If you Google the question you’ll come up with pages of different and conflicting answers. The reason for this is that no two businesses are exactly the same and no two sets of followers engage the same way.
Take A Look At Your Own Insight
So while the answer is yes, to answer the question for your business you need to spend a little time looking at existing interactions and your page insights to see what’s been working for you and equally what hasn’t.
By looking at your insights you’ll be able to see which posts obtained the most reach (number of views) and interactions (sharing & comments) once you discover this you can then focus one what times they were posted, what the content was and who it was that interacted.
Plan Your Activity According To Your Audience
Once you’ve done this exercise (we would suggest that you have a minimum 2-3 weeks worth of insights to work from) you then need to think about who you’re targeting and whether you’re reaching them.
Now not everyone looks at Facebook when they’re at home, according to a new IDC Research report Smartphone owners ages 18 to 44 spend more than two hours a day communicating and using social media on their devices. Eighty percent check their smartphones within 15 minutes of waking up. These are powerful figures and help you to know when best to post to your updates.
Here Are Some Of Our Top Tips
Reaching mums of young families means posting between 3-6pm would be completely the wrong time – you’d clash with school runs, tea & bed time. You are more likely to reach them when their children are napping or before they wake. For many people, checking Facebook and Twitter is a daily routine over their first cuppa and before the day really begins.
Reaching middle managers will be difficult during working hours, except perhaps when they are taking lunch at their desks. Focussing your efforts during the evening and morning commute will be far more effective.
Whatever your view of TV soaps, they are some of the most consistently watched TV programmes, and consumers turn to social media before and after they air to comment. This is also true of big drama programmes like Downton Abbey, Mr. Selfridge and Call The Midwife. Aim for your posts to coincide with surges in social media use.
Look for TV programmes that may be about your product or service. Programmes like Embarrassing Bodies, The One Show and Martin Lewis often promote hash tags as part of the viewers ‘two screen’ experience. Post your tweets during these programmes using the hash tags. Be careful not be overtly promotional, that will be counter productive. Take part in the conversations, share your views on a specific topic, retweet great comments. This is a great opportunity to build followers as well as share your blogs and videos.
If your business has a strong local presence, tweet when local live events are happening and comment. For example, share the score of your local football team when a match is on, wish them luck, congratulate the manager or key players for their performance. Be positive and engaging, and again you will naturally pick up followers who will then see more of your business related content.
Social media marketing not only gives access to potential new clients, it keeps you in touch with your exiting ones and provides valuable online visibility. If you take the time to get this right you will gain a tremendous advantage over your competition and see a great improvement in the reach of your posts.
