Key Insights for a Robust Social Media Presence
Do you have an effective social media campaign that generates a growing number of sales leads, comments, shares, “Likes”, and followers? Perhaps you do, but you know it can be better. Or perhaps you don’t have a campaign at all – and you know you should. Either way, here are some essential insights that I believe will help give your MSP the online visibility that it needs.
This blog isn’t about which social media channel – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. – is the best because each one has specific advantages and disadvantages. Also, you should be using as many of them as possible. The biggest keys to improving your social media presence regard a smart plan and the quality of your content. Let’s dive deeper into these and related factors.
Create a plan
Be aware that online growth takes time. So be patient. Begin by having one or two of your employees own the initiative. Only they will have the administrative rights for creating and posting content. More than two will give too many individuals the opportunity to abuse the operation. Your plan should include a set schedule for posts so that there is a consistency to your online entries. Use free social media management apps like Hootsuite to schedule your posts.
When to post
Days of the week – Using in-app analytics is a smart way to identify when a channel sees its heaviest traffic. Also, just ask yourself when you peruse your social media channels. That might be a good time for you to be active online.
Times of the week – What time zone is your audience in? If you serve a local market, then you want to be active during your local time. If you serve across time zones, then find an overlap time so that you can engage all audiences.
How much to post – There’s a fine line here. Posting too many times can be annoying to your followers; not posting enough will decrease your visibility and credibility. Here’s a general rule: Limit your daily posts to one on LinkedIn and up to two on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The golden rule? Be consistent and don’t disappear!
What to post
The first rule here is to avoid posting sales pitches. This will immediately turn off your audience and they won’t return. All of your content should be valuable and relatable to your audience. This will help you develop an online community of your MSP peers and prospective customers. Some popular topics that you should post about are:
Your culture – This is a terrific way to showcase who you are as a company. It can include charitable events in which your team has participated, awards you’ve won, and job postings. Be sure to include photos!
Your internal happenings – Share the industry events your employees are attending or news about an employee being certified in a particular MSP discipline.
Industry news – Post about new trends, innovative technology, and published surveys, but also add professional insights from your team on these news items. This will demonstrate your team’s expertise.
Whatever you post, you want to make it as creatively engaging as possible. So consider using a graphics program like Adobe Suite to help you create engaging content. If you don’t have a graphics program, then check out free content creators like Canva.com, which offers templates for blogs, job posts, etc. If you find these freebies too limiting, then upgrade to a more sophisticated paid content creation program.
Your competitors’ content
Investigate what your top competitors are posting to their social channels. Why? Because you’re all vying for the same audience. Look back about six months of their feeds and see what type of content they’re sharing. Which of their posts are getting the most engagement and which ones are not? This will tell you what to do and what not to do. Borrow one of their popular posts and put your own spin on it. Or take one of their least-popular posts and make it better. This will help you uncover more topics when you’re short of ideas.
Hashtags help
Hashtags are highly effective for drawing more “eyeballs” to your posts and raising awareness of your MSP. Don’t use too many or it’ll look like you’re spamming the content, which will turn people off. On Facebook and Twitter up to two hashtags are enough, but on Instagram you can use as many as 13 relatable hashtags.
Analyze your social performance
As with all your business strategies, you must regularly review your social media performance. Which channels are getting you the most traffic? Which posts were shared the most? Use Google Analytics to gauge these and other criteria, then adjust accordingly.
Social media is one of the strongest marketing initiatives that your MSP can employ to grow your brand and your audience, demonstrate your expertise, and – more importantly – generate quality sales leads. It’s the best way to get the voice of your MSP heard the world over.
