by Angela Hemans | Mar 10, 2023 | Business Owners, Marketing, social media marketing
Why Social Media Is Important for your business? As a business owner, social media is essential for your success. It provides a powerful platform to connect with potential customers, build brand awareness, and increase engagement. By creating valuable and engaging content, you can showcase your business and establish yourself as an industry expert. Social media also allows you to interact with your customers, providing a platform for feedback, questions, and support.
Does your business need to be on social media?
Short answer, yes, your business does need to be on social media!
The long answer: In today’s fast-paced digital world, social media has become a vital component of any successful business strategy. With over 4.2 billion active social media users worldwide, businesses that neglect to establish a strong social media presence risk being left behind in an increasingly competitive marketplace. A robust social media presence allows businesses to engage with their target audience, build brand awareness, and increase customer loyalty.
By providing valuable and informative content, businesses can establish themselves as an industry thought leaders and differentiate themselves from their competitors. Furthermore, social media provides a cost-effective platform for businesses to reach new customers, increase website traffic, and ultimately drive sales. In this modern age, it’s not just important but crucial for businesses of all sizes and industries to embrace the power of social media. Those that do not may risk being left behind.
Not sure if your business should be active on social media? Here is the list of 110 businesses that need to be at least 2 social media networks:
- Restaurants
- Cafes
- Bars
- Hotels
- Travel agencies
- Retail stores
- Online stores
- Beauty salons
- Hairdressers
- Gyms
- Fitness studios
- Personal trainers
- Yoga studios
- Art galleries
- Museums
- Nonprofit organizations
- Sports teams
- Event planning companies
- Wedding planners
- Florists
- Real estate agencies
- Financial advisors
- Legal firms
- Dental practices
- Medical practices
- Chiropractors
- Veterinarians
- Pet stores
- Landscaping companies
- Interior designers
- Graphic design firms
- Advertising agencies
- Public relations firms
- Social media management companies
- Software development companies
- App development companies
- Consulting firms
- Education and tutoring services
- Online courses and coaching programs
- E-commerce businesses
- Food trucks
- Catering companies
- Freelance writers
- Photographers
- Videographers
- Music studios
- Recording artists
- DJs
- Nightclubs
- Music festivals
- Film festivals
- Bookstores
- Publishers
- Online magazines
- News websites
- Podcasts
- Talk radio shows
- Theater Companies
- Comedy clubs
- Talent agencies
- Modeling agencies
- Clothing brands
- Shoe stores
- Jewelry stores
- Home decor stores
- Furniture Stores
- Antique shops
- Craft stores
- Stationery stores
- Toy stores
- Car dealerships
- Car rental companies
- Towing services
- Moving companies
- Storage facilities
- Cleaning services
- Pest control companies
- Plumbing services
- Electrical services
- HVAC companies
- Roofing companies
- Construction companies
- Architects
- Engineers
- Surveyors
- Home builders
- Property management companies
- Apartment complexes
- Homeowners associations
- Marinas
- Boat rental companies
- Fishing charters
- Sporting goods stores
- Golf courses
- Ski resorts
- Amusement parks
- Water parks
- Zoos
- Aquariums
- Theme parks
- Language schools
- Career coaching services
- Graphic design services
- Social media marketing agencies
- Wedding photographers
- Sports equipment retailers
- Jewelry designers
- Coffee shops
- Day spas
- Health and wellness coaches
If your business is not on the list, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to be on social media. The list is just a sample of industries that commonly use social media for marketing and engagement. Social media can be beneficial for any business, regardless of the industry.
To determine if social media is right for your business, consider your target audience and marketing goals. If your target audience uses social media, it’s likely that your business can benefit from establishing a presence on social media platforms.
Why you need Hemans Marketing Media to help decide which platform is best and how an audit could be helpful
Hemans Marketing Media can be an invaluable resource for businesses looking to establish a strong social media presence. As experts in social media marketing, Hemans Marketing Media can help businesses determine which platforms are best suited for their individual needs and goals.
An audit from Hemans Marketing Media can help you identify which social media platforms are the most effective for reaching your target audience and achieving your marketing goals. For example, if your business targets younger audiences, Hemans Marketing Media may recommend establishing a presence on platforms such as TikTok or Snapchat. On the other hand, if your business targets professionals, LinkedIn may be a better platform for your business.
In addition to platform recommendations, a social media audit can help identify any gaps in your current social media strategy, highlighting areas for improvement and optimization. Hemans Marketing Media can provide insights into what type of content performs best for your audience, the optimal posting frequency and timing, and how to improve engagement rates.
