It’s not news to most people that we have a civility problem in the United States. However, nowhere is the immense size of the problem more apparent than on social media. Regardless of demographics, 93% of Americans agree that there is a civility problem in our country. Also, 63% of Americans feel that social media has been a major contributing factor to that problem. (Source) Clearly, there is a need for civility on social media.

That there is a need for civility on social media is probably not a surprise to any of us. All you have to do is open one of your social media feeds. There you will find any number of posts with people stating their opinions. In the comments I can guarantee you will find at least one comment from someone objecting to the opinion in a not so nice way.

The Need For Civility On Social Media: Why Is It Happening?

There are many reasons why this type of behavior is happening in the world, especially in social media.

Anonymity

First off, there’s the sanctity of anonymity that social media gives us. Although in most cases your name and picture are attached to your comments and posts, there is still a feeling of being unknown and removed from everyone. That feeling of isolation gives many people the courage to be bolder than they would ever be in person.

This heightened, false feeling of security makes people behave in ways that they would never dream of doing in person. I also want to point out that anything you say, do, or post on social media never goes away! Make sure that your interactions are things to be proud of. You don’t want to deal with a bad reputation following you forever. Also, know that there have been instances of real life tragedies that have started online. Be very careful how you contribute to the online environment.

The need for certainty.

Second, with all that’s going on in the world currently, people are feeling very uncertain and out of control. Generally speaking, when people feel less than confident that they can control what’s happening around them, they tend to react in mostly negative ways. One of the most common reactions when feeling fearful or uncertain is the need to get angry and/or attack others.

You see, when humans feel out of control and cannot fulfill their need to be certain, they will find any way they can to fulfill that need. They can meet that need in positive, neutral, and negative ways.

However, most people who are not aware of the Six Human Needs, tend to fulfill their needs in negative ways and usually that’s done by tearing others down, arguing, and making them wrong. Doing this to others makes them feel powerful, certain, and in control again. It also satisfies their needs for connection and significance as well. When an action satisfies three or more of the Six Human Needs, the person will become addicted to the action and seek out more opportunities to do the same.

What Can We Do About It?

First, realize that not everyone shares your point of view and that’s okay.

The world is full of diverse opinions, people, cultures, religions, and ideas. It’s what makes life beautiful and rich. The world would be boring and unexciting if everyone shared your likes, dislikes, and opinions. Be grateful and excited that there is so much diversity in the world and treat that diversity with respect and admiration.

Second, regardless of your opinions and whether you feel you are right or wrong, be a decent human being.

The need for civility on social media requires that you treat people how you would like to be treated. Lead by example. It really is possible to disagree with someone and still act respectfully and with human decency. When you let someone’s horrible treatment of you affect how you treat others in a negative way, you become part of the problem.

Learn to always keep how you act and react on social media in alignment with who you are at your core. Never disrespect your good name and reputation fighting with someone on social media (or elsewhere for that matter). It’s not worth it. Remember one comment or action on social media can truly follow you for the rest of your life. Make sure it’s something that really reflects who you are and that will make you feel proud of who you are.

Third, listen and learn

Relish the differences in opinions. Really listen to what the other person is saying and try to learn from it. You might not agree totally with what they are saying but generally if you allow yourself to really listen, you might just find one grain of insight that you didn’t have before.

Even if you listen and can find no redeeming tidbits of information in what that person is saying, think if there is a lesson there for you. Is the way the person is behaving a reminder to you of how not to treat people? If what the person is saying so devoid of real facts, could it be a reminder to you to always research subjects before having an opinion on them? Is the person clearly just having a bad day? If so, can that be a reminder for you to take care of yourself and have more patience with others? There is always something you can learn if you allow yourself to be open and really look for insights.

Fourth, heed Bambi’s mother’s advice, if you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all.

The whole world is not going to crumble if you don’t state your opinion. You’re not the only one with that opinion and if you read the comments, which I generally advise against, I guarantee you’ll see your same opinion stated repeatedly but others.

Perhaps ask yourself, “Is stating my opinion really going to matter? Will it change this person’s mind? Will it contribute in a positive way?” If the answers to these questions are clearly “No”, then move on. Don’t waste your time and energy. There are plenty more productive things you could be doing that will actually help make the world a better place.

Fifth, it’s okay to take a break from social media for awhile.

Sometimes the best thing to do is take a deep breath, shut down the electronics, and walk away. Trust me. Everything will still be there when you get back.

