Many people argue social media is the most effective way of holding conversations online. They certainly have many advantages. If you are looking for new people to sign up to your email list, then social media is a good place to start. The trick is to know when to point your social media to your website.
It is important to remember your friends, likes, followers, etc are the property of the social media application. You have to follow their rules and if they change their site structure or their rules, you can lose your work on that particular application. This is why you will want your social media contacts to sign up to your email list.
How do you make best use of social media for your organisation?
- Be selective – there is no need to be a member of everything going. By restricting your involvement to a few platforms, you can learn how they work in-depth. You can always add another later.
- Don’t forget specialist social media, such as YouTube, still counts to your total. YouTube offers opportunities that take time to understand and implement. It is not just somewhere to display your videos.
- Refer contacts back to your site because your site is where you build meaningful relationships. Someone who visits and signs up to your email list may become a follower and eventually a customer or advocate through social media. Indeed, the person who has visited and likes what they see, is likely to spread the word via social media.
- Don’t sell on social media. Use it to engage with new people and interest them in your work. Later they may publicise your offers on social media but it’s better when it comes from them!
- Consider advertising on some platforms. Facebook in particular seems to be a successful platform for advertising because you can specify the type of person who will see your advert. However, it is usually better to grow your presence organically, without paid advertising, until you know the market to which your product appeals.