#003 Easy Wins To Set Your Social Media Up For Success

The social obstacles that businesses have to face when they are just starting their efforts on social media or launching a new brand or business can be tricky. We're sharing tips and tricks on the foundations and best practices you need to know to make sure your business is set up for success.

Biggest Takeaways From The Episode:

Just START 😉
Set up your accounts appropriately: Business accounts, not personal accounts
Know your admin access levels and keep a doc
Protect your brand. If someone leaves your organization, you should still have access to your digital brand
Have your digital media be considered in your emergency response plan. Maybe your owner or c-suite should have access just in case?
Pro Tip: You can have authorized users and backup contacts on your business AND personal profiles. (Super awesome feature on Facebook)
Which platforms should I be on: Be found for your name. Facebook required
Verify your Facebook Page
If you’re a B2B, your owner or head of firm be very active on public LinkedIn accounts
Keep your lights on on social. Post consistently. Seriously, you don’t want people to think that you’re out of business.

Want your question to be answered on the generation social media podcast? Tell us what it is here!

Transcript

This text below is a straight up audio transcript of the episode. In our humble opinion, we think the audio podcast sounds much better in its original form. We have not edited the transcription below so there are indeed some grammar errors (some quite funny, in-fact).

00:02 You don't have to be a millennial to be socially savvy. We believe anyone can join generation social media and your journey starts now. This is the generation social media podcast by Chatterkick. Welcome to generation social media.

00:20 I am here with Chris today and we're going to talk about the social obstacles that businesses have to face when they are just starting their efforts on social media or maybe they are launching a new brand or business. We'll give you some tips on the foundations and some of the best practices that you need to know to make sure your business is set up for success. So let's get started. What do I do to even get set up? Like maybe I'm not even on social media or I am kind of casually, but now I want to be serious about my business. What are some things I need to watch out for?

00:52 Yeah. So we see this all the time, whether it's somebody who is starting a new business or a new entity or a new endeavor, or maybe it's somebody who has said for years and years and we see this all the time, social media is not a thing. Social media is not a thing. Oh wait, social media is a thing. So I think that we hear this question way more than I would ever imagine. I think the first step to getting started is really just getting started. You really want to make sure you have a solid foundation before you start going too crazy. And it's it's very similar to building a house. And I use that kind of example a lot because one of the biggest problems, and you know this because you've had to chase these account users around all the time, but one of the biggest mistakes businesses make is they don't set things up properly administratively in the beginning.

01:43 Whether that's, they don't have their accounts set as a business account and they have a personal account, or maybe they don't have their URL verified on Facebook. So when you're starting, a couple of really basic points is you need to have is if you're running a business or it is going to be something you want to scale, you need to have your business accounts set up appropriately. And what that means is all the accounts have separate business features. You will still have your personal accounts, so you'll still have a personal Facebook account. And you will be an admin in most cases on those business accounts. And so there's kind of a connection to both of those, but you do need to make sure that those accounts are set up as business accounts because it's going to give you features and functionalities that you wouldn't have otherwise.

02:32 And so setting those things up appropriately in the beginning is so critical. Another thing that really is important is your admin access. So you need to make sure if you don't have a Facebook account, somebody that does, it needs to be an admin on your Facebook page. And if you've never used Instagram before, personally, you still need to kind of figure out how it works. Even, you know, a lot of the features and functionalities that are similar. But I would highly recommend just kind of learning the platforms. How do these things work? What does this mean? What are the tools? Starting there is a really solid first place to start. Okay. So setting your accounts up, right, and figure out who's going to be the admin and do you need different levels of access. If you're a big company or just starting a Facebook page, you need to make sure that there's multiple levels of access. So should your marketing person leave, they don't leave with your entire Facebook page. Right, because nobody knew the password. And it's a personal passwords and I mean, I would say that's one of the biggest time challenges on our end when we start working with the client is many of them or many businesses in general, just people that come to us just don't know who has the admin access passwords. They're not in the same spot. Nobody's been maintaining them. It's so silly, but so critical.

03:58 Gotcha. Who Do you think should be sort of the, the caretaker of that? Or is it, is it the CEO? Maybe if it's a smaller company, is it a marketing person who is accountable for owning that?

04:11 I think that the CEO or ownership needs to have a admin presence on the accounts. And specifically I'm talking about Facebook. But they should probably have, they need to have the login to Instagram. They need to be able to login to their Gmail and their g suite stuff, which is going to be youtube, Google my business their Twitter logins. So I think that the owner needs to have that access. And I use this example not to make people freak out, but I think it is the reality of our world is if there was an emergency and your marketing person is on vacation or your admin person just that is doing some of your social media isn't able to access that information. The first place people are going to go is to your social media accounts. 100%. That has been tried and true.

