Want the tips you need to attract more followers, and build a powerful online presence that truly reflects your business? We’ve got ‘em! Let’s get started!

Wait… what’s the difference between an Instagram name, username, and bio?

Great question! Here’s a quick anatomy lesson for your instagram profile.

Instagram user name: Your Instagram user name is your digital identity on the platform. It’s the name you pick when you sign up for an account and what people use to find and tag you in posts and stories. Your username also appears in your profile’s URL. Keep in mind that you only have 30 characters to work with, and no spaces or emojis are allowed. You can change this every few weeks, but if you change it too often, you might confuse your followers or break backlinks to your profile.

Instagram name: Your Instagram name is what appears at the top of your profile, just below your username. It can be your real name, business name, or nickname, and it’s separate from your username. Your name is an essential part of your brand identity on Instagram, and it’s one of the first things people will see when they visit your profile. You can have up to 30 characters, but Instagram may limit how often you can change it. The best part? Your name can contain emojis and special characters, so feel free to get creative!

Instagram bio: Your Instagram bio is like a mini-introduction to your brand or personality, so it’s super important to make it count! Keep it short and sweet – no more than 150 characters – and highlight who you serve, what you do, and any impressive accomplishments. Use emojis to add some personality and emphasize key brand elements or values. And don’t forget to include a call-to-action to your business links – let your followers know how they can take the next step with you!

…so how do I choose the best user name for me?

A few quick tips for choosing your instagram user name:

There are some basics to keep in mind when picking an Instagram user name: 

• keep it simple and memorable. 
• avoid using numbers or special characters that might confuse your audience
• stick to letters and short, catchy names that people can easily remember. 

It’s also a good idea to check if your username is available on other social media platforms, to maintain consistency across all profiles. 

Use keywords related to your niche or industry.

Using keywords in your Instagram user name is a great way to attract the right followers and grow your biz. Suppose you’re a master gardener, using keywords like “seed” or “plant” in your name can increase your visibility to people searching for those topics on social media platforms like Instagram.

But, don’t go overboard! Too many keywords can make your username too complicated. So, keep it short, sweet, and memorable.

Why keyword research is important before you choose your instagram user name

Before you jump into picking a name, let’s talk about why keyword research matters. By finding the right keywords and using them in your username, you’ll be more easily discovered by your ideal audience, leading to more followers and a stronger online presence. Plus, keeping up with popular hashtags and industry trends can give your profile that extra oomph. 

There are some great free tools out there, like Instagram’s search feature or Google Trends, but if you’re looking for more in-depth information, you could check out paid options like Ubersuggest and VidIQ. 

The key is to know your customers and their needs, and make sure your username reflects the solution you’re offering. So, let’s get searching and make your Instagram profile shine!

How to find the right keywords to target

Think of keywords as the secret code people use to find what they’re looking for online. By doing some keyword research and choosing the best ones for your business, you can make it easier for potential customers to find you. 

But here’s the catch: you need to be strategic. Don’t go for those broad and competitive keywords that everyone else is using. Instead, focus on specific keywords that have low competition and high search volume. That way, you’ll stand out from the crowd and attract the right people to your business. 

How to use use keywords in your Instagram user name

Ready to optimize your Instagram username and attract your ideal audience? One simple tip is to use relevant keywords in your username. Try incorporating one or two high-traffic keywords that represent your brand and keep it catchy and easy to remember. For example, if you’re a fitness coach for young women, a username like “FitGirlCoach” or “HealthyHabitsHQ” could be effective. 

In conclusion…

I hope this article has left you feeling inspired and ready to take on the world of social media and SEO! Remember, using keywords strategically can truly make all the difference in getting your business noticed by potential customers.

But, if you’re ready to widen your audience on social media, but you’re feeling overwhelmed at the possibilities, don’t hesitate to reach out to Upswept Creative! We’re here to help and would be thrilled to work with you.

Or, if you’re not quite ready to make the jump to done-for-you management, you can get our bite-sized tips in your inbox every Tuesday with our weekly series, Social Media Snack Break.

Keep shining bright, and go get ’em!

