Why Is Tide Not on Social Media

We caught up with Sinmi Adekola , Tide member, owner of Vera Beauty, accolade winning lash artist and trainer, and social media guru, to give her top tips on how to start, grow and maintain a social media strategy that volition help you grow your business organisation.

Firstly, tin can you lot tell us a bit about yourself and Vera Beauty?

Hello, Hello, Howdy! I am Sinmi Adekola Possessor of Vera Beauty, you lot're not and then 'ordinary' dazzler brand.

A piddling about me, I started my get-go dazzler business at 17 years old. Selling my own line of imitation lashes and cosmetics. I always knew the importance of social media in edifice a business, and after years of research I now sympathize how to truly harness its ability. IT'Due south Important. Then I'm not bad to share my expertise on how to build a make on social media – the why, what and how, including the apps and resources yous tin utilize!

Why should small businesses apply social media equally part of their marketing strategy?

Did you know that as of January 2018 there are more than than iv.2 billion people using social networking sites across the world?  It's crazy to think that ten years ago the internet was nonetheless pretty new, now look at how it has revolutionised today's world. You tin can't become anywhere without seeing it in today's modernistic society. Social media is a quick, inexpensive and highly effective way to reach your audience. Information technology's pretty uncomplicated too, if you know what to do. Hither's a list of the top uses for social media:

1. Increase make awareness

2. Establish your brand as a thought leader

three. Display your brand persona

4. Increase website traffic & generate leads

five. Promote content & go viral

half dozen. Work with influencers

7. Engage with your audience

8. Get make inspo

ix. Reputation management / reviews

10.  Go along upward with trends/news in your industry

11.  Customer service & support

12.  Edifice your community

13.  Advertizement

14.  Analytics

What kind of businesses find social media helpful?

If you run a Business organization to Consumer (B2C) business, you demand social media. If you are edifice a community, you lot need social media. If you have a message to spread, you need social media. The only businesses I feel may not benefit every bit much from social media are certain Business to Business organisation (B2B) business concern – withal, you are still selling to humans, and then it tin can exist a case of choosing specific social channels, like LinkedIn.

So, how do you get started?

Firstly, you will need to take your make guidelines together. It's a HUGE part of your social media strategy, knowing the colours, fonts, tone etc you volition use. If you don't have this withal, go ahead and do some research on branding. Hither are a few basic questions to enquire yourself to work out your brand identity:

• Which three colours represent your brand?
• What is the 'why' backside your business?
• What is your brand personality/tone?
• Click hither for a costless brand lath template for y'all to make full out!

Information technology's then time to think nearly the platforms that volition work best for your business.

Each platform is created to share different types of content and so although information technology'due south tempting, you may not always get away with copy & pasting the same posts on multiple platforms. Hither'due south a unproblematic break downwards:

• Facebook – Peachy for videos, pictures & adverts
• LinkedIn – Great for sharing stories/manufactures, conversation
• Twitter – A text based platform for conversation and sharing information in threads
• Instagram –  A visual platform perfect for videos & pictures

 When choosing a platform, you lot need to recollect 3 things.

1. Where is my audience?

 two. What content is relevant to them?

 3. What platform can I use to add the most value?

For example, if y'all are selling trainers online, LinkedIn might not be the best place to try to market your business, whereas a visual platform like Instagram will yield better results. If y'all run a beauty business like me, again, sharing articles on LinkedIn won't hit the iii points above. My clients mainly use Instagram, they honey seeing pictures of lashes, BTS (Behind the Scenes) and savour reading my value-filled captions & stories.

It's important  to note that y'all shouldn't use all social platforms for the same purpose, you may post a lot of pictures on Instagram and and then employ Twitter equally a customer service platform to speak to customers straight. However, recollect about your chapters, y'all cannot be everywhere, otherwise you risk delivering a watered-down version of your message in ten separate places.

Groovy. Then once you've identified the right platforms, how do yous go about setting upwardly an effective profile?

Sherpa Marketing recently found that more than people follow brands on social media than follow celebrities. On Instagram alone, lxxx% of people follow at to the lowest degree one concern. If y'all can create a winning social media presence than there'due south a huge opportunity to engage your audience and create a loyal fan base of operations.

