In early 2011, Horizon Bank made the decision to begin to use social media. As a business owner/manager, you may have already wrestled with this decision yourself – made the leap, or are still sitting on the sidelines. It’s not a decision to take lightly, but it can provide great new ways to reach your customers. You simply need to think through which platforms you may want to engage in and have a plan for each that will benefit your customers – and ultimately your business.
Here is some great advice we received from Three Ships Media – a digital marketing agency on tips for three of the widely used social media platforms.
Create a presence
- Add specialized Tabs/Apps to increase value, engagement with customers.
Create value with content
- Push valuable content (videos, blogs, news, PR) to your community.
Learn from the customer feedback loop
- Constant attention and timely response will elevate your company’s or brand’s sentiment online and off.
Promote your presence
- Place accessible social buttons on all e-mails, press, and websites.
Identify and connect with influencers.
- Discover like-minded influencers, follow and engage them.
- Generate leads through relationships building.
Spread the news
- Tweet links to your company’s events, content, news or offerings.
Monitor your industry, brand and competition
- Track conversations about your company to better manage your market’s needs.
- Discover important keywords to optimize your website SEO.
- Gauge customer sentiment of your company verses the competition.
Connect with professionals
- Discover expertise in potential employees, vendors or business partners.
Establish your expertise
- Showcase your knowledge by answering questions in Linked In’s QA areas.
Get into a group
- Engage with potential customers in groups about key issues your business or product addresses.
Cross-market your content
- Use blog RSS feeds, social links, and other Linked in apps to add value to your Linked In pages.
Written by Cindy Pressinell, Vice President and Director of Marketing in the Michigan City, Indiana corporate headquarters office of Horizon Bank with more than 22 years of marketing experience in the Northern Indiana and Southwestern Michigan area.