Setting up a social media handle is no biggie. You can create one in seconds and it only takes a minute to update your bio and profile picture. But is that it? For your practice to reflect the quality of service that you provide, setting up a clean and aesthetically pleasing social media handle is key to a growth-oriented practice. However, in our experience, we’ve come across many handles which make fundamental mistakes that are a big no-no. Let’s delve deeper into identifying these.
No research
Since a majority of small businesses operate through social media today, it’s safe to say that starting a social media page requires as much research as starting your own business. This research starts off with identifying the target audience that you are trying to serve. A clear definition of which particular segments you wish to reach out to will allow you to easily build content buckets for them. This definition will answer all questions that will further crop up in curating content, strategies, and campaigns.
The best way to research on your industry is to view the pages of your competitors and analyze their strategies. What sort of content are they putting, the graphics they use, their brand’s messaging, and how are they trying to make an effort at creating a narrative that is centered around their Unique Selling Proposition (USP). This will let you distinguish yourself from them and give you newer ideas about how you want to communicate your services. Not researching enough before starting a social media handle will only lead to the chaos which will easily be represented on your feed and that is something we completely wish to avoid.
No consistency
Another major mistake that we see individuals make is not maintaining a set routine and consistency in the way they post. Ensuring that your content goes up periodically at the times that are sure to work for your account is a must. A trend that we have identified is that individuals tend to give up in the first three months after setting up a page, complaining about low engagement and viewership on their handles. We have learned that growing a page successfully can take anywhere between 3 months to a year and this is purely after trial and error at finding the content that your niche interacts with most. As a result, inconsistent pages are sure to fall out where patience falls short. Maintaining consistency keeps your audience waiting and expectant of what is to follow and it serves as a build-up to the next post that is coming out. It helps in brand recall and enhances community building amongst your online audience.
No creativity in designing
A feed that isn’t aesthetically pleasing doesn’t deserve to be on social media. There, we said it. It may sound harsh but it’s important that you incorporate elements and designs which bind the entire page together. It isn’t always necessary to invest in professional graphic designing services considering there are a lot of free tools available online to create a feed design. A page that doesn’t look as appealing and has a lot of color on it, in all different post formats comes off as rather unprofessional. A well-structured, maintained and designed grid is bound to appeal to your target audience. While we wouldn’t go as far as to say that on occasion, content can take a backseat if the design is as appealing- we also wouldn’t deny it entirely. As they say, your first impression is the last impression and a well-designed feed offers just that to your target audience.
No clear aim
Jotting down your purpose, goals, and objectives out of building a social media handle is quite necessary. Putting this on paper will come in handy while coming up with content. It will streamline all your thought processes and you will be in a much better position to know what you want your handle to represent. Deciding on your conversion parameter- whether it is to divert more traffic to your website, more inquiries, or simply just maintaining and enhancing brand awareness will let you decide on how you can implement strategies to work on your aim.
Devising statistic goals will also give you a strong headfirst into ensuring that you meet the figure within the stipulated amount of time. You will also be able to come up with small but important strategies that can make a significant difference in reaching your goal- something as small as being able to finalize the Call To Action (CTA) you wish to add in every post that goes up. A clear aim will add meaning to the content on the feed and will also be able to communicate with the audience, what need it is that you are trying to fulfill for them. They will be able to resonate with the benefit and value that you wish to bring into their lives which makes them more likely to return to your page.
No engagement
Last but definitely not least, no engagement. An aesthetic feed that communicates your aim through designs is of no use if you are not trying to develop a relationship with your audience. And the only way that you can bring that about is if you interact with them on a daily basis. Replying quickly to comments, reverting to DMs, answering queries, and most importantly, putting up content that is interactive enough so that they can engage with your page are all methods of increasing your engagement rate. There are two beneficial outcomes that come out of it. Firstly, the platform realizes that people are being more and more interactive with your page and will thus make it more visible to a larger audience and secondly, you will be fostering a community within your audience. And all this at just organic promotions. Taking your engagement to paid content after successfully setting up an organic feed will easily render you a loyal and distinctive following.
These mistakes are the primary reasons why individuals aren’t able to set up successful social media handles. All mistakes have clear rules and strategies that can be implemented to avoid them all. If you wish to know more about how you can avoid them and create a crisp and complete social media handle, feel free to drop us an email at [email protected]