As a matter of fact, it is healthy to take vacations from social media that last a few days to a few months. Even if you only take a couple of hours away from social media platforms, the positive health implications are enormous. Use the away time to take a walk outside and clear your head, finish a project, spend time with your family, watch a funny movie, or learn another language. Take the time to have real experiences that enhance your life.

In Conclusion

The need for civility in social media is one that is growing exponentially worldwide and unlike many other things going on right now, you have the ability to be part of the solution.

Although sometimes you might feel yourself getting pulled in by the drama and negativity that is running rampant on social media, you don’t have to join in. You can follow the words of Mahatma Gandhi and “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

All societal changes in the world have started with one human being who wanted to make a difference. Be that person and be an example of how you would love to be treated. If you do that consistently, you will find that more and more people who share your vision are drawn to you. Those little flickers of positive light in the dark night of negativity will eventually light up the world and it will be because you had the courage to start the movement.

So you’ve finally taken that big step and hired a social media manager to handle your online brand but how can make sure that the relationship is a fruitful one?

Many individuals and companies hire social media managers with the expectation that they no longer have to be involved with all things social media oriented. Adopting this type of attitude is bound to not only cause frustration for both you and your social media manager but also sabotage your brand’s online goals.

When you hire a social media manger, you are hiring someone to take over the daily day-to-day functions required to have a growing social media presence. However, there are several actions that your social media manger requires from you in order to be successful in achieving your brand’s goals and expectations.

#1: Clear Goals

The first action that your social media manager requires from you to be successful is a clear vision of what goals you and your brand are trying to achieve. Without this important information, you are leaving your social media manager to decide for themselves what you need. This requires time and can cause misunderstandings between the two of you should the social media manager choose a goal that wasn’t what you were hoping for.

Now, having said the above, many social media managers prefer to do a full assessment of your brand’s current social media presence before they agree to work for you. This assessment is usually presented to you in the form of a social media proposal.

In this proposal, they will outline your brand’s current social media stats and suggest some goals to focus on to start with. Your job is to review this proposal in its entirety, make any changes, and return it signed and approved to the social media manager. This provides a clear picture of where your brand is and what the first steps are to achieving success as a team.

#2: Access To Brand Resources

Before your social media manager can begin their work, they need to have access to specific brand resources in order to be successful. They will need log in credentials to all of your brand’s social media profiles as well as any social media tools your brand may already be using.

Your social media manager will also need to be able to have a way to contact not only you but certain members of your team such as graphic designers, web developers, and any in-house people that can help them if they have any questions or challenges regarding technology and answering followers’ questions or concerns. Many organizations use platforms such as Asana, Trello, Skype Chat, Zoom, WhatsApp, and others so that everyone on the team can stay up to date and in touch with each other. Your social media manager needs to be a part of those organizational platforms to be effective for your brand.

Other resources your social media manager will need access to are any graphics, pictures, videos, and logos that belong to your brand. These are required in order to keep your social media profiles in alignment with your brand.

#3: Teamwork

Every single member of your brand must work together as a team to help achieve the brand’s goals. This includes working together with the social media manager. Social media is a team effort and without teamwork achieving brand’s goals can be an uphill climb.

Asking the members of your team to be active on the brand’s social media pages may seem like a small thing but it can produce huge results. Make sure that everyone on your team has liked the brand’s social media pages. Ask them to like, comment on, and share the brand’s social media content.

By doing this, you are helping your brand reach people that it may not normally be able to reach and in doing so you help your social media manager achieve the brand’s goals more quickly.

Another reason it’s important for your team members to follow your brands social media pages is to help find inconsistencies or errors and make sure they are fixed quickly. Social media is a fast-paced game and social media managers are human beings who make mistakes just like you. Many times in the process of creating and scheduling content, engaging with followers, and making taking care of all the daily social media tasks, typos and mistakes happen. Social media manager love to know that there are extra eyes helping them keep the brand consistent and as perfect as possible.

#4: Patience

Social media is an art form, not a science. It takes time to get specific results and each brand is different in what it needs and what it takes to achieve its results.

Also, social media is a constantly changing organism that requires constantly changing techniques. This means that what worked last month, last week, or even yesterday, may not work today. Most time achieving specific results requires patience and a constant stream of trial and error learning.

