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Do you like big numbers? Try these on for size: as of January 2018, there were 2.2 billion active Facebook users on the planet, 800 million Instagram accounts, and 330 million active monthly users on Twitter. LinkedIn, the business and professional equivalent of Facebook, boasted 260 million corporate profiles that same month. Long story short, if your business doesn’t have a strong social media presence, you’re missing out on a massive potential audience.
As an energy industry provider (producer and services), you may think that social media doesn’t really apply to your organization. Or perhaps you have it, but aren’t quite sure what to do with it. Are you confident that your posts are as effective as they could be? Are they reaching who they should and being used in the most impactful way? Effective use of social platforms is trickier than it seems. For starters, social media communication can be extremely time consuming – particularly if you’re trying to stay current on several different platforms at once. Secondly, integration can be an issue. Ideally you want each of the platforms you employ to compliment and feed into each other, rather than be a mirror image from one to the next. In other words, if you’re posting the same stuff across all your platforms at the same time, you’re not maximizing the power of social media.
In addition to effective integration, there are many other ways to ensure social media does its best work for your business. Here’s a quick Top 5 for you to consider:
- Identify the Best Platforms for your Business
You might not need to have a presence on every social platform out there. Maybe your target audience is primarily Twitter users with a dash of Facebook engagement on the side. Maybe your brand is best represented visually, making Instagram the obvious focus. If your brand is well established and you know what platforms your target market prefers, that’s half the battle.
- Create a Social Media Calendar
Without a plan in place for what to post and when, you’ll be shooting in the dark and your posts will come off as being completely random (because they will be.) Establishing specific content and posting dates in advance saves you time and allows you to create content that is truly meaningful to your target audience. There are a number of online services that allow you to pre-set social posts across all platforms months in advance (Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and ViralHeat to name a few.) Once your major campaigns are set up, you’ll have the freedom to inject fun up-to-the minute posts that will help keep your content fresh and engaging.
- Be Human But Be Professional
Social media is the one place where you can really let your company’s personality shine through, and the more human you can be, the better. Being relatable is far more impactful than coming across as a faceless corporate entity, so don’t be afraid to have a little fun. Remember, the whole point of social media when it was first created was to allow people to connect with each other one on one, person to person. At the same time, always remember to be professional in your posts.
- Be Helpful Instead of Salesy
This point relates directly back to point 3, in that the purpose of social media is to create and maintain direct relationships. If you’re loading your streams up with nothing but offers and sales pitches, you’re going to lose followers pretty fast. We recommend that our clients follow a 70/20/10 rule: 70% original value and brand building content, 20% third party shares or curated content and 10% sales and marketing promotion.
- Show, Don’t Tell
Social posts that include a visual element have much better response rates than those that don’t, including more likes, shares and conversions. Most of what you share visually should be brand specific, but there is always room for spontaneous pics that showcase your business’s personality. Team photos, interactions with customers, event shots and other behind the scenes images create interest and humanize your company.
These are the basics, but there are many other important social media considerations, like the use of pertinent hashtags, strategic response automation, the possibility of paying for followers and engaging influencers too. If you’re savvy with social media, your business will see increased lead generation, explosive brand awareness and improved customer service.
About WJ – William Joseph Communications
As a recognized leader in the marketing industry, William Joseph is a full-service agency that empowers businesses of all sizes to achieve bold performance targets. Our work is grounded in research and strategy, which not only serves to connect clients with their ideal target audience, but compels that audience to act. After years of direct experience serving the energy sector, we know for certain that marketing in the oil and gas industry isn’t optional, it’s essential.
Visit:Â williamjoseph.com
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