You can follow us on Instagram @upsweptcreative for all of our thoughts about social media for modern entrepreneurs

Taking photos, shooting videos, posting, and planning can be an endless task. Then you have to figure out what to post and when. And then you still have to pay attention to how everything is working (or not working)! 

The struggle is real. 

Luckily, we’ve been doing this for a while and have some tips to make it all faster and easier. Organizing your content and automating whatever steps you can makes your social media management a breeze—leaving you free to create quality content. 

Check out our social media management must-haves:

A Scheduling Platform

A scheduling platform makes it easy to set up content for weeks, even months, ahead of time. Creating and scheduling multiple posts at once lets you get ahead on your social media, giving you some breathing room if you fall behind on content creation. 

Most platforms also use your posting and engagement information to determine the best times to post, letting you take advantage of your audience’s social media habits. 

There are a lot of different platforms out there, with different features and price ranges. You can almost always sign up for a free trial, so shop around and find one that’s easy to use and within your budget. 

Some options:

• Iconosquare
• Later
• Sprout Social
• Buffer

A Link Aggregator

That link in your Instagram bio is prime real estate. Don’t waste it! 

Make the most of your link by directing it to a link aggregator. This makes sure your audience will have all of the most important information easily accessible to them. Your website, your blog, your sales page—all your links will be in one convenient place. Just remember to update it when you have a new link!

You can usually customize your page with your logo and color scheme to keep cohesive branding throughout your online presence as well. 

Your scheduling platform may come with its own version of a link aggregator, but there are stand-alone versions as well. 

Some options:

• Linktree
• Feedlink.io
• Campsite
• Link In Profile

A Content Calendar

Like your scheduling platform, a content calendar makes it easy to plan out content in advance. Why waste energy every day being stressed about what to post? With your content calendar, you can know exactly what’s on deck for your social media. 

By planning out your content for the month or quarter, you can create a cohesive narrative with your social media. Planning out a series or highlighting a theme keeps your content relevant to what’s going on in your business. You can easily switch content around if more timely content comes up, and you can see where certain content might be better placed in your content strategy.

Content calendars also make it easy to keep track of ideas you might want to use later. 

Your scheduling platform can be used as a content calendar, or you can make your own. You could use a spreadsheet system, a Google calendar, or a project management system like Trello or Notion to organize your content. Or go old-school and use a paper calendar! 

Your content management system is totally customizable—use what you like and what works best for you

Image Design Tool or Image Bank

Eye-catching images are an important part of a social media post. For some platforms, like Instagram, the image is the most important element. 

Finding relevant, exciting images is a really fun part of content creation, but it’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole looking at pictures! (Especially with memes and gifs) When looking for the right picture, make sure you’re using royalty-free or copyright-free images. Not everything you find on a Google search is freely usable. 

Creating your own custom image or infographic with your brand colors and logo is a great way to bring a cohesive look to your social media feeds. With a graphic design tool, you don’t have to be an expert to create well-put-together images. 

Stock Photo Options:

• Unsplash
• Pixabay
• Pexels

Memes and Gifs:

• Imgflip
• Giphy
• Kapwing

Image Creation:

• Canva
• Visme
• Design Wizard

Analytics Tool

Creating, planning, and scheduling all that amazing content is great, but how do you know if it’s working? 

Analytics! 

Analytics is probably the part of social media management that people are most unsure about. It seems really complicated with all the terms (reach, engagement, impressions), graphs, and trends—but if you have a good analytics tool it will lay all the information out for you in an easy-to-understand form that both you and your clients can easily read. 

Tracking your analytics will tell you what’s working and what’s not so you can adjust your strategy accordingly. 

Your scheduling platform will most likely run analytics for you, but if you’re not using a scheduler (why aren’t you using a scheduler?) you can use Google Analytics. Each social media platform also has analytics information available to you depending on the type of account you have. 

Takeaways

Social media management has a lot of moving parts! Getting yourself set up and organized makes the job so much easier. Everyone works differently so use what works best for you. We’ve given you some ideas and suggestions to get you started, but if you need help we’re here for you! 

Schedule a Social Media Strategy Session and get our personalized recommendations and a custom plan for your social media. 

