Social networks are as significant for business owners as their websites. That’s why entrepreneurs must pay attention to them, whether they own a tech hub, an online gambling in Canada platform or a small offline flower store.
Want to make everything perfect? Then follow these tips.
Don’t copy content
Each new media platform assumes its own model and mode of information consumption. A person who is used to using the Internet from a cell phone is not the same person who likes to sit at an office computer with a 19-inch monitor. So, it is important that the editorial staff, as a producer of content, create it taking into account the needs, convenience and interests of the user.
Unfortunately, more often the exact opposite happens: when mastering a new media platform, editors copy onto it content that has accumulated in their journalistic storerooms, or follow current TikTok jokes or memes which have been originated by someone else.
Understand user interests
On social media, people are clearly segmented by their interests. If you want to increase your audience by creating a group on a social network, the only effective way is to find the topics that the users of that site care about.
Engage with opinion leaders
Social media is the opposite of broadcast media. It is a space of information exchange, where people use likes and comments to express their attitude to what is happening, to rejoice at the news, to question it, to agree or disagree with it. Social networks present the entire palette of people’s attitudes toward any editorial content.
In wanting to grow its audience, newsrooms must create content that differs from the traditional one. First and foremost, it should be conversational, filled with questions and fresh ideas for public discussion. In turn, the scope and activity of discussions in a particular community will directly depend on the core of the group – the circle of socially active people.
What is social activism in this context? It is immersion and caring about an issue. However, not everyone can become a successful blogger. For example, a pediatric intensive care physician, even if he is inside the professional environment, knows how life in a regular hospital works, has an individual opinion and is not afraid to express it. But this is not enough. You need to be able to present your opinion well and informatively, to have a lively and imaginative speech.
Business books that specialise in providing marketing tips, suggest that in order for an editorial group to have a good “shot” in social networks, its moderator should look for bright people from the active core of other groups, negotiate with them and publish their statements with small comments in his editorial group, whose task is to collide different points of view and create new discussions.
Find the right employee
A love of communication is the basic quality of a person who can create and lead a successful group. He or she is the information matchmaker: must introduce and connect people to each other, have a genuine interest in what people are saying and writing, and know how they interact and debate. In other words, choose that person in the newsroom who can self-direct the public interest with radar accuracy.
Find an image
Your content should be visually recognizable – this is an important success factor. Together with your designers, think through the design templates, snippets, and illustrations so that they are bright and interesting, in the same corporate color, font scheme, and so on. Find your style, and then your publications will stand out in users’ personal feeds. This will increase the readability of your content and, as a result, improve the engagement of your audience.
Make a plan
Once you’ve created your publication’s social media group, write a plan with specific types of actions, allocated resources, and clear metrics. Unfortunately, most editors only have enough time to assign someone to be in charge of the group and give him or her a task in general terms: “make sure the group gets a lot of hits to the site” or “build up the number of subscribers”. Do not forget that the easiest way to accomplish such a task – to subscribe to bots, which will show good statistics. In the end, the administrator of the group will successfully report to the chief editor, but will provide neither promotion of the brand, nor solve the information tasks of the community for which you are working.
Therefore, a successful plan should include indicators that reflect the real dynamics of what is happening in the group, such as growth in the number of freelance authors, leading author columns, and commenters from the audience of users. Such a task will encourage the group administrator to actively seek out people who respond to the given topics, are able to comment sensibly, formulate unconventional opinions, etc. Eventually, when your facilitator learns how to negotiate with such people, give him or her a more difficult task.
Remember the budget
We live in an overabundance of information. So, to get your group in front of a potential audience faster, you need to spend money on targeting ads and promotional materials related to the topic of your group. Don’t repeat the mistakes of publications where the editor is tasked with working in social networks, but doesn’t allocate resources for paid specialized content and its promotion. Budget properly rather than join the losers.
Consider the workload
When the key to the popularity of your social networking group is the person you have chosen to lead the group, it is important not to demand the impossible from him and understand the load he will carry. Communication and discussion is a 24/7 job. It requires a great deal of concentration of emotional energy and time. So, if in parallel with this work your employee is responsible for a couple of analytical articles and dozens of reviews, in social networks, he will start working on the residual principle and simply will not be able to perform the tasks.