A Daily Guide to Help you Tweet Confidently!

Posted on January 30, 2018March 10, 2018 by Katie Nutt

Twitter for small businesses in Shropshire and the UK can be a minefield. Social Media Fanatic has some top tips for businesses throughout the UK to become confident and use Twitter to their advantage!

Top Tips On How To Tweet Confidently For Your Small Business:

Twitter is the one that causes the most questions and worry for business owners. But why is this? I personally think it is the unknown. People don’t know what to expect from Twitter. What will happen when you Tweet? What happens if I Tweet the wrong thing? The list goes on….

What To Expect from Twitter for your Small Business?

Here is my daily guide for you to use that can take the fear away from the Twitter bug! So let’s get started.

Top Tips for Small Business on Twitter:

Reply to your notifications – what messages have people sent, do you need to reply? Thank people for your RTs and favourites, and say hello to new followers. This will automatically increase your engagement levels and allow you to create and start conversations with other users.
Be jolly, professional and approachable. You want your Tweets to portrait your business in the best possible light. When talking to others on Twitter make it friendly, yet professional and you will see people responding.
Make your Tweets have use. Whether is be a fact, information, a useful article, a link to your latest blog post or a top tip. Again people will engage with this and you are building up and showing off your knowledge and expertises within your industry.
Don’t be pushy, just talk and get to know other people. You can do this by showing the benefits of your business and how it could benefit their life. You are giving people a reason to be interested in you and what you do.
Lastly, use images as often as possible. People respond to images! This also makes your profile a little fun and lighthearted.

My biggest top tip of all is don’t be scared. As long as you’re nice, friendly and professional you can’t do much wrong. Happy Tweeting my friends!

SOCIAL MEDIA FANATIC XO.

Images, Photos & Social Media.

Posted on September 23, 2015December 11, 2016 by Katie Nutt

I’m going to let you into a secret and that is images! Images and social media holds the golden key. Now I suppose you are thinking why, how and am I on something?

The Importance of Using of Images on Social Media for Small Businesses:

There are many statistics to support the use of images on social media and higher engagement levels. There is a 89% higher chance that you’ll have a RT if you attach an image to your Tweet. So why aren’t we all doing this?

The Importance of Images on Social Media!

One of the main reasons being time and knowledge. But seriously 89%? If it takes an extra 5 minutes to create a Tweet and Facebook post, but your social media is proven to be a lot more effective surely it is time well spent. I want to share with you a couple of platforms that allows you to edit and create images suitable for your profiles, which in turn can make your social media a lot more effective, visual and attractive!

Instagram – Get your Business Seen on Social Media!

Instagram. This may sound blatantly obvious but so many business aren’t seeing the potential and value of this platform. Now, this is primarily if you have an image but you wish crop or edit it slightly, and once you’ve done that you’re able to post the image. Jobs a gooden and you build your following.

However, why not use it as an editing tool? Create a private profile. Take your images. Edit them and then implement them onto other platforms. You don’t have to use Instagram as a direct platform or strategy. It is simple and very easy to use with the app.

Canva – Create your Business Brand on Social Media:

My other platform, which I personally love is Canva.com. Here you don’t need to take photos but you simply create an image. It is great if you have a quote you want to use. You can simply create an image, add the text and make it look really pretty. (An example shown in this blog post).

Canva is perfect if your business isn’t visual. For instance SMF isn’t very visual unless training has been delivered, natural imagery is little to none, compared to an interior design company which is completely visual.

By using both these platforms to create photos and images your social media profiles can be very visual regardless of the nature of your business.

Get snapping my loves! XO

How can you use Social Media when Networking?

Posted on September 14, 2015December 11, 2016 by Katie Nutt

Social media and networking are the two subjects thrown around in business. Should you or shouldn’t you do it? Personally SMF says YES! Why wouldn’t you? You are opening your business up to more and more people and allowing your business to grow. But how can you use the two together?

How to grow your Social Media through Business Networking?

There are five steps that I follow when networking to ensure that I use social media to increase my reach, and once in the habit of doing so it is rather simple.

Five Steps to Increase your Social Media Reach:

Look at where you are going networking? Find the name of the group, then find them on Twitter or Facebook.
The next is a little obvious. Tweet, make a nice comment and mention the event/group name. E.g. ‘Looking forward to networking in the morning with some great businesses at BNI Telford! @BNITelford’. I generally do this the day before if the meeting is in the morning, or in the morning if the event is later on in the day.
While at the event make note of the businesses there. Do you know anyone already? From here you can find them on Twitter, Facebook and Linked In once back in the office. Follow, Like and Connect.
For the people who you knew at the event, tweet, tag or private message them to say how nice it was to see them at the event you attended.
Create a general message to say that you have been to such event. **TOP TIP ALERT** Take a photo of a speaker or of the meeting in full swing. Add this to your tweet or post and don’t forget to mention where you went. E.g. @BNITlford.

