Social Media Tips for Beginners

Social media can improve the profile of you and/or business, depending on your platform(s) and profile. But if you or your business has never utilized social media much or at all before, you might not know where to start. What platforms should you use? What kind of content should you upload? How do you do all of that in addition to everything else? These questions and many more can make you think twice about pursuing social media as an avenue to boost your profile.

Here are three tips to get started on social media. They aren’t easy hacks that can be done quickly. Rather, these are designed to get you thinking about what to do, as well as how to get started. You’ll need to determine what’s best for your situation in the end, but these suggestions will be the basis of a solid social media strategy.

1. Create a strategy for your content

You need to approach social media with a strategical mindset. Jumping in with no idea what to do or how to do it is one of the worst mistakes you can make. It’ll result in having no clear idea of what content to post, as well as when to post it and why.

These are just a few questions you’re going to want to ask and answer:

• How much time per week can you dedicate to posting content?
• What do you hope to gain from posting on social media?
• Why do you want to invest more time in social media?

Answering these can help determine a social media strategy that suits your needs and your abilities. For example, while you may wish you can post multiple times a day five days a week, you may not have the time or resources to do so. That’s okay- just focus on what you can do right now.

Certain tools such as a social media calendar and social media scheduling platforms (i.e. Hootsuite) may fit your strategy, too. Look into all your options and use them as they seem fit.

2. Diversify your content (to a point)

Having different kinds of content keeps people interested. Depending on your niche or business, you may have a ton of opportunities to make cool content in varying mediums. Photo content is a great place to start- it’s relatively easy to make, and can be done in a number of ways. But video is currently really hot on social media, so try and make some video content if you can. You don’t have to make a YouTube channel, or even make really great video content! Brainstorming ideas for photo and video content- as well as any other ideas you may have for your social media channels.

While diverse content is a good idea, make sure it fits your brand. For example, if you have a dessert shop and are brainstorming social media content ideas, photos and videos of how your baked goods are made or showing off the finished product will both fit. But creating content about any foods you’re not selling won’t work (no matter how tasty it looks). Your content needs to fit your brand and what you stand for in order for followers to recognize you.

So don’t be afraid to try out making photo and video content; as well as using different editing styles and whatnot for both. But make sure your content suits you and your business. In other words, diversify, but don’t completely lose sight of what you’re doing.

3. Make the time to make content

“How do I start creating content?”

You may have thought of this very question at least once. You may have thought of it multiple times. How the hell do you start creating content for social media?

The answer: You just start making the damn content.

Get a camera (or even a phone with a great camera), and get to work making content. Take photos. Swallow any fear you have about getting in front of the camera and shoot that video. Shoot more video that doesn’t have you on camera. Write blogs based on your business or niche. Edit and refine all of your content until you’re satisfied with it. If you have to do it all yourself, so be it. If you can or want to outsource certain aspects to others (i.e. you can shoot video, but are terrible at editing it), that’s okay, too.

The main point here is that you need to start making content now. Even if you only have an idea of what you want to post online, get to it. You can always delete whatever doesn’t work later on.

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Social media can be an incredible tool that’s capable to boost your profile and bring attention to your work. It can be scary to put yourself out there on social media. I would know because I’m guilty of feeling this way, too. But when used in the right way, social media can do a whole lot of good. These tips will up your social media game and make you want to improve your content more and more.

xo,

Elizabeth