Ultimately, working with Hemans Marketing Media can provide businesses with a strategic and data-driven approach to social media marketing, helping them to maximize their impact and achieve their marketing goals.
by Angela Hemans | Sep 7, 2020 | social media marketing
Many businesses have decided to abandon their social media platforms. Unfortunately this is not the route to take even though we are in the middle of a pandemic. People have flocked to social media as a way to keep in contact with businesses that are currently working in a new normal format. Businesses that were completely done in person have now found a way to move online. Social media has a new founded purpose for many who are looking to connect with their old customers and a new community of customers. Try using these social media tactics to move your business forward online meanwhile keeping your levels of anxiety down.
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Continue posting to your social media accounts
Now is the time to keep your social media accounts active. One common question that I am asked by my Healthcare business clients is “Should we continue posting to our social media accounts” and my response is without a doubt absolutely you should continue. We are in the midst of a pandemic, and I wholeheartedly believe we should be mindful of what we post online but to stop posting will do more damage then overall good for your business. If you’ve stopped posting to your accounts, then you should start again slowly. If you’ve been posting more than usual and you’re feeling a little self-conscious then ease back the amount of social media posts but do not stop completely.
Community engagement still remains the backbone of growing social media accounts. Without engagement your business accounts are no different than the millions of other accounts out there. Building your community online is how you grow your brand awareness. Posting content and offering a call to actions is just one part of the process. This content will go unseen when there are no other actions being done on your account. It almost doesn’t matter which social media platform you choose for your business, you still need a community to increase certain analytical metrics like impressions and reach of the posted content.
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Try content diversification
Content diversification not only keeps things interesting but it keeps people engaged when you create and share more than one type of content form. It can be anything from written, images, video, and audio. Some industries may be concerned as to which content will do best. The only way to figure this out is to test the content. Once you’ve tested which content works best, continue adding other types to the mix. Don’t get caught up with thinking there is only one type you should be using. Diversification is the key to life and a healthy social media platform.
Don’t wait till December 31st to figure out how to make creating content and posting content more manageable. Work on simplifying the process as much as possible. Technology is out there to make our lives easier, tools like Buffer and HootSuite can help you keep your content flowing without you being online 24/7. Creating content and putting them on an Excel spreadsheet or a board like Trello can help you rotate content that will be used more than once. Find a way to make things easier for you as not every tool is good for every business. It depends on your budget, your time, goals, and resources.
Do you currently have access to the marketing help your business needs? Then get help to run your social media account or social media marketing consulting. Now is the best time to start doing the research to find a freelancer or support a small business like myself to consult with that can help you manage your social media accounts. A social media strategist, such as myself, is a person who has customizable packages that enables you as a business owner to take your social media to the next level. Have you tried doing social media yourself or had an administrator in your organization to take on this hefty task? If no, then it’s time to hire someone to maintain your account. If hiring a full-time person is not within your budget, then hire a small agency like Heman Marketing Media to do the heavy lifting without all of the politics that comes with having an in-house social media manager. You have options and don’t wait till the end of the year to figure it out.
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Stop comparing social media accounts
Not all accounts should be the same regardless if you’re in the same industry. Stop comparing your social media account to the competitors accounts. Create your own space online. Allow your social media manager some room for creativity and to test content. It is okay to see what types of content your industry competitors may be posting and to share similar content. Try stepping outside of the box but within legal requirements, and keep true to your business brand and add flair when possible.
Out of all of these 6 tips, the most important thing to remember is to keep your social media accounts active. There are a lot of challenges that are currently facing many businesses, and social media accounts are even more important during this pandemic than ever. It is the best avenue of how people are keeping in contact with knowing what is happening with your company. During this time, people are online more than ever before so don’t miss out on using social media as a way to communicate with your current and potential new customers who are looking for your type of services or products.
by Angela Hemans | Jul 9, 2018 | Healthcare Marketing, social media marketing, Thought Leadership
Never wait till you need a business network to start trying to grow and nurture your community all at one time. Building a social media community takes time and effort and almost always never happens overnight.
It doesn’t matter what social network you’re choosing to be on, having followers doesn’t mean you have a community. Jennifer Michelle was gracious enough to have me on her podcast Healthcare Lead Generation podcast, and we had an interesting melting post conversation on social media in the healthcare industry.
In this 3- Part podcast interview we covered:
- How to build your social media community: Learn how to use social media to create a community for your healthcare company. You’ll discover ways to measure your ROI and why your social media needs to integrate with the rest of your marketing.