Social media changes for several reasons including updates and changes in the overall social media platform by its creators, changes in a platform’s algorithms, changes in the laws that oversee the way a platform is run, and overall changes in usage and attitudes of the platform’s users.

Many of these changes are not predictable and all of them require brands and social media managers to experiment with content, scheduling, and how they engage with followers to get the results they’re after and all of this takes time and patience.

So, give your social media manager time to figure out not only what works for your brand but also what needs to be adjusted in order to get the results you’re after, every time there’s a change in the platform that affects their work.

Using these four steps will not only create a mutually successful relationship between your team and your social media manager but it will also create a social media presence that achieves and exceeds your brand’s goals.

There comes a time in every brand’s life when hiring a social media manager becomes a consideration. This usually happens once a venture begins to take off and the daily tasks become too numerous for one person to keep up with or when the abilities of the brand’s staff are not sufficient to properly execute the social media strategy needed for advancement of the brand.

Regardless of the reason for hiring a social media manager, there are 5 key things you need to know before bringing that new person on board.

#1: Know Your Goals

Before hiring a social media manager to handle your online profiles, you need to know what your goals are. What are you trying to accomplish? Are you looking for more followers? More engagement? To extend your brand’s awareness? To increase sales? To get more traffic to your website?

Chances are you were shaking your head “Yes” to all of those things. That’s because those are all very noble goals to want to achieve. However, you need to be aware that every one of those goals requires a different type of approach and technique to accomplish. This means you must understand that in most circumstances, only one or two goals can be worked on at a time.

With that in mind, you need to be ready when your potential social media manager asks what your social media goals are. Most social media managers will either ask you outright or will review what is happening with your current social media and make suggestions about what they think should be worked on first.

If you have a specific goal or goals in mind, make sure you make those goals clear to your social media manager so they can come up with a plan for meeting your expectations.

#2: Know Your Budget

Before hiring a social media manager, you must know what your budget can afford. There is no sense in having a great social media presence if the cost is going to bankrupt your business.

Social media managers can be expensive especially when hiring one that has a lot of experience under their belt. You need to know exactly what you can afford and you need to make that budget known to your social media manager.

Also, know that most experienced, professional social media managers will usually be happy to work with you when it comes to your goals and budgets. Once you make them aware of your brand’s goals, they can prioritize those goals that need the most attention first and scale the social media plan up or down to accommodate your brand’s needs and budget.

Once the top priorities are addressed, they will then move on to the next goal on the list and so on. As your social media presence begins to create more revenue for your brand, your social media manager will meet with you and the social media plan can be scaled up or down to suit the new needs of your brand.

#3: Results Take Time

One of the biggest concepts that you must grasp when it comes to social media is that results take time. Social media is not an instant fix and you won’t get results overnight regardless of who is handling your social media. If any social media manager guarantees results overnight, you need to run as fast as you can away from that person or agency.

The fact is that social media is basically a word of mouth kind of advertising and it takes time and constant effort before your brand starts to be seen by the masses. The more consistently quality content is posted to your social media profiles, the more that content will pick up speed and start to engage followers but all of this takes time.

You should know that on average it usually takes at least 3-6 months of working on a social media goal before you will start to see results. You should also know that every time you change the direction or goal of your social media campaigns, you begin that 3-6 month time frame all over again.

This is why an experienced social media manager will usually have you pick only 1-2 goals at a time. They will then review the progress of those goals with you every 6 months (or sooner if the goal is met) to decide if more time is needed or if other goals can be added to the mix.

#4: Organic vs. Paid Traffic

Many people assume that when they hire a social media manager their services include paid posts or advertising on social media platforms. You should know, that in most cases, it doesn’t.

Most of the time when you hire a social media manager you are hiring someone to write and post organic content, engage with your followers, respond to comments, and generally look out for your brand’s reputation online. All of this is a lot of work and takes a lot of time and experience, which is why social media managers demand the fee that they do.

The type of content outlined above is called organic, meaning that the people that find your page and ultimately your website, services, and products are coming to you for free via other people sharing, liking, and commenting on your social media content.

This is why encouraging everyone you know to like, share, and comment on your social media profiles and content is so important. Many social media managers, myself included, feel that this type of organic traffic is more valuable than traffic that you buy (a.k.a. paid traffic).

Paid traffic is just that. It’s content on your social media pages that you pay the platform to promote to certain audiences that you choose in order to meet certain goals. These goals can be anything from getting more likes on your page to more traffic and/or sales on your website to building your email list.

