Tweets? Posts? Likes? A Beginner’s Guide for all things Social Media.
Social Media – Haven’t got a clue? Tired of the FOMO?
How are your social media skills (or lack of)? The world of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook can seem like a daunting place at first and knowing how to handle them can take a good minute. Luckily, here’s a beginner’s guide to help you on your way with these 3 main social media channels.
Social media is a great way to stay in the know, keeping yourself up-to-date with current events and trends, and, as a result of the global pandemic; keeping in touch with family and friends. In terms of business, it has become an outlet for people who are trying their luck launching their own products and services. Social media platforms, if used wisely, can be great tools in promoting your business and attracting your audience.
Here is a helpful beginner’s guide to getting starting on social media:
Twitter: A Beginner’s Guide
Opening a Twitter account is straight-forward, so long as you have a solid business, product or service. Once your account is open, you have free reign to make your Twitter page your own. Write a bio – a description of what/who you are, but keep it simple and straight to the point so that whoever views your profile will know exactly what you are promoting and who you are.
Once you begin ‘tweeting’ (the term used for writing posts on Twitter), the rest will come to you naturally. As with everything, practice makes perfect. Hashtags (#) and tagging (@) will become a part of your everyday vocabulary, and you’ll soon learn that these terms will contribute to helping your business flourish online.
Helpful hints:
- Photos work really well to catch attention.
- Tag people in photos – under the image it says ‘who’s in this photo’ – click on here and add people’s Twitter handles (handle is the same a name, so their Twitter name). Tag @Pedddle if you can – we love people tagging us, and will try to share where we can. Tag market organisers, fellow traders etc wherever possible – the more people that share your stuff, the better!
- Hashtags (#) are great! Use towns/counties (#Manchester #Cheshire) relevant to any markets you’re at, or relevant #’s to your products e.g. #ceramics #cakes #Pedddle #PedddleYourWares (note we have 3 d’s in Pedddle!) etc. This will help draw in potentials customers on a wider scale by linking to other things.
You can visit our Pedddle Twitter account to see how we make it work for us.
And, you are off! Happy tweeting.
Instagram: A Beginner’s Guide
Instagram is a great way to promote your business solely using photos. Visually, this helps your customer find exactly what they want and is an instant draw. Plus, it’s a nice to play around with the filters and presets and make your products look their best!
It’s a great way to keep up with latest trends and to find new and innovative ideas to help promote your business further. It can also help in promoting a positive rapport between yourself and customers; people who are satisfied with your business will often promote it through their own feed and Stories to their followers and, in turn, helps your business to gain further recognition.
Never underestimate the power of hashtags! Using hashtags in your photo captions is a great way to grow your business, just make sure the hashtags are relevant to what you’re posting and try not to use too many as it can overwhelm your page, especially if you want the focus to be on your business and nothing else. Tagging users is another way to attract attention, it’s a sure-fire way for people to instantly ‘like’ your posts.
Creating a ‘Story’ (Stories the circular images on your feed at the top). This is an instant way of saying ‘what I am doing now’ without spoiling your Instagram grid or the viewer’s feed.
Some influential people to watch/follow on Insta:
@joannehawker – Joanne Hawker is the creator of the #marchmeetthemaker hashtag challenge, which takes place every March. It’s great fun to take part and be a part of the Instagram community. Every day she gives a theme and makers around the world write posts on that topic. It is a fab idea and helps you to showcase what you do and gain new followers by using the hashtag – and you can support other makers easily too. Click here to find out more about March Meet the Maker!
@studio.cotton– Studio Cotton is a lovely, informative page which shares advice for small businesses. She also offers services to help guide people running their businesses through Instagram, with expert advice. The page itself is also very pleasing to the eye.
@sunshine_jo – Sunshine Jo is just fabulous – look at how she keeps to a theme. Yellow! Her feed really flows and so do her followers.
Check out our Instagram page to gain an idea of how we structure our content.
Facebook: A Beginner’s Guide
Out of all the social media platforms, Facebook has been around the longest! While many people will be familiar with this, here are a few helpful pointers to guide you in the right direction…
Firstly set up a business page. On your personal FB page, click ‘settings’, choose the option ‘create a page’, and it will ask if you what type of business you are and allow you to set a business page up. A business page has different features to a personal page, and you must have this to run a business on Facebook effectively.
Posting content is fairly simple on FB. Structure your posts so that there is enough to keep your audience interested without overwhelming them. For example, setting times to post twice a day is a great way to engage with your customers, it also gives you time to find out what people are liking and what is attracting them. You should post more frequently on Facebook than on other social media channels, as this is what the Facebook algorithm currently favours.
Helpful hints:
- Tag people: If you write a person’s Facebook name preceded by an @ sign, Facebook will suggest businesses/people for you to tag, and you can simply click on the relevant one. This allows the tagged person to know you are talking about them – getting their attention and allowing them to share your post on their social media too (boosting your overall reach, as more people will then see your post).
- Boosting your posts: it means to advertise a piece of work. For as little as £2 you can promote a post or make it a ‘sponsored post’. Again, photography is key here and you MUST target a specific audience. There are quite a few things to fill in – but it is important to do. Facebook may make suggestions for you based on your current audience. For example, if you are selling dog accessories, make sure you target people with pets; FB knows who they are, you just need to select the appropriate options. You can specify age groups and gender too, which could be important for jewellery or baby clothes for example. You can even target people who are recently engaged, if you’re selling rings – there’s loads of options so consider all of the audiences you could sell to!
Have a look at our Facebook page to find out more on how we do it – we have over 4000 followers so we know what we’re talking about!
What’s next for my social media?
Once you have nailed the basics and have your own up and running accounts, it’s worthwhile sharpening your skills in social media and continuing to educate yourself. The social media gods release algorithm updates often, so you need to keep switching it up to stay on top of things and get seen by your customers!
There are many articles and blogs on the internet that can help you on your way, but the Social Media Workshops blog from Pedddle is great for those with established social media platforms and are looking for ways to boost their business. This is currently for Pedddle members only, but you can find other resources too, such as our 5 Tips for Social Media in 2021 blog from Pedddle.
Good luck on your journey into the world of social media! Look out for more blogs on the basics of photography, setting a stall & more ideas for social media.