05:01 We see this all the time. So if you don't have that information, getting it in the moment is the worst time to get that information. And so it's almost like an emergency response plan in a way. I think it should be a part of your emergency response plan, but the owner or top level person or whoever's going to be in that role of releasing critical information should be the one that has access. And then I would always encourage more than one person as well because you know, you get locked out, there's you know, something happens, you want to make sure you have checks and balances and another thing, this is on people's personal accounts, but a lot of people don't realize this, that you can have kind of backup contacts on your personal Facebook page. So should it get hacked or should you lose your personal password? You can have kind of kind of a recovery option. And I recommend everybody, regardless of if you are in business on social or not have that backup because those Facebook accounts get hacked more than they probably don't. Right.

06:05 So you mentioned, yeah, like Facebook, Instagram, what would be sort of the, the starter pack of platforms and I know it could be different, but how do you even start to find that out? What's right for you?

06:15 So I think if you look at the first goal of your business, even if it's not a starting business, is you need to be found for your name. So if some, because it is the Internet is basically one big just directory, right? And so when we launch a new website or we're working with a newer business the first step is be found for your name. Second step is be found for your name plus reviews and then you can start going on your services and all that. Your offerings, right? So I'm being found for your name relates back to one of the biggest platforms and one of the most critical, which is Facebook. I'm making sure that you have a verified Facebook page is really important. Not just because it shows credibility on Facebook itself, but because people are looking for your phone number, they're looking for your website, they're looking for all that information.

07:07 And Facebook comes up really well in search engines. So I would say Facebook is probably one of the most important just to have a presence on so people can find you. And then second, and depending on the type of business you have, if it's a B2B or relationship based business, you need to have your head of firm or your owner or CEO have a really solid linkedin presence because people, oftentimes, if your business is just getting started or you're just getting started on social if you look in your website, searches are what people are finding. It's usually that person, the salesperson, the person that's out creating new businesses or new stories. So having a really solid presence on those linkedin accounts and putting them wide open to public, okay. Is a good starting point.

07:56 Gotcha. So that'd be kind of a, you know, if someone's starting fresh. What if somebody, you know, again has a business already established and maybe they've been doing some social media, they've had some posts out there, they haven't been consistent with it. How do you sort of start new with something that's already there?

08:16 Yup. So if you look at your social accounts, and this could be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the last post you post posted was merry Christmas or happy Easter. You need, you need to step up your game a little bit. Because that, again, when you look at strategies, there's one that's, that we call just like keep the lights on. You don't want people to go to those accounts and your account looks like it's your businesses, not there still. And I have had people ask me about friends and families, businesses and are they still around? And it's just because they haven't posted online for a long time. And we used to see this a lot with blogs because you know, if your blog hasn't been updated in three years, people don't trust your website anymore. Right. So I definitely think that consistency is the first step.

09:06 And then the other thing is make sure that you're responding to messages. That's the same thing as, would you put a phone in your business if you never answered it right? Probably not. So make sure that you have somebody responding to your inquiries on social media. And those don't just come into the Facebook message inbox. They could be comments on Instagram direct messages, they could be comments on the posts, reviews. There's so many places that those messages and inquiries can live that having somebody check them on a regular basis and post on a regular basis is really where I would try to be kind of next level. And then you can really look at your content strategy. How do I tell the story? How much do I post? What do I post? All of those things are really important. But if you can't even do that on a regular basis, even if it's, you know, not the best content I think you just have to get that consistency down because that will make or break you even if you have the best content two times in a row.

10:11 If you can't do it six months from now, it's not gonna make a difference. Yeah. And so like with that, if you are starting up again, do you need to make a special posts like, hey, we're back or do you just go right? I think you just go right in and do it. You don't want to call attention to your lack of consistency. I would just kind of start up and don't be afraid. I W I was talking to someone about this on Instagram. You know, if you have been on Instagram and maybe the stuff you posted in the past looks really bad or inconsistent with your brand, don't be afraid to delete some of those old ones. Facebook, not so much, but Instagram, you know that Instagram flow, I'm doing air quotes. It's so important to a lot of people that don't be afraid to delete some of those ones that just really disrupt that or don't look good from a branding perspective that you've done in the past.

11:02 It's not gonna hurt anything and could maybe even help you out. Gotcha. I think that's a big thing of what we hear from people. As you just said, don't be afraid to delete posts. But I think even creating posts in the beginning, it's, you know, they feel like they can't be consistent because they're unsure of what to even make. How would you maybe talk to somebody around that? You know, maybe I just don't think my content is good enough or it's not on brand. I mean, how do you sort of get around that? Yeah. I think one thing I hear all the time is what am I going to post? I don't have anything interesting to say and maybe because I am always just completely interested in different types of businesses that I can easily find that for them. I think that's part of the value that we can offer.