What you need to know here is that although paid advertising on social media can be relatively inexpensive, it really doesn’t start to produce results until you put at least $200 per month into it and to get optimal results it will require a minimum of $500 per month and upwards.

The money that you pay to your social media manager for this gets sent directly to the social media platform that you’re promoting your content on by the social media manager. The social media manager does not get to keep this fee. Always make sure you ask your social media manager for a monthly statement from the social media platform showing the amount paid to them.

Make sure that you factor this type of Paid social media into your plan if you are hoping to reach beyond Organic traffic. It is not usually included in a social media manager’s standard contract but it is rather an add-on to the standard contract.

#5: Teamwork

Lastly, but definitely not least, you need to know that once you hire a social media manager it doesn’t mean you can step completely away from your social media. Social media management is a team effort.

Your social media manager is still going to need some input from you and your brand on a regular basis. They will have questions that only you can answer. Thoughts about ways to further your brand’s reach that will need your approval. Questions and comments from your social media followers that they will need your response to and company graphics and information that only you can supply to them.

You, your company, and your social media manager must become a team in order to be successful and achieve your goals. Without collaboration and input from you, your social media manager can only go so far towards achieving your brand’s wants and needs.

Once you understand these five keys, you are ready to hire a social media manager and achieve your social media goals.

If you have any further questions or should you want to hire me for your social media management needs, please contact me using the contact page on this site to get started.

There are many reasons to hire a social media manager for you and your brand. However, knowing when the time is right to do so can be a tough decision to make especially when trying to keep your budget tight.

For many brands, there comes a point when you know something has to change but fear keeps you from taking that leap. Here are eight keys to help you with your decision to hire a social media manager.

You Are Not Social Media Savvy

Running a brand is hard enough without having to be social media savvy too. Many personalities and brands are great at what they do but find social media or technology for that matter to be something that eludes them.

If you fall into this category, there’s no reason to be upset or ashamed of yourself. You just do you. Leave the social media to a professional who loves what they do and can get actual results for you in the process.

You Just Don’t Have The Time To Do The Social Media Part Yourself

Many brands and entrepreneurs do have extensive knowledge of social media and how it works but just don’t have the time that’s needed to create the online presence that their brand requires.

If you’re this person, I want you to understand that you can’t be everywhere and do everything in your business by yourself. It’s okay to delegate or hire someone to do the social media aspect of your business for you. You can, and should, be actively involved in creating your social media presence but you don’t have to be the one to implement it on a daily basis. Letting a professional social media manager take this part of your business over will give you the time you need to do everything else that your brand requires.

You Have No Clue Which Social Media Platforms Are Best For You and Your Brand

This is a big one. There are so many social media platforms out there today and more popping up daily that it’s common to think your brand needs to be on every one of them. However, the fact is that you really don’t.

One of the keys to being a social media superstar is knowing which platforms work the best for your brand and its products and services. There is no sense in spending time creating content and communities on social media platforms if your ideal clients aren’t even there. This will just lead to frustration and disappointment.

Social media managers are experts in finding out who you are, what your brand’s image is, and who your ideal clients are so they can choose the social media platforms that will serve you best, develop a community there, and engage with those clients on a regular basis with quality, meaningful content.

Writing Is Not Your Forte

Writing is a skill that requires great effort and thought. Writing content is not something that you can quickly throw together and move on. Most content writers spend hours a day on the content they write for blogs, websites, articles, podcasts, and courses. Not only is writing time-consuming, it also requires a high degree of knowledge about the use of language and meanings.

There are many great writers in the world but not everyone is one. If you’re not good at writing or you don’t enjoy writing process, then it’s best for you and your brand to hire a professional social media manager to take on that task.

A big part of being a social media manager is writing. Everything social media managers do requires a firm grasp on language, meaning, and how to use those things in a way that really attracts and engages their readers. This is vital to creating a powerful social media presence for you and your brand.

Your Social Media Engagement Is Low And You Don’t Know What To Do About It

Many entrepreneurs and brands do their own social media and content writing and enjoy it, yet they find that they just aren’t getting the engagement that they want and need. This is a common occurrence.

There are many reasons for why this could be happening. It could be your copy writing is not in alignment with your brand’s mission. It could be that you are utilizing the wrong social media profiles for your brand. It could be that the timing of your content is off. It could be that your message isn’t clear enough to attract your ideal clients.