- How to excel at “Thought Leadership” more specifically on Twitter: Discover why Twitter is so useful for building thought leadership in the healthcare sector. Find out where to connect with journalists online and why the most important thing is to be approachable.
- Top 3 Mistakes Healthcare business make using social media: Find out why a short-term social media strategy will always fail. Learn how even a one-person marketing team can build a strong network.
If you have a business whether it’s in the healthcare industry or not there are quite a few tips you can take away to help market your business online. Listen to the episode by clicking here.
The episode I’m sharing with you today is from Healthcare Lead Generation with Jennifer Michelle, a podcast that mixes lead generation tips with interviews of healthcare IT disruptors, innovative healthcare providers and health sector company leaders. Follow the podcast and #HCLeadGen to learn about growth strategies and navigating change in the healthcare sector.
by Angela Hemans | Feb 13, 2018 | Networking, social media marketing
Social networking is a part of my life as an entrepreneur. It is a necessary part of growing my business that I honestly enjoy doing although I consider myself mostly introverted.
Communicating virtually with someone can take place in a variety of ways. It can take place on any social media network, email, direct or private messaging, live streaming, texting, and by phone. Taking time to determine how you and your business chooses to connect and engage with others is crucial for developing a relationship.
What type of business relationships is best for your business?
Relationships come in many forms when you’re an entrepreneur. You may be looking for joint venture partnership, a business or a professional mentor, or a friend in the industry.
Whatever connection you desire, there are frequent mistakes that business owners are making that can kill a relationship before it even has a chance to take off.
I want to share my top social networking mistakes, I’ve come across that you should avoid doing while networking.
1. Being “Needy” with nothing to offer
The best types of relationship mutually give and take. Small business owners should enter into the situation with the intentions of providing value. Don’t approach a potential connection with a needy mindset. This type of approach will likely doom the venture from the start. What do you bring to the table? Make sure you have something to offer that the other person needs or wants. How do you find out what they want? Just ask!
2. Expecting to be promoted online
It’s not the job of anyone to promote you or your business.
That’s your job.
Connecting with someone because you want to increase your brand visibility is fine, but you can’t expect the business partner to do all the work. Have you taken time to grow your own following and community?
Expecting someone you don’t know to promote you, is not only rude but it puts that person in an awkward position, one that they will most likely not continue.
Relationships are built on:
- Mutual respect
- Respect for each other’s communities
- Mutual understandings
The success of the joint ventures is based on each one’s abilities combine resources to make thing happen cohesively. Which leads to the next mistake I commonly come across.
3. Having an inconsistent online brand
What is the first thing you do when someone asks to connect with you, whether on Linkedin or Facebook?
You check to see who they are and what they do. At least I know that’s what I do when I am unfamiliar with someone requesting to be part of my inner circle.
Having a consistent brand across social networks is the first foundational step to building trust with someone new. Online trust is established based on what people discover about you online. Some people will Google you, what will they find out about you by doing that?
This step is significant if you’re looking for partnerships, sponsorships, or new employment. Your profiles don’t have to be identical but having profiles with entirely different identities is a sure way to have people put up a defense barrier and run the other way from you.
4. Lack of Engagement
There are countless blog posts, articles, and books on how to increase engagement online. But who wants to be connected to someone who is not engaging themselves.
There are so many ways to interact online, pick your top three ways you communicate the best and reach out. If you’re looking for ideas outside of Twitter and Facebook, how about good old fashion email or text. You can even use snail mail. I love getting cards in the mail that doesn’t sell me anything.
If you’re wondering what you should say, don’t think too hard about this. It can be about anything that you’re community will find interesting and conversational. Try doing polls and asking your community or find similar communities and use their topics as discussion points for your community.
5. Being a Hit and Run Entrepreneur
Nothing screams mistrust and spammer than being sent a sales link by a complete stranger. Link dropping is a big No-No and a huge turn off for many people especially if you only show up when you have something to share and then you’re gone again. I am one of those people who doesn’t mind sharing and helping out when I can, but I will start to avoid you if I notice you only come around when you need something.
Don’t be that person! You will find that people will begin to avoid you like the plague.
We all make mistakes in our business; it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in business. Some errors can be avoided just by not being the entrepreneur you dislike yourself.
by Angela Hemans | Apr 27, 2017 | Facebook for Business, social media marketing
Does your business have a Facebook page?
Have you taken time to manage the settings for that business pages? If you’re like me, time is of the essence and having to do one more thing on Facebook feels mind numbing.