11:45 But the basics are day in the life and behind the scenes. If you can just think of those two things, your and then can improve your photography, then you can improve other things. But what you should be posting on is what's happening today. Tell me what you're working on and why it's important. Tell me why you set your office up this way. Or You have a picture of your favorite sports team. Tell me why that means something to you. And you can always relate that back to business, but you can also tell a little bit about the people smiling. Happy People always working for us. All right, so don't be afraid to take a picture. What's happening in the office? Who, who's anniversary is it today? What's the break room like? All of that stuff make, it makes an impact and it's, it's really easy to capture. People don't do it because they're afraid. Right. But it's not that difficult if you just say screw it and do it that right.

12:43 Yeah. I guess, you know, you said don't be afraid to go back and delete stuff. So if you did mess up, you could go back. But what, how would you say you did make a blunder or you messed up? Maybe you'd post something you shouldn't have or just deleting. It doesn't really take away the message like people remember. How can you sort of like bounce back after something you've done negative or even maybe somebody that, something that somebody else has posted.

13:08 I think it's just, first of all, it's how negative was it, right? Yeah. So I think like the two biggest things that you want to be conscious of when you're thinking of like what not to post. One is background, right? You want to make sure whatever picture you're taking, the background of that image is appropriate. And we see this a lot in health care. So don't take a picture in if you are in a clinic, if you have your patient's charts all over in the background because they will zoom and you could get in trouble and that is a problem, right? So be conscious of that background or you know, just know what you're posting and make sure your employees know that. So that's one level of that. Another would be a typo or you know, the grammar police are a real thing. Yeah.

13:50 And they will call you out and you will be a better writer if you read on social because everybody will tell you the tents and adjectives you should use. But if you're doing, if it's something little like a Typo or you know, the Internet is pretty forgetful as well, so I would just move on, don't make a big deal out of it and post content to kind of distract them. Right. It's kind of like when you have little kids and you, you're like, hey, look over there. But that's where I would go. And if it was something bigger one of the people that I've worked with, they used an inappropriate hashtag like somebody in their office because they didn't know what it meant. Yeah. so again, it's just a matter of, you know, taking, removing that post, I would remove it if you made a mistake and just keep on going. They'll forget it. It's just us that well. Yeah.

14:40 Right. Well, I remember, I think one thing to do before you do post something I guess that you aren't sure of is just a quick Google, just Google the word or the phrase or whatever, see what it kinda means and decide from there, I guess. What about things that you can't necessarily delete? Like, maybe, you know, a negative review or a comment from somebody else that's not, you know, in regards to your content, but maybe, you know, something happened offline, how would you sort of deal with that?

15:07 So I think as a business in 2019 and beyond, you should assume these things will happen more than they won't happen, right? Like this isn't a rare occurrence. Someone's going to go in your business and they're going to take a piece of a picture or some misinformation and put it online. Like it's just gonna happen. Just plan for it and get ready mentally for it. It's still going to drive you crazy. But I think it's really a case by case basis. However, if it's something that is extremely critical or they're smashing your brand, there is a process to get those reviewed. Or you know, the platforms may consider taking them down more likely than that they can't and they won't be taken down. So the best way to deal with that, especially in negative review, is if it has merit respond. So if it's somebody that's genuinely complaining because something wasn't taken care of appropriately, it's really important to respond back as a human.

16:05 Don't put some canned response and don't use the same response every single time on social and try to get it offline. Like send us a message with your address or your phone number. You also don't want to make that person put all their personal information on your page. So don't forget to try to have it sent to a, you know, address inbox or give them your phone number. Put your name behind it. Hey, this is not what I want to happen in my company, so please give me a call and make it right. You know, Dash Beth. So people really do respond to that. The ones that have legitimate concerns and are rational people. If you have the crazies, first of all, don't forget that other people recognize that those people are crazy. So don't put too much weight into it. If you have the rogue employee, we see that all the time. There may be an instance where you just make a very quick and formal more formal response and tell them to call you, take it offline. It shows everybody else that you addressed it. That employee is probably not going to call you because you guys know each other. Right? So it, it kind of shows the rest of the online community that you're, you're addressing it but you may not really need to. Yeah. Gotcha. So that's where I would start. Okay.

