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Tips on Tuesday

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At this point in the year we always recommend starting to consider your social media strategy for the next 12 months.

As with all good strategies, you first need a goal. Now is the time to decide what your social media goals are for the upcoming period. Do you want to increase awareness of your brand? Do you want to engage more with current customers? Do you want to increase your audiences? Do you want to convert your audiences into customers? Do you want to become an influencer in your field?

You cannot begin to create a firm strategy for your social media channels without knowing what you’re aiming for! Don’t forget, the goal isn’t set is stone. It can, and should be, amended throughout the year by regularly reviewing your strategies and key performance indicators.

Step one, decide upon your goals!!

Tips on Tuesday

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There are only two sorts of people on social media, those who want more followers and those who are lying!

I’m often asked by clients how they can quickly increase their followers. The short answer is, you can’t!

Social media is very much a slow burn. Much like real life, relationships take time to foster and build; and these relationships need to be built before you can turn your followers into paying customers. When you decide upon a social media strategy, you must acknowledge the need to commit for not only weeks, but months and even years. 

Remember, the number of likes and followers you have is nothing more than a measure of vanity. What is important to you is the quality of follower – 100 followers who are engaged, are interested and who interact are of far more value than 1000 followers who are not!

Tips on Tuesday

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Did you realise it is just TWO MONTHS until Christmas Day (sorry…. sorry!)

Christmas gingerbread cookies and hot chocolate shot on rustic wooden table.

Use your time wisely! Make sure you have relevant social media goals for the next 8 weeks with a firm idea of what you want to achieve before Christmas. As always given the time constraints, make sure your goals are achievable!

Don’t be afraid to share your company’s Christmas traditions across social media – giving yourself a little more personality at this time of year can be a really good thing. 

It is also important to schedule in a break! Take some time off from your social media schedule over the festive season, with a view to coming back refreshed and raring to go in January!

You have 2 months…how are YOU going to use them?

Tips on Tuesday

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In the past few weeks we’ve been discussing Inclusive Design and how your social strategy should always include a fully accessible user-experience.

We’ve long been an advocate of video content on your social profiles, but did you know to be fully accessible all your videos should be subtitled? 

Not only do subtitles create a user-friendly experience for people with hearing impairments, but they also enhance the viewing for people not watching in their native language or for people who are in sound-off environments. 

Imagine such a small change making your video accessible to so many more people!!

Tips on Tuesday

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We’ve been discussing the importance of Inclusive Design and how some small changes to your social media posts can make them more accessible to more people.

Emojis are great fun to use, and when used appropriately add a welcome bit of lightheartedness to your posts.  However, text-to-speech software reads out a description for every emoji you use, so be careful with the number you include.

Hearing “one gold star” isn’t terrible, but hearing “one gold star” repeated 10 times throughout a message is not only tiresome, but alters the meaning of the entire post.

Remember, in this case less is certainly more!

Tips on Tuesday

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We spoke last week about the importance of Inclusive Design and over the next few weeks we’re going to be giving bitesize tips on how to make your social media accessible.

You’re on social media, you’re using a hashtag right?  Did you know that for best practice when you’re using hashtags, you should always use CamelCase and capitalise the first letter of every word?

Not only does this mean  that screen readers can read out the hashtags correctly, it also makes them easier to read for everybody else.

This is something we have consciously been focussing on in our social media strategy, as we consider how to make social media accessible for everyone!

Tips on Tuesday

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The one size fits all approach never works!

Does your social media plan consider accessibility?

With no such thing as an “average user”, it is vital you ensure your social media strategy covers inclusive design methods.

What is inclusive design? Quite simply inclusive design accounts for diversity—including ability, language, gender, age, and other factors—and enables people to enage in a variety of ways.

Accessibility mattters for social media, because without inclusive design you’re potentially missing out on a large audience.  Did you know 71% of excluded web visitors will simply leave rather than complain?  A survey by Facebook found that more than 30% of people report difficulty with at least one of the following; seeing, hearing, speaking, organizing thoughts, walking, or grasping with their hands.

Over the next few weeks we’re going to help you make your social media inclusive and diverse.  After all what is better than creating great, accessible experiences for everyone in your audience?!

Tips on Tuesday

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Have you thought about helping your followers get to know you better?

“Behind the scenes” footage, whether in the form of images or video can be a really valuable type of content for your social media feeds.  Why not share where the magic happens; the stockroom, the factory floor, even your own desk!

Whilst you must be careful not to share anything sensitive or confidential, sharing where and how you work can be a really valuable way of your followers getting to know what is behind the business!

Tips on Tuesday

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We’re often asked by clients about the use of scheduling tools such as Hootsuite or indeed Meta’s own scheduling software for social media posts and whether they’re a good idea. 

Our feeling is that they can be a very useful tool IF you don’t rely solely on them.  They’re very useful for standard messages but the beauty of social media is its spontaneity and you can risk losing the power to tap into breaking stories if you don’t check your social media feeds personally.

There is, of course, also the risk of scheduled messages being inappropriate in light of wider world events. So we would say possibly discretion is the better part of valour and it may be wise to turn off scheduled posts if something major happens.  At the end of the day whether you agree or not, you don’t want to be the subject of a social media rant about insensitivity, your social media profile has to be impeccable.

So in conclusion? Yes, a scheduling tool can be a useful asset.  But don’t rely on them and don’t lose that personal touch!

Tips on Tuesday

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So we’ve all pretty much got that “back to school” feeling.

Back to school we go!

September is a great time to ensure your skills are up to date, you’re aware of any changes to the algorithms for your social media channels and you’re using the most current version.

It can also be a great time to think about developing your skills. If you feel like you would like to improve your skills, there are plenty of online courses (both free and otherwise!) that do just that.

Remember, back to school isn’t just the literal – it is a metaphor for getting back into the swing of things. And whether that is simply returning to the office after a holiday, or making any internal changes, it will take time to settle!

Good luck to you all!