We can all agree that this era’s ultimate buzzwords seem to be social media. A study compiled by Hootsuite and We Are Social found that there are 3.028 billion active social media users around the world! As many businesses discovered, creating company profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter, among others, has the potential to reel in customers and profit.
Although many publications and experts put forth advice on how to create content for and increase visibility and engagement on social media, few talk about the best practices for starting a company account. Have no fear! We’ve rounded up the basic steps to creating corporate social media accounts.
Profile.
Create a business profile. This first tip might seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many organizations bungle it. Pretty much all social media apps give you the options to choose either a private or company account. Establishing a business profile means your organization will be made public, and you get the bonus of seeing some form of analytics. It used to be a thing on Facebook to create a “Group” for your company, where followers request to join. The best practice is to simply open your business profile where people can click the “Follow” or “Like” button without any hassle.
Username.
It is tempting to find a funny or witty username, but save it for the bio segment. Your business account username must be the company’s name, or at least an abbreviated version. You want to make it as easy as possible for your customers or prospective clients to find you and @ you on social media.
Password Security.
It might seem like a good idea to choose a simple password you can easily share with your co-workers, but you won’t be singing that happy tune when you’re hacked! It is imperative to pick a secure password for your social media accounts. Trust me, [your company name]1 or password123 is not good enough. The usual requirement is for your password to be at least eight letters, upper and lowercase and include a number. Check out this article on Lifehacker for tricks to make strong passwords.
Admin.
Business structures change, and people come and go. It is in your company’s best interest to have more than one person have access to the social media accounts. At least two people, in addition to the head of the company, should have administrative access and editing rights to the profiles. If one person leaves the company, immediately designate a new admin with access to the username and password, and remove account access for the person who no longer works there.
LinkedIn, the Facebook for professionals, is slightly different. The page lives under the creator, and they add admins. If you only have the account creator, and that person leaves, you can't do anything! Either you try to get the employee to add you as an admin, or you have to tackle a long process with LinkedIn to take over the account.
Profile Picture.
It goes without saying that a professional business account requires a professional look. When choosing your profile pictures, a best practice would be to use the company logo and colors. If you decide otherwise, double, and triple check that nothing in the images goes against company policies. The main subjects might be innocuous themselves, but an ill-placed background image could cause issues, like a lawsuit for copyright violation.
Bio/Contact Info.
It is vital to fill in the bio to help any leads know more about your business. You can share a short background story, as well as your organization’s mission statement to capture attention. Providing another way for prospective customers to reach out can also help raise goodwill toward your business.
Content.
If you set up everything right and then post personal pictures, never give discounts or only post sales messages, your perfectly set up accounts will go to waste. Add value to your followers’ lives; make them say “I need to follow this company because they give me something for my time.” Otherwise, it is a waste of your time. Once, we came across an account that only posted “Happy Birthday” to their employees on every post!
Opening social media accounts for your company does not have to be a complicated feat. Follow these best practices, and you’re set. If you need further help, contact us over at Q Strategies to help you with your social media and content marketing.