But managing your page is necessary if you don’t want offensive and disagreeable posts seen by every fan on your page. Believe me you don’t want any and everything posted on your business page. And I’m here to tell you, Yes, you can manage what visitors post to your page.
Read on and I’ll show you how.
Here is one thing you need to know about your Facebook page?
When someone tags or mentions your business page on their profile timeline or business page it will show up as a post on your business Facebook page in the section called “visitors post”.
Personally, I would like the opportunity to respond to the person first and thank them sharing or inquire more if the mention they posted was negative. For this scenario, I have my settings set to “ Post Moderation.”
#1 Access Your Facebook Page
Facebook is constantly trying to find ways to get us to share content to our pages, so there are multiple way to get access to your business page on desktop. You can go to your Explore tab on your profile home feed or you can go to the Quick Help (bookmarks) to see the list of pages you manage.
#2 Once you have chosen your page, then go to your settings which will be at the top of your page to the right.
#3 In the settings, click the “Visitors Post” tab under the general settings. Don’t get lost by all of the other settings that you have available.
#4 Under the edit button you have 4 options to choose from.
- Allow visitors to the page to publish
- Allow photos and videos posts
- Review posts by other people before they are published to the page.
- Disable posts by other people on the page.
#5 After you’ve made your choice hit the “Save Changes” button that will save your choice. If you decide later that you want visitors to have that option to post you can always edit the choices.
This post was created April 27,2017, if you know anything about Facebook, then you know that they are constantly making changes to where certain things are located. So check back to this post if you find that you are unable to locate this particular setting on your business page. Please note, that this will be different for you Facebook profile.
by Angela Hemans | Mar 28, 2016 | Personal Brand Strategy, social media marketing
Do you plan on creating a social media strategy?
I hope so.
Don’t make the same mistake I made when I first started out using social media.
I would spend countless hours trying to find random content to share. Then I would spend several hours posting those pieces of content that I had found. There was no real purpose to what I was doing.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, I would then sit down and spent hours trying to figure out what I was supposed to do now that I’m on these social platforms. I wasted so much time not knowing where to start, what my purpose was, nor where I was going.
If I have to do it all again I would have started by creating a simple social media strategy to help guide me in the direction that I needed to go.
Here are three key things to consider before you get started creating your strategy.
1. Define and assess your key goals
How do you know what direction to take, if you don’t know where you are going?
Before you start posting content to your social media networks, take a few minutes to look over your marketing strategy and define your overall goals for being online.
Is your objective to increase traffic to your website or maybe your blog. Maybe your goal is to increase sign-ups for an upcoming event that you have.
It is important to create smart goals. My SMART stands for:
– Specific
– Measurable
– Attainable
– Repeatable
– Time Based
Once you have the determined your goals and also have begun to implement them after a period of time, you will want to assess how you’re doing. During this time, if what you have created is working, then great, BUT if not, you will have to reassess what your goals are and what you need to do to achieve them through the use of social media marketing.
2. Perform a social media branding audit to develop your content strategy
Having an audit done is one of the best ways to get an idea of what kind of social media content your audience will deem valuable.
What you need is not determined by what you want to offer your audience. Instead you need to take time to identify the needs of your potential,current, and previous clients.
Ask yourself what problems can you help them solve, what kind of content format they prefer.
For example your audience may prefer text content, Images, video, and or e-book format for their content consumption
If you’re new to business and wondering how you will do your own audit you can try something simple as identifying someone in your niche with a similar audience and analyzing what kind of content they are sharing.
If the content shared with their community is engaging AND you share a similar audience, then it’s safe to say your audience will engage with it as well. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
3. Do the three C’s of social media
Create valuable content.
Valuable content depends upon your audience and the people that you were trying to reach.
What is valuable to one community may not be the same for your, so take time to consider what is valuable and provide that.
Community, you need to build relationships. The success of your business is partially dependent upon the relationships you build, nurture, and grow.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to connect and authentically engage with others in your niche and with your potential clients
The last is consistency. Don’t create your own ghost town within your social networks.
Be clear about the purpose and the value you want to provide and do that in small steps as often as possible.
Consistently engaged and consistently share other people’s content, Follow the 80/20 rule that’s always helpful.
To sum it up!
Social media marketing is really about networking online to find and grow meaningful relationships that can be mutually beneficial for everyone involved.
Creating your social media strategy doesn’t have to be complicated.
It just takes a little planning.
In the comment below and tell me what is one thing you wish you knew before you started before getting on social media!
