Social media has transformed the way people and businesses communicate. It can be used to find like-minded people, promote certain products or events and create a community of customers providing support and feedback. Starling Bank, the leading UK mobile-only bank for business accounts, often shares advice for business customers, including how to grow a business through social media.
It’s not always the case that the more social platforms you do, the more people you reach. According to the Digital Marketing Institute, 91% of retail brands use two or more social media platforms. “Too many, and you’ll spread yourself too thinly and dilute the impact of your efforts as a result. Too few, and your brand visibility and reach might suffer,” they suggest. For a food business, Instagram will be perfect to share photos and videos; for businesses looking to reach out to new clients, LinkedIn could work well; for physical shops, Facebook might be best to highlight the location and share local promotions.
No matter which platform you choose, the most important thing to remember is to be consistent: the tone of voice, branding and content should match each other across your website and social media platforms. It’s also worth adjusting images and logos to the sizes specified by each platform to keep them looking sharp.
Using relevant or trending hashtags on Twitter or Instagram can be a great way to engage a new audience and encourage people to share your content. If you are creating a unique hashtag for a campaign keep it punchy, easy to read, and make sure there are no hidden words/meanings when it is all lowercase. Looking into annual awareness days can also help to generate content. Starling Bank launched its campaign #MakeMoneyEqual on 8th March 2018 – International Women’s Day. The campaign looked at different ways that the media speaks to men and women about money, using words such as ‘frivolous’ for women and ‘savvy’ for men.
Managing social media can take hours and it’s important to keep posting each week. One time saving tip is to write and plan all your upcoming posts and use a scheduling website to upload these throughout the week at optimum times (usually first thing, lunchtime or after 5pm).
Starling Bank’s free mobile-only business account is all about saving time and keeping up to date with the latest technology.
For more information on Starling Bank, visit www.starlingbank.com.