Once you've chosen your preferred platforms, sorted out your branding & identified your audience yous need to set your profile. Here are some rules for choosing a handle.

The Buss principle is a adept ane to live by when thinking about this.

Yard – Keep

I – Information technology

Due south – Simple

Southward – Stupid

In that location is no demand to overcomplicate things, so continue it simple! Lets use my own handle as an example, which handle is easier to find & remember?

 @vvera.beauty__bromley.great britain

Or

 @verabeautyuk ?

Choose a handle that is simple and keep it consistent across all the platforms you lot use.

Now your bio. This is the 'showtime impression' infinite in your contour, where you tin can let people know your name, location, what you practise & more. You have a express amount of characters and then make proficient use of them!

Some other example, which sounds better for a business coach?

Business Coach

Consultations in London

13 Years' experience

[Followed by an email]

VS

For thirteen years I've helped business concern owners go from struggling to thriving! Electronic mail to volume a gratis consultation in the heart of London! Click the link to visit my website

See the difference? Which one would y'all be more likely to engage with? Make that initial affect i to call back!

How practise yous so become about building a following?

This is probably anybody's biggest question and the respond is articulate. ADD VALUE. CONSISTENTLY.

Firstly, you need to do some research on what your audience would like to see, what topics peak their interest & their preferred style of content. If y'all tick all these boxes y'all will get-go to abound your post-obit, but consequent  growth comes down to consistency.

Yous may hear people saying you lot need to post 10x per twenty-four hour period and constantly exist on a content hamster wheel. This is not the case, I recommend posting i-2 times daily on your feed and posting daily on your stories (Facebook/Instagram).

Like I mentioned earlier, you need to be adding value in any manner you can. This tin can be through videos, newsletters, blog posts, infographics, helpful tips & more. Reply your audience'southward questions, even the ones they didn't know they needed answers to.  Add so much value that it wouldn't make any sense for them to go anywhere else!

Once you have a skillful social media following, how exercise you turn information technology into value for your business?

If possible, information technology'south great to build your tribe kickoff before launching a business. This manner you lot will accept congenital a reputation for yourself, established your authority/ trust and accept an engaged audience. You can start to tease your business idea or new launch to your audience over time whilst you become all the groundwork work together.

BEFORE you launch, make certain your have everything together, Your website, branding, marketing etc! Conducting market research is crucial as you don't want to launch to an audience that isn't interested. This may be the example if yous don't bother to inquire what your audience wants!

Maintaining a steady stream of engaging content will then aid to cement your business organisation in the mind of your audience, and pb them to consider you when making a buy.

There are iii key steps  to maintaining your channels – Programme, Prepare & AUTOMATE.

Programme

Creating a marketing strategy for your business volition make life easy for you. Programme out the types of content yous want to share, design ideas, and your chosen platforms. Click here for a simple 30 day content plan, I follow this and switch it up for each month to include special offers, dates etc.

PREPARE

Using the xxx day programme yous have merely customised, have the day to sit down down and write captions, blog posts and various hashtags you will apply throughout the month. I recommend creating three groups of hashtags to collate the posts y'all are uploading eg. one for quote posts, one for pictures of your work/products and one for promotions/sales.

AUTOMATE

At present for the fun part, subsequently a long day or two of working on your content you lot can utilise sites/apps such as Hootsuite or Planoly to schedule all your posts! This means you can accept posts you've already written going out without you lot having to do anything. Pretty peachy, right?

Is it important to build a big social following to see the  benefit of marketing through social media?

Don't believe the hype, y'all could have 10,000 followers who aren't engaged and never buy anything from you. Focus on engagement, non your follower count. I know businesses that accept 6 figure revenues but only a couple hundred followers. Stay focused on delivering value, the numbers mean zippo!

Should you engage with your followers & reply to every comment?

In short, yes. If you simply have 10 comments on a post are y'all really besides decorated to send a quick emoji or start a trivial chat? If you have 100 comments try to reply to the kickoff 10-twenty and like the rest of the comments. Your followers are your community and y'all need to be engaging with them on a personal level. Make them your tribe and build a solid relationship with them! Be sure to reply and evidence some love on their pages too 👍.

If you would like to hear more than from Simni,  you can connect with her on her social media channels, @verabeautyuk

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