By doing this you are not only talking to the people in the room but to your followers on your social media too. If you do this for each event you will create credibility and a strong position in the networking world, as well as upping your social media profile.

Make Networking Work for your Small Business!

EXTRA TIP! Ensure to connect with all that you meet whilst networking. This will enable the growth of followers, encourage conversation both online and in person, slowly ‘up’ your profile whilst networking and increase the engagement on Twitter, Facebook and Linked In.

Much Love,

Social Media Fanatic XO

What are your Expectations from Social Media for your Business?

Posted on August 14, 2015December 11, 2016 by Katie Nutt

There are many ways that social media can benefit your business and in this day and age it is essential that you embrace it to it’s full potential – you’d be a fool not too. But what should you expect from it?

What do you Expect from your Social Media for your Small Business?

This is the burning question and if I had a £1.00 for every time someone offered to pay commission then I wouldn’t be sat here writing this. I’d be on a beach in an exotic climate, enjoying a Pina Colada.

Social Media can Benefit your Business in Many Ways!

I say this to many people, the less you expect the better the outcome will be and I still stick to this. However you may want sales (we all do) but you need to ensure you a have your marketing circle in full swing to see the full potential of social media for your business.

Expect Less, Gain More with your Social Media for Small Businesses!

What do I mean by this? Well you can have social media (Facebook & Twitter etc) but if you don’t go networking, do your email marketing campaigns and use ever PR opportunity to get out there, it makes your social media presence pretty much irrelevant. No one knows about your business and this makes it 10 times hard to gain social media success.

What can you Expect from a Social Media Profile?

But what can you expect from a social media profile? This is hard to pinpoint but the one thing you should always remember is it is NOT a sales platform! Don’t expect direct sales. You can get leads, yes. Sales, no!

The best way to implement a Twitter profile or Facebook Page is to use it as an extended PR platform. Share what your business is doing, where are you going to be, news, relevant information relating to your business, facts and figures and links to your website. In other words ‘show off’ that you are the expert in your field and the go to person.

If people can recognise your business due to your social media profile then you’re doing a pretty good job. If you can up your website hits, again a job well done. If you are doing this, your social media IS working for your business. It may not look like sales, but it in the long run the benefits will come and be amazing.

I hope that helps you lovely people understand the insider’s thoughts to social media for business….

MUCH LOVE,

SOCIAL MEDIA FANATIC XO.

Your Business, Your Personality and Your Social Media!

Posted on June 5, 2015December 11, 2016 by Katie Nutt

For you people who have personal social media accounts and social media accounts for your business, that is great. We all need to keep things seperate from our personal life when it comes to work, else we would never switch off. But what people miss is adding a little personality into their social media accounts for their business.

How to Make your Small Business Social Media have Personality:

Many people will say I like to keep things seperate, but to what extent should you do this?

Adding a Little Personality into Your Social Media!

When explaining this to people when in the midst of training, I put it in simple terms: ‘People buy into your business because of you and what your business believes in, so for your social media presence you should think to emphasise these points through your personality’.

Quite often the penny will drop after saying this…. So I suppose that question you have is: ‘How do you do this in a professional manner’?

There a few ways without being overpowering!

Improve your Following and Reach on Social Media for your Small Business:

Firstly, encourage conversation with other users. This will not only improve your following and reach, but you then give off an approachable feel to other users on Twitter, Facebook or Linked In. It doesn’t have to take up a lot of time or eat into your day either. Simply set 10-20 minutes each morning or evening to do just this – it will make the world of difference to your social media presence.

Secondly, what does your profile say about you? This applies more to Twitter than any other site. People tend to read your Bio before following. If it is standard, boring and lifeless it won’t attract users. However, if you simply add a sentence in at the end giving you a little personality it will become more attractive. For Example:

As you can see from mine the last sentence gives my profile a small identity….

What is your Brand on Social Media?

Lastly, just make a note to yourself: how do you want your profile to appear to your users? Do you want it to be motivational, educational, humorous or straight to point. It could be a mixture. Once you have decided what you want it to be, then you need to be persistent with this and get your followers to expect and want to read what you put out there!

Oh and there is never any harm in making people smile with some lovely pictures!