—Vivian Ward, Pretty Woman

Whether we like it or not, social media is an important part of modern marketing strategy. 

To be as visible as possible you need a strong, consistent, focused social media presence with engaging content and strategic messaging. You’ll have to regularly post new information, engage with your audience, and keep up with the latest trends and best practices.

And who, exactly, has time to do that and run a business?

You can DIY it for a while, but eventually, you’ll a) get burned out by having to keep up with posting or b) grow enough that social media needs to play a larger part in your business, or c) both. 

Social Media Managers to the rescue! Posting powers activate! 

Having someone take over your social media needs is one of the best things you can do to save yourself time and energy. 

But… what does a Social Media Manager do?

As Upswept Creative’s Social Media Maven I say what we post, when we post, and how often we post. 

Follow me for a peek into what it’s like to have me on your side!

Social Media Strategy

One of the first things I do as a social media manager is evaluate your current social media strategies and figure out how to make them better. If you’ve been flying solo with posting you might not have much of a strategy, but believe me—it’s a whole lot better to have a plan.

Your strategy is individual to you and your business, but includes a few key things:

• What are your goals with social media? 
• Who are you trying to reach?
• What are they interested in and what do they like?
• Where and when are they on social media?

All of these questions determine which social media platform is best for your business and what kind of message will speak to your particular audience. 

Optimize Your Social Media Accounts

Do not neglect your bios! 

If you only knew how many times I’ve seen bios with no information, outdated information, or irrelevant information…

You don’t want to be that person, and I won’t let you. I’ll optimize your accounts to be the first impression that grabs attention. Social media algorithms pick up keywords in your bio that can direct more people to your account. 

We’ll work together to make sure any images, profile pics, or logos are up to date and relevant to your audience and your branding.

And I’ll check that your accounts are all set up to be as effective as possible.

Set Up Social Marketing Tools

There are hundreds of tools, platforms, and software that all want to help you streamline your social media marketing. Researching all the options and learning how to use them is a giant time suck as a business owner.

I’ll help you choose the tools that fit your budget and your needs. And I’ll figure out how to use them!

Social Media Content and Branding

Not all Social Media Managers also create content, but it’s generally part of the job description unless you work with a dedicated marketing team—as is branding.

Your brand is how you show up online. It’s your story, your personality, your voice, and your look. My job is to bring your social media content in line with your brand. 

When someone looks at your social media, they should automatically be able to tell it’s yours. The colors, style, and tone of your posts should be consistent and cohesive across platforms. 

As a content creator, I aim to get your message across in your voice—whether it’s funny and irreverent, serious and business-like, or cute and bubbly. 

Social Media Analytics

How do you know your social media strategy is working? 

As part of my job as a Social Media Manager, I keep a close eye on what’s getting engagement and what’s not. Tracking, tweaking, and testing different kinds of content or different scheduling strategies helps me know what your audience wants more of. 

We’ll meet at certain intervals (monthly, quarterly) to discuss the analytics and what direction we need to take. 

Analytics is one of the most intimidating parts of social media for people to learn, so it’s helpful to have someone else take that on. 

Do I Need a Social Media Manager?

If you want to grow your social media presence and make the platforms work for you, you can totally do it yourself. 

But the time commitment necessary might be more than you’re willing to give. And social media might not be in your wheelhouse. I definitely can’t run a foundation, bake a wedding cake, or any number of things that our clients are amazing at!

If you find yourself overwhelmed and unsure about what to do with your social media, check out our Social Media Strategy Session! We’d love to help you figure out what your next steps should be.

Follow us on Instagram for more social media info and tips.

Prime Time Is All The Time

Folks are spending more time online, for both professional and personal reasons. Knowing this, it’s worth taking a look at insights to double-check when your people are logged in, and whether your current posting and engagement schedules line up.

On a related note: also consider that some members of your audience might be trying to adjust how much time they’re spending online. With an increase in screen time might come an awareness of burnout or a need to be more mindful about engagement. Again, taking closer looks at insight details can help you plan content and posting times more effectively.

Create Connection Online

In our opinion, this is standard practice even in the very best of times. Right now, though, as our ability to socialize in person has become extremely limited (or even impossible), the virtual connections we make and foster work double-time to make up for more direct contact.