Social media managers are experts at analyzing data in a way that gets results. They know how to figure out why something is or isn’t working and find a way to get the results you need and want.

You’re Having Challenges Responding To All The Interactions On Social Media

Sometimes even if you have the writing, social media, and business savvy required to create an engaging social media presence, you find yourself in the weeds. Meaning, all the social media interactions needed to keep your ideal clients engaged and wanting more gets out of hand and you can’t keep up.

At some point in your business when it is doing really well, you’ll feel like you’re on a roller coaster that just won’t stop to let you get a breath. This is totally natural and a really great problem to have.

If you find yourself feeling like you just can’t keep up with everything you need to do to keep your brand’s social media community happy, healthy, and engaged, it’s time to hire a social media manager.

Social media managers know that it’s necessary to have continuous, engaging communication with your social media community. This is one of the key ingredients to building a great following for your brand and if you don’t keep up with it, it can cost you. Social media managers make sure that all your brand’s interactions with its followers are up to date and responded to immediately and professionally keeping your community happy, engaged, and loyal.

You Don’t Have The Patience For All The Stupidity And Hate On Social Media

I have had many people and entrepreneurs tell me that they can’t deal with the way people act on social media and threaten to shut down all their brand’s profiles online. This, of course, is not the answer.

In this day and age, it’s virtually a requirement for a business or brand to have a social media presence and with that it’s necessary to come up with a way to handle all the stupidity and hate that will inevitably target your profiles at some point.

No brand is immune to hate mongers or trolls when it comes to social media. The anonymity that being online creates for everyone is both a blessing and a curse. Unfortunately, many angry people with nothing good to say and plenty time on their hands use that anonymity to spread their hatred and anger and most times it has nothing to do with you or your brand.

Social media managers handle these people on a daily basis for their clients. They have mastered methods for diffusing difficult situations online by providing a calming voice of reason and also, know when and how to shut a conversation down without causing harm to you, your brand, or your social media community.

You’re Neglecting The Rest Of Your Business To Be Great On Social Media

Many entrepreneurs have the skills necessary to be exceptional social media managers for themselves but often times it’s at the expense of neglecting the rest of their business.

Many people underestimate the time necessary for building and maintaining a social media presence for their brand and doing so can wind up damaging the business. What sense does it make to have a great social media presence if the daily business operations are being ignored?

A social media manager takes the pressure off of you so that you can take care of the other important parts of the business to ensure that everything is running the way it should and is able to care for all those clients that social media brings in.

So, if any of these eight keys are beginning to become common occurrence for you in dealing with your brand’s social media presence, you might want to consider hiring a social media manager to help you grow your brand.

There are many places to find a professional social media manager including digital agencies and freelance professionals. Of course, if you would like my help managing your brand’s social media presence feel free to contact me using the contact me page on this website or by clicking on the envelope icon in the lower right-hand side of this page. I would love to serve you and your business. Please understand that my availability is on a first come, first served basis and there could be a wait list during high demand.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make on Facebook is using a personal profile for their business instead of setting up a business page. This is a HUGE no-no!

It is vitally important that you always keep your personal profile separate from your business page. Yet many people still don’t know the difference between the two or the reasons why they should be kept separate. Here are three reasons why it’s so important.

#1: Facebook Says So!

The number one reason to create a business page for your business or brand rather than just using your personal profile is because it’s against Facebook’s policy to use a personal profile to promote your business.

Your personal profile is strictly for staying in touch with friends and relatives and sharing your personal life with them. It is not for promoting your business or brand.

Facebook is quite firm on this and if it is found out that you are using your personal profile for your business or brand, they will shut your profile down and you won’t get it back. No ifs, ands, or buts.

#2: Privacy

Privacy is an issue these days. With access to everything you could possibly think of at your fingertips online, why would you want to expose your personal life to your customers, clients, and followers?

It is important when running a business to keep your personal life private from the general public. It may not seem like a big deal to you at the moment but as your business grows bigger and your customer base grows larger, do you really want total strangers knowing where your kids go to school, where you go with your family, or even how you like to let loose on your time off?

Not only is revealing this type of information to your customers and clients extremely unprofessional, it can be downright dangerous. Never volunteer personal information to anyone online. Do some research on phishing and social engineering to educate yourself on all the ways people get and use your information and I think you’ll begin to understand why it’s important to keep your private life private and separate from your business at all times.

