Starting a new business is a feat that few attempt; like running a marathon. Each department of your business is another part of your training to reach the proverbial finish line. After the long hours of training and preparing, we, your coaches and biggest supporters at HighClick Media, suggest that what you need the night before the big race is a hearty meal of pasta, or really, social media marketing that is.
“Social Media Marketing is like a pasta”
– Someone in our office probably.
Why do I want to eat pasta?
Why should I invest in social media marketing?
Eating pasta before the big race is great for proper carb-loading. Carb-loading is not the only solution to winning a marathon and it won’t make you run faster, but it gives your body the nourishment it needs to be successful. Social media is carb-loading for your business. Having a presence on social media, and utilizing those platforms, will be a way for your business to build awareness, interact with your customers, show authenticity, boost sales and leads, and add an extra layer of support and customer service to your company. Who doesn’t want that?
Who’s making the pasta?
Should I hire a social media manager?
The age-old question of “what are we having for dinner” is usually followed by “well who’s gonna make it?” You’ll need to follow that same frame of mind. You know what you’re having for dinner, but you don’t know who is going to make it! Do you make it at home by yourself, hire a personal chef to cook for you, or do you go to your favorite local Italian restaurant?
When you start the process of creating your online social media presence, you’ll need to figure out if you’ll do it all yourself, on top of running your business, hire an employee to do it, or outsource the job to a digital marketing agency.
Ask yourself the following questions and be honest:
Do I know how to run a social media platform for a business?
Do I have the time?
Do I hire a social media manager?
Can one of my employees do it?
If I hire a marketing agency, will they be able to capture the flavor I’m looking for?
Do I trust my employee or local digital marketing agency with my company image?
What type of pasta do I want?
What will my business look like online?
The amount of different types of pasta in the world is truly a work of art. From angel hair and linguine, bow-tie pasta and tortellini, the different combinations available for you to devour are endless! Which is why you need to decide your vision for your pasta before the water boils!
Do you want to be a formal blogging like page or a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run your business? How often do you want to post, and what exactly do you want to be promoting? It’s one thing to say “Hey look at what I’m eating” and another thing to say “wow, look at this beautiful fresh lasagna I made from scratch with just a few things in my kitchen.”
The devil is in the detail and the sauce and we recommend knowing the recipe by heart. That way you’ll be able to work with your employee if you decide to hire someone in house, or your marketing agency if you decide to go that direction. Marketing agencies can research your favorite dish, but they appreciate if you tell them how exactly you like it made.
No matter the project, it’s better to plan as prior proper planning prevents poor performance on your end. It can be a difficult hurdle to navigate all of the right social media channels for your business, but going in blind makes it even more of a challenge.
Remember, the goal of the pasta is to help your race, not hinder it.
Planning can also mean creating posts in advance. Certain social media networks and websites will give you insights for you to figure out the best times to post on social media, what day of the week, engagement rates, and what the top hashtags to use. Understanding these nuances will help make planning easier. There is nothing wrong with organic spontaneous posts, but your time is valuable! Create your meal plan, or content calendar in this case, to plan out what exactly you want posted and when. We’ll go more in-depth on content calendar creation at a later point! Point is, your social media shouldn’t prevent you from growing your business, but instead aid it!
Which ingredients should I use?
What social media platforms should I be on?
Your appetite won’t allow for any pasta meal, it craves a specific type of delicious victory before you cross the marathon finish line. There are plenty of social media networks out there for your business to eat up. Here are some of the more popular networks for you to try!
Facebook is the sauce that everyone uses and there’s a reason why. It’s business-friendly and can work almost like a second website. With a large assortment of post types and advertisement capabilities, the flavor can be a tad overwhelming at first, but in time you’ll be wishing for seconds and thirds. Facebook is how many businesses are found and a great place for announcements, business-to-business interaction, and community engagement. Take full advantage of the tools Facebook gives you to keep your page active and inviting.
Depending on your flavor profile, an Instagram account is the spice of your business engagement. Instagram is owned by Facebook, and as such, integration between your Instagram and Facebook is as easy as boiling water! You’ll need the app on any mobile device to post, and you’ll need to take pictures of your services or your product to fill your feed. Instagram is a great place to interact with like businesses by following hashtags and engaging in their comment section. This can be locally or across the entire globe! Quick tip, check out the trending hashtags for more insight on what’s currently popular on Instagram, and see if your business fits into any of them!
Making a lasagna like YouTube sounds like a great investment, and it is, but YouTube can be daunting for those who underestimate it. The allure of the multilayer noodle cake is enough to drive any sane person crazy with delight, but the process of making Lasagna/content on YouTube is a long one. Having a set goal and content drive is crucial for YouTube. How will you create the content? What sort of style videos will you produce? Who is going to edit it? If you came across this video on YouTube, would you watch it?
YouTube is a perfect platform for the right business, so don’t let us scare you off, but it’s a platform that demands the time it takes to create caliber content. Creative videography, quality sound design, and topics that resonate with the audience should be your goals for your YouTube channel.
Pasta can be very colorful, and the recipes can be particularly crafty! If this sort of pasta speaks to you, then you have certainly heard of Pinterest. Pinterest will allow your customers to create their virtual vision board using your pins (posts). This platform is perfect for promoting crafts, DIY projects, and recipes (like for pasta). You can take it a step further as well with promotion of company apps, articles, and products – sending customers straight to landing pages you’ve tailored for the occasion!
Not every business is striving for a business to consumer strategy. For businesses focusing heavily on B2B, you absolutely must find yourself on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great place to interact with other business owners and people in your field. If you’re looking to promote job openings in your business, LinkedIn has an onsite job listing area – perfect for looking for a personal chef to cook your pre-marathon pasta dinner.
When it comes to social media marketing, when you first start, not every social media channel will be right for you. A true hot take, we know, but tackling multiple social media channels at once can be daunting and exhausting. It’s better to start strong and ease yourself into going faster until you find the perfect pace for you.
You’ll need to figure out which channels are best for your business style, outlook, and time management.
Sharing the pasta.
How do I get more followers on social media?
Did you know: There are about 3.2 billion social media users worldwide. That’s a lot of people who could eat pasta with you. Social media marketing is pivotal in today’s business world. Our last serving of advice is to share your pasta with your community. Get ready for your marathon of running a business together with your community. Engage with other local businesses and local social media influencers, take part in events, interact with each other over social media to build a strong business community. Every social media channel provides easy and unique ways to share and grow your social media organic reach, your business should utilize that.
At HighClick Media, we work with your vision for your business and dish it up across social media. We will take your recipe of success and create fantastic meals for your customers to eat up! We strive for a full course meal of digital marketing and design to help your business grow. If you have the kitchen, we have the ingredients. We’re HighClick Media and we’re here to Elevate Your Brand.
