We have talked a lot about the importance of having a social media presence for your business. Not only is it a good way to open up channels of communication with your customers, but also lets you know first-hand what your customers want. Having that kind of an edge on your product or service offering can be a fantastic way to help grow your business.

These are 3 simple steps that can help you gain traction and see more action for your business. Having a social presence for your business is not the only way of communicating with your customers and marketing your products, but it is a tool that can add value if used properly.

     1. ANALYZE your target audience

The nice part about this step is that with the tools available to you from your social accounts you can gather a lot of information about your primary audience. Please note that if you started your business a month ago, you probably won’t get as much information—give yourself some time to build a decent sample of your clientele. Once you’re ready, start collecting the data on your followers.

For Facebook, use Facebook Audience Insights to better understand who likes your page and who is engaging with you. You can also create lookalike audiences on Facebook to further your reach. LinkedIn is a great place to gain insights about industries that make up your followers, how your followers found you (e.g. organic or sponsored), and how you compare to other companies within your industry. This and more is available to you through the analytics tab from your companies LinkedIn page. Another way you can study your target audience is by using Twitter. You can monitor key demographics, languages, and interests on your Twitter account by clicking on “audiences” from Twitter Analytics.

Let me also add that you can get a great head start on analyzing your audience by using the services of our sister company, West Coast Data Services. Their professional team can quickly take your customer file and run a quick analysis that will leave you with a clean and accurate list to help you reach the audience you are aiming at. It’s worth looking into what West Coast Data Services can do for your market analysis! For more information, contact our representative, Patti, at 800-434-1851/

     2. DIVERSIFY your message

When you have multiple social accounts for your business it’s best to follow the general platform guidelines for how each platform should be used. In this post I want to give a brief explanation of how to use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn promotes your business and engage with your followers.

Let’s start with Facebook. Facebook is a perfect way to communicate all aspects of your business. Users on Facebook like to see business content that is fun, but not too intrusive with sales and promotions. On Facebook, you want to post photos, videos, and status updates that are related to your product or service offering. Find more information on how to use Facebook to grow your business here.

Twitter is great for monitoring communication with your business. You want to be tweeting often, and your tweets need to be catchy so that people don’t just scroll past without even a glance. You also want to use Twitter to engage in conversations with people and provide customer service. Ask and respond to questions! Find out more about using Twitter for business here.

LinkedIn is interesting because it is A social platform centered around businesses and professionals. It’s the place to share professional thoughts and work-related experience. Use LinkedIn to network with people and companies within your industry. You can also join and create LinkedIn Groups to get more direct communication going about your business. Learn more about using LinkedIn for business here.

     3. POST! Post! Post!

Perhaps the most important part of your social media strategy is to be active on social media. This doesn’t mean simply creating an account on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Google+. In order to be effective, you need to be actively engaging on these platforms. Frequently post to your accounts, but make sure that your copy is relevant and engaging for your audience.

A few closing thoughts

After reading this, you may be thinking: “How am I going to have time to implement all of these steps to get a better handle on social media for my business?”.  At American Name Services, we want to see your business succeed. We provide social media help that can get your business’ social sites rolling. If you would like help with boosting your social media for your business, give us a call or check out our website! You can also email our social media manager, Lindsey Lefevor at lindseyl@a-names.com. We would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below if you found this article helpful or not.

By Michael Peterson