Can you really afford to?
There is a huge difference between doing your own social media on Twitter and/or Facebook to doing so for your business!
A major rule is, that personal social media and business social media, ought to be strictly separated, as postings about your private activities may not sit well with future customers.
Should you decide to manage your own business social media communications you may wish to continue reading…
Which social media channel is right for your business?
Let’s explore the four major players:
Facebook audience: Business to Consumer, Consumer to Consumer
Around half of the UK population has a Facebook account, and the vast majority of registered users are actively using the site.
The highest number of Facebook users was found among 25 to 34 year olds, of which 5.6 million women and 5.6 million men were using Facebook in January 2018.
Ipsos data on the share of Facebook use among certain age groups in the UK shows that the group between 25 and 34 years of age has the largest share of use and the group between 45 and 54 has the smallest share.
Instagram audience: Business to Business, Business to Consumer, Consumer to Consumer
For the UK, the most recent figure we could find came from an eMarketer study, which credited Instagram with 16.7 million monthly users in the UK, up by almost 35% on the previous year.
31% are between the ages of 18-24, 30% between 25-35. Users are 44% are male and 56% female.
Twitter audience: Business to Business, Business to Consumer, Consumer to Consumer
In Great Britain had 18.6 million users in 2018 of which 59% of Twitter users are men, while 41% are women.
In the UK, Twitter users are young. The majority of Twitter users in Great Britain are under 34 years of age. 43% of 30-49-year-old Twitter users use the platform to receive news.
Linkedin audience: Business to Business – however only right for some business categories, such as architects, designers, needing access to larger and established companies, consultants, seeking a national or international audience. It is not so great for small locally based businesses.
London-based users have the highest average number of connections (average 307) on LinkedIn, of anywhere in the world.
And there are, of course Pinterest, Snapchat, Reddit and many more.
Now you have made your choice and decide that Facebook and/or Twitter may be the right social media channels for your business.
Do remember the 5 : 3 : 2 rule as not to bore your audience!
The posts!
As, generally, social media is viewed on mobile devices, it is worth remembering that your communication is ‘served’ up on the timeline of your followers or of those, who have ‘Liked’ your Facebook page. Hence your business post needs to stand out from the others, which crowd that space on their timeline. They need to catch the users eye.
This can be achieved by posting numerous times during the day and with relevant media attached. This is especially true for Twitter!
'A picture is worth more than a thousand words' is still very valid today.
Your challenge is to create between 4-5 posts per day for Twitter and 1-2 per day for Facebook.
Twitter will need daily attention with the right number of posts. Facebook will need at least one post daily.
Your posts need to be relevant to your audience, add value to their interests or needs and should be accompanied by royalty free images/ videos or infographics.
Always make sure that your images fit the required sizes of the relevant platform for them to display properly!
Do not forget - you also need to check on a very regular basis on your notifications and respond to them appropriately.
Let’s do the maths!
Presuming
4 curated posts per day on Twitter x 30 days = 120 curated posts per month
1 curated posts per day on Facebook x 30 days = 30 curated posts per month
This means finding content and creating
150 posts per month with images!
Presuming an average of 10 minutes for finding, curating, creating content and finding an image…
150 x 10 = 1,500 minutes ÷ 60 = 25 hours !
You would spend, on average, 25 hours per month to create effective social media marketing for your business!
What do you charge your clients for an hour of your time?
What else could you do, achieve, earn in that time?
Are you sure you want to do your your own Social Media for your business?