Got a social media account but know you’re not giving it the love it deserves? Perhaps you’re not really sure how to get the best out of Instagram and Facebook for your business or you’re getting ready to outsource your social media management but aren’t sure where to start. Here are some of the most common questions we get asked about social media.

Why does my business need social media?

Think of social media as the personality behind your brand, an online living, breathing extension of your real-life business. Social media gives you a platform to showcase your products and services, connect with your customers, drive traffic to your website and reinforce your customer service. It also allows you to show the more human side of your business, highlighting what your business stands for. Participating in Movember? Getting rid of plastic? These affiliations all help to shape the way your followers view you.

Don’t forget: your followers are your biggest fans. You’ve built a community of people who have said ‘I want to see your updates because I’m really interested in what you do’. They’ve chosen to follow you, so it’s your job to keep them interested.

Isn’t it just a bunch of pictures anyway?

Sure, social media is often image based – particularly with Instagram, but behind each picture there should be a clear message. Social media is all about storytelling and creating a brand perception among your followers, but in order to devise these clear messages to create that winning perception, there must be a strategy.

What’s the message behind the image? Does it showcase your team – the people behind the brand so your customers gain some insight into the behind the scenes. Does it highlight your position on being a sustainable brand? Does it reveal your most recent product or menu by pulling out the key point of difference? Posting a bunch of great images will likely get you a tonne of vanity likes – go you! But will it create a long-term perception?

If you’re not really sure why you’re posting – take the time to work out what your most important messages are. Have you sourced ingredients from a really unique supplier? Has a member of your team been nominated for an award or is someone super famous wearing your new summer collection? While you need to make room for sell posts, make sure your feed isn’t just a collection of cleverly worded calls-to-action: Buy this, Jump on our website, Visit our store. Social media isn’t a catalogue or a flyer – it should be social, so where possible encourage two-way dialogue.

Will social media give me sales?

Yes and no. If your plan is to get a whole stack of sales from every post you put up, you’re going to be very disappointed. Brands that consistently sell on social media have already created a positive perception for their business. Think of social media as brand building, creating a story which leads to a positive perception. If and when you sell or attract new customers to your store, this will be a very welcome bonus. The more you work on your social media, the more you work on your brand perception, which puts you in the best position possible to gain sales. Businesses that view social media as another sales funnel will never feel like they’re getting anywhere – change your focus to engagement and you’ll reap the rewards in the long run.

Why is my visual aesthetic important?

Think about how you ensure your café or restaurant looks presentable every day. Your social media aesthetic is just as important. It’s often the first point of call when customers look you up – even more so than your website! Lack of image cohesion, poor photography and unrelated or irregular images can make your business look disorganised – and that’s probably not how you want to appear to prospective customers?

Can I take my own social media images?

Yes, if you take a good photograph, but if you’re only doing it to cut costs, it might be time to call in the pros. If you have a strategy in place to make the most of your images, you may only need to do 4 or 5 photo shoots a year. Adding influencer engagement means you have access to a great selection of professional images that you can reuse as regrams. Read about how this adds credibility to your brand here.

How could influencer engagement help my businesses. Do I have to pay for it?

Collaborating with influencers is a great way to add credibility to your brand or business. This way you’ve got someone (aside from you) letting everyone know how good you are – and that’s far more credible. It also means you can repurpose their amazing images for your own feed, which is a great way of making your own images last even longer.

It’s important to do your research when working with influencers. Don’t just look at their followers. Instead, pay particular attention to their content – does it align with your business? Essentially you want to make sure their audience is similar to your own. Ask the influencer what their engagement rate is (the amount of people who are interacting with each post) and find out their reach. Social media managers often have tools to assess the influencers they work with, but if you’re doing this yourself, don’t think twice about getting the influencer to send over this information.

Most of the influencers work with are happy to collaborate if they see value in the business. If they like it, they’ll post about it and if they don’t, they won’t. It’s as simple as that! It does mean that it’s completely up to the influencer to post how they would like too, but this way the post is more credible than if we paid for it and instructed the influencer to write what we wanted. There is a place for paid endorsement but we view this on a case-by-case basis and again, really depends on your budget.

Should I hire someone to manage my social media?

Creating fresh, interesting social media content each week can be a time-consuming process for many businesses, which is why outsourcing this service is popular . Working with an agency means you’ll have someone preparing your strategy, determining your key messages, organising your photo shoots, scheduling and monitoring your posts, as well as reporting on your page’s success!

Social media management can be a time consuming task and consistency is key, so if you think it’s time to outsource, drop us a line at hello@foxandfleur.com.au.

Have another question about social media? Drop us a line with your question and we’ll add it to our blog post!