Just over half of online consumers (53%, if you’re looking for specifics) spend some of their time participating in interest-based communities (cat meme Facebook group, anyone?). People want to connect with others who share their interests. If you haven’t taken advantage of groups connected to your offerings, now is the time to do it!

Can you craft a communal experience with your audience online? Be creative here! Use live video to help replicate the experience of working with you in person. Follow up with relevant calls to action so folks know how they can continue to engage with and support you.

Let Your Values Flag Fly

We’ve also spoken at length in the past about how important it is to be clear about the values connected with your business. 2020 has been (and continues to be) a banner year for stating this importance. According to Facebook’s reporting, 65% of US-based consumers take a brand’s values into consideration when deciding to make a purchase. Don’t shy away from creating content that explicitly states your values, and where you stand in relation to the topics and concerns of the day. Being clear about your values can help elevate your business’s reputation and also increase engagement with like-minded customers.

While these trends may not be much of a surprise, having data to back up what feels right can help you feel more confident when creating content and reaching out to your audience. And of course, as always, we’re here to help!

When I did this, I made the assumption that this magical algorithm played fair: an assumption that’s far from the truth. Algorithms are not so much objective as they are “opinion embedded in math.” We can’t have an algorithmic metric for success unless someone dictates the definition of “success.”

Despite the fact that the algorithm is machine learning, its genesis stems from the human mind. Even the most well-intentioned among us have our own agendas, our own ideas of what should be represented. 

The worlds of computer and data science reflect the whims and ideologies of their participants. Traditionally, those participants are already well-represented, and they are often seen as the standard-bearers: white, male, heterosexual, cisgender, non-disabled. Even though this demographic is changing, the change comes slowly in relation to how quickly information is shared and how that sharing influences the algorithm.

Also, a paradox to consider: it’s challenging for each of us to consider bias in our social media feeds because the algorithm works. We only see our own feeds, which also means we only see the pages and people with whom we engage. The information we receive is designed to reflect what the algorithm thinks we want to see… which is basically reflecting our own selves back at us. How does that help us consider and listen to voices that are not our own?

Make The Algorithm Work For You 

If you’ve been following us for a while, it’s safe to say you know our commitment to antiracist actions and to amplifying diverse perspectives. We’re guessing you share those values and goals as well. So how do we ensure that our social media feeds more accurately represent the full spectrum of awesome that’s out there?

Take time to discover the Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) creators in your industry. Give them a follow, and follow that up with direct engagement. The algorithm tends to respond by showing you more content from the accounts you follow most recently. Take that up a few notches by liking their recent posts and leaving appropriate comments.

Let this also extend to adding more queer/gender-expansive creators, as well as folks with disabilities. Generally speaking: look outside your own sphere as much as possible.

Reflect Before You Collect

A common refrain I heard from BIPOC creators and activists after the #BlackoutTuesday and #AmplifyMelanatedVoices efforts was that their follower counts grew exponentially, but they did not see that same growth in engagement. If anything: increasing follower count without meaningful engagement likely deprioritized their content. 

Take a few moments to ask yourself: did you rush to follow more Black folks online without considering how you wanted to interact with them?

If that’s the route you took: no shame. Now’s the time to review your feeds, show extra love to the folks you want to support and elevate, and consider unfollowing accounts you’re not engaging with. That last suggestion might sting for a second, but again: we want followers who actively and genuinely support our work.

But Also: Collect!

An Instagram-specific tip for y’all: make the most of saved posts and collections. It’s rumored that Instagram’s algorithm favors saved posts more than comments or likes. 

Here’s how: Take a gander at any post in your feed, and you’ll see a small banner icon at the bottom right. Click on it to save that post. If you hold the banner icon, this allows you to create a collection folder that you can name whatever you choose. 

Think about how you can use this feature to keep tabs on your favorite accounts while also helping boost their visibility. One way is to create a collection of content you want to share! Remember that sharing posts also helps engagement! This is especially helpful for posts that include calls to action; saving this content allows you to take action when you’re able, and reminds you to share the actions with others. 