17:20 So it kind of sounds like a lot of these things, it's be proactive, sort of have a plan in place, you know, think about these things, but then get started and go, are there any, you know, kind of next steps? I mean, besides that, you know, kind of plan, get started, then what are you doing after that? Yeah.

17:37 So really what you want to think of when you look at strategy or content is, am I putting the right content for the right people? And once you kind of get that in place you really have a killer social media strategy. And when I say write content, right? Audience the audience you're trying to attract, you need to make sure you're answering specific questions that they're probably asking in their mind or entertaining them. It just really, those two things can go a long ways. The right type of content. Again, let the data tell you that it shouldn't be just what you think it should be, what the data is telling you. So we see this all the time with like memes and humor, right? You may have an audience that's just brash or they just are a little bit grittier and it's okay if you put a meme out there that's a little bit inappropriate because when I say inappropriate, like nothing too extreme or polarizing, but something that you may not normally see from a brand because it tells you, it tells that audience that you get them, you understand their humor.

18:42 And humor is that one thing that connects us with our tribe and community, right? As moms we have one set of humor as Dads, we have another, as you know, whatever part of your life that you're in. Humor really does drive that. So it's really important to leverage that if you're trying to connect a community. Another kind of level up step is then your photos and your videos, getting those to the quality that you feel like you're proud of that is working on social and investing in those, whether that's just in the equipment or it's the person that's taking those or just the storytelling elements of it can go a really long way. Nice.

19:23 So we have a plan in place, we're gonna get started with some, some easier stuff and we also have a plan to improve our quality of content and our interactions. I think a common question we get across the board is how long is this going to take? Yeah. Cause I can Google something right now and it's there and an incident. But how long before I'm showing up with people, how am I, how long before I'm getting the results that I'm looking for? How long should I sort of let it ride and just keep with the same strategy before changing

19:51 So that like how long does it take to build a relationship? Yeah. You know what I mean? Like how long should I date before I get married? Right? Like, I don't know. Right. Different. It's different for every person. It's different for every business. And I think if you can't answer that question with a formula, then you've came answered the question on how long do I need to do social media before I can get results? Because it really just depends on how quickly you can create those meaningful interactions over time. And I think that it really is a long game approach in most instances. But I've seen businesses start up and they are just like boom, fell and stuff. Yeah. Right. So I, but the relationship wasn't as critical or deep in those type of businesses. They offered a product that someone needed super bad and so you just needed to get it out to them and they could buy others.

20:38 I mean, it is a, the product market fit may not quite be there. And so you've got to really tell them, you got to educate them. You need to build the relationship them, the price point might be high. I don't really think there should be an end game. I think there should be checkpoints within your social timeline to say, should we try something different? Are we doing the right thing? Are we saying the right thing? And those are probably every three months or so about every quarter six months. If you're just starting stuff out, I mean six months before you even probably start to see a lot of momentum unless you're putting a significant paid spend behind that. Sure. but you know, one to two years is if you haven't done anything is more realistic before you see bottom of the funnel results. Just in my experience. But again, you know, how long do you want to date?

21:30 Yeah, it could be quick, can be quick. Nice. That's a good analogy. And we have a plan in place. And what are some tools that we could use to get started with this fresh? Should I just use the platforms natively or are there other pieces that I need in my kit?

21:45 So I think what tools you need really again, kind of depend on the type of business and how savvy your individual is. I really can't imagine doing multiple platforms like more than three without a social media software. Primarily because it's so easy to miss those messages. And if you're relying on every single customer interaction or inquiry, you don't want to miss one of those messages and you don't want to forget to get back to somebody. So you kind of need a funnel to that inbox. So a couple of ways you can do it that is lower, no-cost. And I'm going to tell you what are a little bit more functionality. So one of my favorites is Trello. They have some free options on that software and it's really just kind of a list system on steroids. It's not gonna post those platforms for you.

22:36 You're still going to have to go on Facebook, on Instagram, go on Linkedin, but it's a good starting place to organize your content. And you can kind of use images in there. You can get approvals, there's a lot of functionalities. But I think just three different columns to say, okay, we're going to talk about our culture as a business. We're going to talk behind the scenes and what's happening on a day to day basis. And then we're going to talk about our products. And so you just get a bank of content in those three columns and then you can use them copy and paste. It kind of just helps organize you so they're not just living in random folders and you don't know if they've used them. Because how Trello works is they have little cards basically, and you just move those cards over to used.

