- Marketing and sales
Quick social media optimisation tips for entrepreneurs
Social media is huge and its power to drive traffic and interest cannot be underestimated. Canadians make up 5% of the overall active users currently on Twitter, that’s the third largest country behind the US and the UK. And for those interested in increasing awareness for themselves, a brand or a product, social media channels like Twitter can be an essential platform when used correctly.
Many new users fail to make the most out of their Twitter background and header as it can take a significant amount of time and resources to create high resolution images to fit on these sections. However, failure to create interesting branded backgrounds and a visually attractive header can lead users to become rapidly uninterested in what you have to say.
Studies have shown that profiles without pictures or profiles with poor profile pictures have a higher bounce rate compared to those who have sharp/relevant profile pictures. Make sure you include your hyperlink on your profile as it is a great traffic-driver and it gives viewers the chance to instantly find out more information about you or your business. You have space to sell your business, make sure you use every single one of those 140 characters to tell the word about your enterprise.
On LinkedIn a user’s profile is a shop window to the professional world. Nothing is more unprofessional than having an uncompleted project displayed to your audience. A LinkedIn profile should be seen as a continual project, adding reviews, testimonials, content and endorsements. Setting up the basics is essential as you have the ability to host your business’ information to a vast audience; this is great for potential customers wanting to find out more about you or your business.
The key to success on Twitter and LinkedIn is to only post relevant content when appropriate. If you don’t have anything to say don’t say anything! Never use the platform as an excuse to directly sell yourself to your audience, users hate this. Engaging with your audience will more than likely increase your brand reputation so don’t be afraid to retweet, comment, favourite and engage with relevant users and influencers.
Google now takes social interaction into consideration when ranking a website, so for those still sceptical about investing time into social media it is time to get motivated.
By Karl Young, Search Laboratory, Leeds, United Kingdom