#3: Promoting Your Business

Another big reason to set up a business page rather than use your personal profile is the benefits to your business.

Friends or Likes: Personal profiles have huge limitations when it comes to ‘friends’. On a personal profile, you can only have a max of 5,000 friends and although that sounds like a lot, it’s not that much when it comes to being a business.

Business pages can have an unlimited number of ‘likes’ and ‘followers’, which means you can constantly be expanding your business or brand’s reach.

If you use your personal profile as a business page (Just a reminder: BIG no-no!) and you max out your 5,000 friend allowance, you will find yourself creating a business page and trying to get all those ‘friends’ to now ‘like’ your business page. Some will make it over to your business page but I can assure you that you will lose the majority of your following. It is extremely difficult to get people to abandon a personal profile for a business page once they’ve gotten nice and cozy with you.

Advertising: There is absolutely no way to promote a post or advertise from a personal profile. This means that if you set up your business using a personal profile, you will have done all that work for nothing.

Not only will it be difficult to get your ‘friends’ to cross over and ‘like’ your new business page but you will not be able to promote posts that you’ve written on your personal page. You will be starting from scratch and working frustratingly hard to build up the new business page, which is unfortunately a huge waste of time for you.

In addition to being able to promote and advertise on your business page, business pages give you a lot of tools to help improve your brand’s reach which will help in every aspect of your business growth.

So, when setting up your business on Facebook, take the time to do it right the first time. It will save you a lot of frustration and time and it will create a more professional image for you and your business.

For help setting up your Facebook business page, Facebook has resources here: https://www.facebook.com/business/pages/set-up or you can purchase a copy of my book, Making Your Business A Social Media Superstar, by clicking here.

Also, when creating your business page, please read my article on the importance of claiming your username on Facebook here.

There are many things to consider when deciding which social media platform is best for you and your business. Generally, I usually advise most individuals and businesses to concentrate on only one to three social media platforms.

However, figuring out which ones will benefit you and your business best can seem tricky but it doesn’t have to be. It just requires a little knowledge of each social media platform and what demographics they attract to make a solid choice.

In this first in a series of content, I will be giving you a little food for thought on what factors should be considered when making this decision. In followup blogs and videos, I will be going over some of the most popular social media platforms and sharing with you the differences and demographics for each to make your decision a bit easier.

So, without further ado, let’s discuss some of the key factors that need to be considered when choosing a social media platform.

Age of Users

Knowing what age group uses a platform most frequently is a factor that many don’t think about but it’s an important one. If you’re a business trying to attract senior citizens to your product or services but you are posting and advertising on SnapChat, you’re unlikely to achieve your goal.

Very few social media platforms attract users of all ages and knowing which age group a social media platform markets to and attracts can make all the difference when choosing which social media venues you want to use in your marketing.

Type of Users

Just because you personally use Twitter all the time does not mean that it’s the correct social media platform for you or your business. It’s essential to know who you are trying to reach before you decide which social media platform you want to use.

Many times certain platforms attract specific kinds of people and businesses. There are some social media platforms that attract purely highly educated business owners and entrepreneurs and others that have an audience of skilled freelancers or people who produce homemade crafts. Other platforms attract young Millennials or youngsters under the age of 18.

Knowing the age range of the audience you will be interacting with can make all the difference when it comes to making a connection with them. If your products or services are aimed at Millennials but you’re using a social media platform that attracts people over the age of 65, your efforts will be all for naught.

Level of Education of Users

Different social media platforms attract people of different levels of education. There are some platforms that consist of people who have graduate or terminal degrees and others that attract children in grade school.

These are totally different audiences with totally different mindsets and intellectual abilities. Trying to appeal to doctors and lawyers while on a platform that attracts middle school children will be wasting your time, effort, and money.

Interests of Users

Some platforms were created to appeal to artists and musicians while other platforms were created for children, entrepreneurs, or educators. It’s important to know what your ideal audience is interested in so that you can then find the platform where they hang out. Otherwise you might be talking to a group that has no interest in you or your business.

How Frequently Users are on the Platform

Knowing how frequently users are on a platform is also important. If the people you’re trying to reach are only on a platform occasionally it makes it difficult to build brand recognition.

In order to build brand recognition, it’s important that you can get your brand in front of people regularly so that it leaves an impression with them. If the people you’re trying to reach only use the platform once a week, or worse once a month, it’s hard for them to find you through all the other backlog they have to fish through when they do log on.

