to be able to talk to you in a different setting than on your website or on the phone where they can sometimes feel intimidated.

On Facebook we can show the simple things that we do; like posting a quick photo of getting coffee, going out for lunch and getting away from the office for a while. Just these small things can make your customers feel like they know you better and therefore may feel more comfortable doing business with you rather than they might other places.

Facebook has recently added the feature of Live Video. This can be a great advantage for your business. You can answer questions, talk about your business, or just chat with your followers. You could even bring your phone/tablet/computer to the office with you and show your followers what a normal day at the office looks like. Your customers and potential customers will feel like they have a closer connection with you and your employees after getting to see even a small glimpse of the goings on “behind the scenes”. There are many more great ideas you could try with Live Video. Give it a shot and see what works for you!

There are so many different and wonderful reasons for you to have a Facebook account for your business that if I were to tell you all of them, I could be here for a week! So I think I’ll stop here and let you find out the rest for yourself.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read!

Feel free to ask any questions you might have, I’ll be happy to answer them if I can!

Sophia

The Importance of Social Media for your Business

Some people think that social media is a bad thing, and yes, it can be, if used incorrectly. But we think quite the contrary. We believe that social media can be hugely beneficial for your business. Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat, and many more can benefit your business immensely. All of these can display your product, let people know about your business, and overall bring you customers. The social media team here at Flocksy use almost all of these and have found that they have helped us a lot with building our business.

It is important for your business for many reasons, but one of the (many) is that it can be used to communicate with your customers in ways that you don’t usually get the chance to. You can be more casual and laid back with potential customers, let them see that although you’re a business, you aren’t always formal and serious. They can be free to ask you questions in the comments that they might not always feel as comfortable asking on your site. It lets your customers see a whole new side to your business that they may not have even known existed.

Let’s take Instagram for instance. Instagram has added the recent feature of Instagram Stories. You can take a photo or video and your followers can see it for 24 hours. You could use this feature to your business’s advantage by doing a day in the life. You could take videos of your day, at the office, going out for coffee. All the things that your customers don’t get to see when they visit your site. But this is just one of the many great advantages there are to having social media for your business.

It may take a while before you start seeing signs that these social media platforms are making a difference, but if used correctly, over time you will see the increase of customers.

If your business doesn’t have at least one social media platform we highly encourage you to start one. It’ll be worth the work when you see the increase in costumers.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have. Thank you for taking the time to read!

Sophia

A Few Tips on Instagram and How to Use it For your Business

Instagram is one of social media’s most used platforms. And for goodInstagram is one of social media’s most used platforms. And for reason too!

It’s an excellent means of communication and one of the best ways to get your business out there.

Personally, we (Flocksy), find it one of our most used social media platforms. Instagram can be hugely beneficial for any business, if used correctly.

If you own an online clothing store, for instance, you could share some of your favorite articles of clothing that you sell, tell your followers about discounts and sales, and when clothing is restocked and out of stock. Or, for small businesses, it’s great to get your product out there.

Posting your product in use, or the quality of your product, will help potential customers see what they’ll be getting when they buy your merchandise.

You’re probably thinking that it’s all well and good to put your product out there, but how do you get people to notice your account? And that, is an excellent question. It’s easy enough to just post a photo, right? But getting followers and customers, that isn’t quite as easy, is it? No, it’s not.

So that’s why we’re going to give you a few tips on how to make it easier. When posting a photo on Instagram, here are a few things you always want to remember.

High Quality Photos

When people are scrolling down their feed, a good, clear photo will stand out. So make sure when posting that your photo has good lighting, is clear, and shows your product at its best. Example

Hashtags

Instagram lets you use up to thirty hashtags per a post. Although you don’t want your account to look spammy (which can happen if you use too many hashtags), you do want to use hashtags to your best advantage. Most people don’t read the hashtags, so we suggest doing your caption, and then a little ways down having your hashtags. That way people can choose whether or not they would like to read the hashtags, but your post can still be easily found.

A Good Caption

A good caption is an essential part of an Instagram post. Depending on what you’re posting, captions are endless. Short and catchy captions will make people stop to see your post and what you have to say before moving on. If you do too long of a caption your followers are more apt to read the first sentence and then get bored, moving onto the next post before seeing what you have to say.

Try to condense what you have to say to twenty words or less, making it easy for your followers to read it and then move on. Start your post off with something that will catch your followers eye. For instance, ‘New arrivals in the shop!’. If your followers see something like this at the beginning, they’ll be interested, and want to read more.

Well, that’s all. Thank you for taking the time to read, we hope we’ve helped you build your Instagram account up a bit!

Here’s a link to our (Flocksy) Instagram’s page: https://instagram.com/goflocksy/

Feel free to go and check it out for an example of the tips we mentioned above.