Hardwood Floors February/March 2017

BEST PRACTICES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Maximize your time and energy investment by following these guidelines: • Give them somewhere to go. Capitalize on the increased traffic driven by social media with a website that’s easy to navigate, well-designed and content-rich, while answering customers’ questions and giving them an incentive to call or visit. • Properly brand your social media platforms. Visitors and followers should immediately recognize your company branding. • Be an editor, not a marketer. Create blog posts, videos and other content about topics customers care about to encourage sharing. • Don’t post the same thing across all social media; instead, capitalize on the strengths of each platform.

• Don’t go dark; be consistent yet moderate in your communication. You don’t have to post every day or even every week, but choose a schedule and stick with it. • Do several platforms well, rather than many poorly. If resources are limited, focus on effectively executing one or two. • Avoid over-automation. Pre-scheduling generic posts can become a crutch that keeps your content from being timely, spontaneous and fresh.

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO START

If you’re not using social media yet, the good news is it’s getting easier. The platforms are more simple to use with ever-improving tools and functionality. And tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, EveryPost and SocialOomph help you create, schedule, analyze, and otherwise manage your content marketing programs on social media. When you approach social media marketing strategically, with an overall plan that looks at each platform as part of an integrated whole, your efforts will not just be efficient, they’ll be more effective.

Katrina Olson is a freelance writer and principal of Katrina Olson Strategic Communications. Reach her at katrina@katrinaolson.com.

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