23:21 And it's a pretty slick system. It's one of my favorite free tools for content strategy. Now for publishing, I get a lot of questions. She used HootSweet I don't like who's we, I never have liked too sweet. So if people are out there and they love HootSuite, great, no problem. I just don't feel like the price point in the functions are a good match. We use Sprout Social. I really like that platform. I think it's a good build out. It's not overbuilt for the, the software. And it's not crazy expensive. I mean, 150 bucks a month, which most people are like, Geez, that's expensive. It's not expensive because the amount of time you're spending on having whoever in your office do this, this is going to make them more efficient. So you're cutting your costs. And I can't imagine, again, if you're doing two or more platforms doing social without a management software.

24:11 So every podcast we're going to go through somebody, their screentime usage because everybody says that they do one thing, but then if you actually ask them, like, pull up your phone, let me see. Completely different story. Right? And I see this with young people all the time, like, I don't use this. And you're like, Hey, let me see your phone. And they're like, ah, man. I guess I was looking at something, right?! So we're going to use the example today of a 65 year old female and we had them pull their screen time and just a basic chart of this. So the first app that was used was Facebook and social networking specifically. The second kind of one that was came up. And I'm, I'm disregarding like app store or anything like that. But podcasts was really interesting as well as Twitter.

25:07 Those were the top three kind of main platforms. I can kind of imagine reaching this person on those three platforms as well. Because again, Facebook is just so many people are on it regardless if you love it or you hate it. To me it doesn't matter the political climate of some of these softwares and tools or whatever the peat latest PR is because people are still using them. Our memories are hostage on these songs and they really are like, if Facebook was gone today, like what's your biggest fear? Right? Like listening your photos. That's, that would be my biggest thing is like the, it has all of our information, not, not the information that I'm scared of losing, but my photos. And so reaching people on Facebook across the age demographic is a really great tactic. Again, could be news, could be social family information and could be you know, other just entertainment type stuff.

26:11 Another one that came up, there's podcasts. We know that podcasts are not just a trend. There's a lot of really great information and our information that we have available to us is so unique on podcasts. You can just search for anything. It's kind of just like a discovery platform at this point. So whether it's being a guest on other people's podcasts or being a sponsor of those podcasts, there's a lot of opportunities that businesses have to play on those platforms to reach those individuals, decision makers in their fifties and sixties. And a lot of people don't realize that, you know, the way that we're consuming information is changing. And then the other is Twitter, which is interesting, especially that demographic on Twitter. But my I would imagine it would probably be to follow politics or major news or you know, specific accounts.

27:02 It's kind of what we see on Twitter. And so I don't know if a local strategy would make sense, but I do think that you know, if you're trying to play to somebody with a political affiliation or you really want to you know, target your personas, you could try Twitter ads. You know, they're a little more expensive than some of the other platforms. And the strategy is a little bit more complicated. But I do think that there's some value there for specific brands in very thoughtful campaigns. So. Cool. What do you think, but what would be some things that you would imagine that person? Yeah, if I didn't, if I didn't see that data you just said, okay, here's what you say. A 60 year old. Yeah, 60. Yeah, 65. Yeah, it's probably Facebook for photos and trying to tag your grandchildren or something.

27:53 And I wouldn't probably guess Twitter. I wouldn't, maybe podcasts, podcasts are so passionate, I guess too. I mean you can be driving or doing something else while you're listening to it. So I guess that's not so surprising, but it's just not what I would've, yes, probably Instagram just cause again, it's more visual. It can be text-based. But again, the image is kind of a major thing. So you have Facebook, Instagram, my grandma, my grandma uses messenger a ton. So whether that's on the messenger of Facebook or not, I mean that's how she talks with me. I don't know if texting is just tough for her if she's doing on the computer, on Messenger. But that's how we communicate a lot. So yeah, I wouldn't have guessed a Twitter podcast, but I think the other thing too, snapchat is a perfect example. Snapchat is also used by people that are not 21.

28:39 Right? Like I see that all the time with my parents or my parents friends. They're, they want to communicate with their kids and their kids are on snapchat. So those are how the, like those platforms blossom to different demos. But it's happened a while ago. Like snapchat is becoming way more mainstream than it was, you know, even last year. So there are those individuals on the platforms. It's just how do you position it as a business? That's where you have to get creative. It doesn't say my Migraine, we have a group on snapchat and that's how we all share pictures and just quick stuff throughout the day, kind of the behind the scenes stuff. You don't have your own personal life. And so that's how we interact a lot. But nothing really directly between us. But in that family group, everybody's thrown in their own stuff. So I guess I could see that being big. But again, how do you reach them as a business? Right. I think ads are a great option on just scrolling, you know, looking at stories like other people, I don't know. Yeah. Cool. Well thanks for the insights and I think that this is a great episode, but I think we had some really good dialogue and can't wait to hear what we have on the next podcast for generation social media.

ChatterkickAugust 28, 2019digital set up, social media best practice