Do All Of This Within Reason

Your mental health counts for a LOT, friends. We won’t tackle the major issues in our world via social media alone. Take ample breaks from your feeds. Engage with the best members of your community in more direct, offline ways as you’re able. 

Also: don’t hesitate to block and report malicious, spurious, and abusive accounts or pages as necessary. This helps make more room for the voices and perspectives we want to celebrate while also prioritizing safety for all. 

Oh, what we wouldn’t give to go back to those seemingly simpler times! 

In all seriousness, though: adaptability in the face of changing circumstances is crucial to keeping your social media presence effective and successful. How can you learn from the unexpected? We’ve got a few ideas for you.

You Don’t Need To Start From Scratch Again

Even without a global pandemic, the life of your business can take wild, unpredictable turns. Your social media strategy needs to respond to these turns no matter what. There’s also no guarantee your best-laid plans will land with your audience as you hope. Having a framework already in place gives you an idea of what content is still usable and what might need to be shelved.

Folks who follow Upswept on social media know how much we love our animal friends. While we felt it important to shift our professional focus towards helping people get service-oriented businesses online and make their social media feeds more agile, we also didn’t want to completely abandon our light-hearted side. Sarah took our #FurryFriendsFriday hashtag from weekly photos to a weekly live video, giving our followers a closer look at her handsome kitty, Zergling, while also continuing to share business-relevant content (and hyping some of her favorite local makers!).

Talk Less, Listen More

What are your followers saying? How are they engaging with your content? What else is competing for their attention? Your strategy should be customer-focused at all times; what you share should add value while also respecting their experience. Continue to remain engaged by paying attention not only to interactions they have with you, but also to the cultural conversations happening at large. Make sure your contributions to these conversations don’t come across as insensitive or tactless.

Be Real, Be Relevant… Or Be Reserved

This suggestion might frighten you for a brief second. Consider letting down your professional guard, and giving your followers a glimpse of your side of the struggle. By now, you know well how Team Upswept bristles at the overuse of words like “authenticity.” (If we had a nickel for every time it was used insincerely…) Right now many of us feel unsure about our futures, regardless of our work situations or our experiences in isolation. Acting like you can operate business-as-usual will likely ring false with your fans and friends.

As circumstances continue to shift, you may find new best practices for serving your community. You may also find that your voice isn’t the one that needs to be loudest right now. That is also okay. Don’t drop off the face of the social media planet, though. A heartfelt message of empathy and concern goes a long way. Make sure you pause any planned campaigns or posts that don’t match this tone.

Reduce Stress and “Recycle”

Let’s be honest: trying to stay on top of the 24-hour social media cycle can be draining. Resist the unspoken obligation to create brand new content if you’re spending more time online. Take a moment to dig through your own archives for content you can reintroduce with a new perspective. Also, don’t be afraid to tap into your own social connections! Are there others in your field telling great stories? Give them a boost and re-share. This is also an excellent time to consider user-generated content. As you pay attention to what your followers say, ask them to contribute to your conversations with their experiences.

Your focus should always be on your community and how you can best serve them, global crisis or not. Let this experience remind you of the importance of engagement, honesty, planning, and flexibility. Our team is always here to help you adapt your social media strategy or any aspect of your business; we’d love to hear from you!

OKAY terrible jokes aside: what exactly is the algorithm, and why does it matter?

I appreciate the simplicity of this definition from Pedro Domingos’s The Master Algorithm: “a sequence of instructions telling a computer what to do.” Really, friends: that’s it. As you engage with social media on various platforms, they get hip to your patterns of engagement and the magical algorithm kicks in, reprioritizing content to deliver what it deems most interesting to you. 

Let’s say you follow an account or page highlighting adorable puppies. Next thing you know, you might start seeing more puppies in your feed. You engage with one of these accounts, and before you know it: the platform shifts your feed so that account’s newest content pops up first, maybe even before your aunt Alice’s vacation photos.

That’s it! That’s the magic of our good pal Al. Now the question is: how do we make Al work for you?