Gender of Users

Certain social media platforms appeal to certain genders. Knowing which genders are attracted to which platforms enables you to market to the appropriate audience.

If you try to attract a male audience for one of your products or services by using a platform that has a prominently female following, you will find your efforts mostly ignored.

Location of Users

Surprisingly, many social media platforms attract users from specific countries. Why this happens varies from cultural preferences to governmental restrictions. Knowing where the majority of a platform’s audience is from will help you to reach the followers you and your business need to attract.

Income Status of Users

Many platforms will predominantly attract users from specific income brackets due to the overall content contained on it. Knowing which income brackets are your ideal target audience will help you to pick the social media platform that is in alignment with your products or services.

As you can see, there is a lot that goes into which social media platform to choose for you and your business. Knowing exactly who your ideal audience is as well as the knowing the specific demographics of each platform will help you make the best decision on which platform is the best to advance your brand.

In the next few months I will present a few videos detailing the specific demographics for many of the social media platforms out there. If there is a particular social media platform you would like me to cover, leave your nomination in the comments below or send me a message by clicking here and I will do my best to cover them all for you.

If you’re like most people then you will know the importance of creating a solid brand for yourself or your business on social media. This usually consists of creating profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn among others.

However, I want to bring your attention to something so small on Facebook that many people totally overlook it or misunderstand what it’s used for – and that’s the little @ symbol that sits innocently enough on the left-hand side of your page under your profile pic and page name.

Now if you don’t see one on your page or you see @username, we need to talk. This little oversight can cost you a lot when it comes to your customers, clients, or next job finding you not to mention the fact that you’re making it hard for your ideal followers to find and engage with you and your business.

This little @ symbol combined with your name is what Facebook calls your “User Name”. This user name makes it easy for anyone looking for you to find you. They only have to search your @username to find you on Facebook.

It also makes it easier for other businesses and people to tag you in their posts. Why would you want them to do that? Well, if you’re interested in spreading the word about your business or brand then you absolutely must create your user name.

As a social media manager and writer, I frequently tag businesses and people in my Facebook posts in order to draw more people to their Facebook pages and websites as well as my own.

You see, tagging someone in your Facebook posts not only exposes that person or brand to your audience but it also exposes your business or brand to their audience. This creates an outstanding atmosphere for organic growth of your content and your brand. In other words, FREE ADVERTISING!

Now some of you might be saying, “Why would I freely give my audience to someone else’s brand?” First of all, you’re not giving another brand your audience. You’re exposing your audience to a brand that you appreciate and at the same time giving your brand the opportunity to be seen to another audience that you don’t ordinarily have access to. It’s a win-win situation.

So, now that you understand the importance of claiming your @username on Facebook, I want to you go to your Facebook page and make sure that you already have one. If not, let me show you how to get one right now.

Once you sign into Facebook and go to your business or brand page, go to ‘About’ on the left-hand side of the page about half way down the page under your profile pic and page name. Click on ‘About’.

This will take you to your ‘About’ page where you can change or add the details of your business or brand.

You will see a place under the heading ‘GENERAL’ where it says “Username”. If you already have a user name that you like then you don’t have to do anything further. If you don’t have a user name or you don’t like the user name you do have, then click on ‘Edit’ next to the user name and change it to a user name that is appropriate for your brand.

Note that you really don’t want to be clever when making this name unless it is relevant to your brand and your ideal customers will know that it refers to your business. The key is to make it easy for people to find you on Facebook. This isn’t an Easter egg hunt. You don’t want it to be impossible to find you.

Also, on occasion the name that you want as your user name is already taken. Don’t panic! Just make a little adjustment to the name until you find an appropriate user name that isn’t being used. I had this problem with my user name for the above page because apparently my name isn’t as rare as I thought it was. So, after a few variations on my name with no luck, I decided to add ‘author’ to my user name. No muss, no fuss. Now it’s easy to tell people how to find my page on Facebook.

If you don’t choose a user name on Facebook, Facebook will generously assign one to you that looks something like this: https://www.facebook.com/your-page-name-2002529566527340/. Not so appealing or easy to tell someone how to find you, is it? It also makes it very difficult for people to tag you and your business in their posts and other content.

So, your assignment for today is to go check out your Facebook Page and make sure you have a simple, appropriate @username for your brand or business. If not, take a few seconds to create one. You won’t regret it and your future followers, clients, and customers will thank you for it.