The Beginner’s First Rule in Social Media Marketing for Business

Whether you’re new to social media marketing (SMM) or you’d like to improve your business marketing game, this fundamental best practice will set you on a winning trajectory.

Avoid This Common Start-Up Social Media Marketing Mistake

We’re going to tell it like it is. The most common “rookie error” of social media marketing can carry the most annoying, burdensome consequences for your brand later down the line.

What we love about social media is that it is free and accessible to just about anyone. Everyone is on at least one social media platform. Take your pick between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat—and about 75 others that are making “SMM platforms you need to know in 2020” lists. Never mind the hundreds in development, each set to be the next big thing.

Pssst. Talking about the next big thing, our money’s on WhatsApp for business as a marketing must-have.

Where things go wrong off the bat is failing to separate one’s personal profile from their business profile.

Did you know that most social media platforms offer dedicated features for business pages? No? We don’t blame you. That’s because when you sign up initially, the platform asks you for your personal details—and you need a personal profile first so that you can set up a business one.

The disadvantage of social media in business is that few platforms ask you if you’d like to set up a business page or profile. The irony is that Facebook, Instagram, and every other platform wants you to register your business. They want advertisers!

Why Running Your Business Marketing From an Individual Social Media Profile Is Problematic

There are numerous business benefits to social media marketing. But, to reap them, you need to start your SSM journey on the right foundation. Here are four reasons why.

1. Brand Identity

A clear brand identity from the onset is crucial to positioning your company in the public’s mind. The way that you convey your business image will influence how prospects view on:

• The value of your products
• The quality of your products
• How much they trust your business
• Whether or not they will make a purchase

When your brand doesn’t have a stand-alone presence, it seems less reputable or as though the company doesn’t know what it’s doing. Others might assume your business is a tiny mom-and-pop outfit instead of the empire that you wish to grow. That, in turn, could affect what people perceive as a reasonable asking price for your goods.

An official business page—not another individual page that carries your business name— communicates that your organisation is established, professional, and has the right resources. Therefore, it builds credibility.

2. Performance

“2/3 of Facebook users across all countries surveyed say that they visit the Page of a local business at least once a week”—Facebook for Business

Business profiles are designed with purpose-fit features that make it easy for people to learn about your business, offering and getting in touch. Facebook, for example, lets you create tabs on your page—effectively acting like a mini-website.

To help you promote your business professionally, social media business pages are geared to facilitate advertising. In fact, you can’t advertise without a designated business profile, which leads to our next point.

3. Momentum

An individual page or presence limits your potential performance. When you’re ready to scale-up your efforts, like putting money down for boosted and sponsored posts, you’ll need to start afresh with the right type of profile (business).

You risk losing the momentum you’ve already created. It’s tough trying to get all your followers to move over to the new page. Though it’s not ideal; it’s not a deal-breaker. The good news is that you have the opportunity to apply this and other learnings to your new identity.

4. Business intelligence (analytics)

“Regularly monitoring and analysing your digital media’s performance is crucial to digital marketing success!”—FDM

Finally, a staple in all forms of digital marketing, business social media pages track user analytics. The reporting differs between social media platform, but all of them are better than having none at all.

Regularly monitoring and analysing your media’s performance is crucial to digital marketing success! It enables you to refine your targeting, messaging and, thus, improve your social media marketing performance. Speak to us about SMM set-up and content creation.