As I hinted at in the previous paragraph, the algorithm is powered by two factors: interest and relationship. By following an account, you indicate interest and create a “relationship”, and that triggers the sequence. What you see on your feeds will likely be a collection of the friends with whom you interact most, the stories or videos you watch most, and the content you “like.” The best and most efficient way to make the algorithm work for you is to engage with the accounts you love/trust/endorse, and to share content regularly that makes your feed lovable/trustworthy/endorsable.

Tips for helping the algorithm to work for you:

1. Create a consistent posting schedule. To be crystal clear: this does not mean you need to post every day or several times daily. Find a rhythm that works for you, your business, and your goals, and stick to it. The best posting schedule for you is the one you can maintain with relative ease. This also means learning a bit about when your followers and fans are likely to be on the platform, and scheduling posts accordingly.
2. Engage with consistency. A tip within a tip here: all engagement is good engagement (okay… trolling notwithstanding). Comments, likes/reactions, reshares, and video views all count as engagement. Comments need not be novellas, either! Al views simple emoji responses the same as lengthier screeds. Make sure you’re as active with your friends and fans as they are with you, and you’ll stay top of feed and top of mind.
3. Analyze as you strategize. Another sneaky tip within a tip: the type of content you share won’t necessarily trigger the algorithm differently. Photos and videos hold equal weight to start. It is, however, worth your time and effort to pay attention to which of those options gets a better response. If more folks engage with your video content, future videos will get ranked higher. Keep an eye on your feeds’ insights and analytics to help inform future content decisions. 

We hope this brief glimpse into our pal Al Gorithm’s personality gives you some encouragement and insight into what can help you social media feeds stand out. Want to know even more about him and how we can make him work for you? Reach out and let’s strategize!

If you haven’t heard this industry tidbit – or if you’re scratching your head wondering what this all means – let me explain.

Instagram’s test involved removing the total number of likes on photos and videos a user views in their feed. The creator of the post still has the ability to view the number of likes on their content, but that number won’t be displayed to the account’s followers.

But, Like… Why?

Instagram understands the strong influence its platform has, especially with younger users. “The idea is to… ‘de-pressurize’ Instagram, make it less of a competition” CEO Adam Mosseri offered at the WIRED25 Conference this past November. This isn’t a wild idea, if you think about it: one 2013 study suggests the wealth of information available to Facebook users can exacerbate feelings of envy and diminished personal satisfaction. While the study did not include Instagram, it’s not much of a reach to consider how repeated exposure to curated photo content might have similar effects.

What Could It Mean For Your Business?

Whether you are an influencer or rely on one (or more), the idea of hiding the relative success of an Instagram post can feel a bit unsettling at first. That number can certainly feel like a badge of success! First things first: your content will still be seen! Followers liking and engaging with your content will still influence Instagram’s algorithms and ensure it stays visible and prominent. The key word in that previous sentence: engaging. In 2019 and beyond, those double taps are not enough to keep your account at the top of folks’ feeds. Creating content that your customers want to engage with regularly – in the form of comments and sharing with others – is key.

Stop Worrying About Likes and Start Getting Real

You’ve likely heard us lament the overuse of “authenticity” as a marketing term. While we haven’t found the perfect alternative in our thesaurus yet, the concept still stands: your customers want to see the real you, and know about the real skills and gifts you have to offer. Letting go of the need to create content that “performs” gives you the freedom to be as authentic as you want to be… which ideally leads to more genuine connection with the folks who like what they see. 

Of course, all of this is speculation right now, since Instagram is only testing this new feature with a limited number of its accounts (if you happen to be one of those accounts, let me know!). That said: don’t be afraid to run some tests of your own! Free yourself from the notion that your content has to perform like your competitors or your peers, and see what happens. You can always reach out to me for help, or for ways to measure its success.

According to the Pew Research Center, seven out of ten American adults use Facebook. Among those users, about 74% of them visit the site at least once a day. The average American spends close to 38 minutes a day on Facebook alone. In one of those minutes, Facebook visitors “like” approximately 4.1 million posts, status updates, photos, and comments.

That’s a whole lot of eyes you can get on your business, no?

