For the foodies amongst us, gardening is a priority and an opportunity to grow our own food and take pride in its appearance. Gardening takes time and effort but it obviously pays off when we receive comments from the neighbours and we produce lots of scrummy vegetables for mealtimes. This is a big reward, as in the long run you save money, as you no longer need to spend a lot at the supermarket on fruit and vegetables. So what has this got to do with social media?
It would be great if you could simply drop some seeds in the ground and when you got home, there would be fresh green beans for dinner but unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. However, what’s important is planting the seed in the first place, in order to get that result further down the line. You have to be realistic and plan ahead, with plenty of water and sun to make them blossom. You must work out what you’re going to plant and be prepared.
In the same way, with social media, it’s important to plan ahead and figure out what you are going to post and where. You’ll need to get all your posts organised, discover what type of content will work best and what audience you will intend to reach. The first steps should be to work on the overall appearance of your social media pages, ensuring the images used for the cover and profile pictures in particular look good on desktop and mobile.
With everything looking good and your pages populated with as much information as possible for your customers, you are ready for the social media storm. As you start to post, you will see what works well and which are weeds that need scrapped. Plants need water and sun but not too much and it’s the same with your social media posts, care and attention is needed throughout. Eventually once you get things right, you’ll have a little harvest that makes all the effort worth it.
With social media marketing you can’t just throw something out there and hope it’ll drive people to your website. You need to make a plan, put in the time and effort and nurture it. You’ll need to work out a balance and decipher the right budget for your campaigns. If you work hard with it then you should see some customers sprouting all over your social media garden.
For more information about social media management or running social advertising campaigns, please contact me: jon@socialant.co.uk
Jon