The tricky part: Facebook has also been reducing exposure for business pages, rendering organic reach (defined as the number of folks who see and engage with unpaid content) nearly non-existent. While this certainly poses a challenge for those of us who want to share content on the platform, it does not mean it’s time to relegate Facebook to the dustbin of history. It does, however, mean that it’s way past time for you to have a strategy around targeted paid advertising.

Who Are You, Really?

First things first: be very, very clear about your business. This seems like an obvious statement, but often our excitement about our project or product clouds our better judgment about branding and clarity of message. Pinpoint what makes you unique and the most qualified to deliver your services, and craft content and offers to spotlight your skills.

This is also a great time to be clear about why you’re using social media in the first place. Are you after brand awareness, driving traffic to your site, getting folks into your brick and mortar shop, or subscribing to your newsletter? That excitement might make you answer, “ALL OF THE ABOVE!” That’s fantastic!… as long as you acknowledge that each of those objectives will require different tactics.

Where Are Your People?

Once you have a clear message and content that backs it up, it’s time to find your people in the sea that is Facebook! This means getting smart about targeting your audience. The options for targeted promotions are almost limitless – from demographic basics like age, gender, and location, to more specific actions like life events and recent purchasing behavior.

If At First You Don’t Succeed…

You have your skills, your crystal clear message, and your dream clients all mapped out. Hitting the first run right out of the ballpark is a given, yes? Not so fast, my friend. Tracking your campaign’s performance is a crucial part of the process, and can help you garner insights towards refining messaging and targeting. Don’t be afraid to test, tweak, and test again! 

Facebook is one of many valuable tools at the disposal of the small business owner. Like any tool, it can be powerful when wielded properly. If you’re ready to make Facebook work for you, let me know! I’m happy to help!

Choose Your “Why” Purposefully

Social media is, first and foremost, a set of digital tools. Just like a hammer has its purpose, so do all the websites and applications at your fingertips. Make sure you have clarity about your online purpose before establishing your platforms, to help keep you on task.

Let Authenticity Clear The Path

Once you’ve ironed out your “why,” the next step is dialing in how you’ll present yourself. I mentioned finding your authentic voice when discussing content overwhelm in our newsletter (hit us up here if you’re not already a subscriber). Authenticity is key to keeping your messaging and design focused and clear. When your message is clear, the means by which you share it stays clear as well. Focus time and energy on the appropriate platform(s) instead of spreading yourself thin on every one.

An aside, of sorts: specificity in your messaging can also bolster your confidence in what you deliver, and lessen (if not eliminate) the urge to compare yourself with others. The vast reach of the internet nearly guarantees your customers and peers are out there somewhere. Give them the real you, and they’ll find you!

Focus on What Fits Your Business

This leads right into my next suggestion: limit your platforms. You might have recoiled at that suggestion. Isn’t it better to be everywhere? Not necessarily. Each platform has its pros and cons; focus your attention on the ones that fits your business best. Keeping your presence simple and straightforward also keeps your stress level low.

Another way to keep stress at a minimum is with assistance. Social media management apps give you more bang for your proverbial buck by allowing you to collect and schedule your content in one place, even allowing you to share content across platforms. Having everything in one place saves both time and sanity. Like the platforms themselves, each app has pluses and minuses; we’re happy to discuss what apps can work best for you.

Set Boundaries… and Stick to Them

When it comes to your business presence, consider keeping your social media time within business hours. Yes, the internet never sleeps… but you need to! Just as you schedule time for meetings and events, consider scheduling time to follow and respond on social media. You might allot a large block of time (say, one hour), or schedule smaller check-ins throughout your work day. You can further loosen the web’s tug by turning off notifications, eliminating distractions and breaking the habit of immediate response.

Another swell aspect of scheduling your social media time: it frees you up to create! Do you tend to scroll mindlessly when you really should be dialed into your work? (It’s okay to admit it — I definitely distracted myself with Instagram and the NBA app at least three times while writing this post!) Note the places of resistance when it’s time to put nose to grindstone, and notice if you sabotage your own efforts with distractions.

Your social media should reflect who you are and what your business has to offer, but it doesn’t need to run (or ruin) your life. If you could use an assist in finding that perfect balance online, reach out and let’s talk (IRL even!).