Keep Me Posted…

By Gina Mathieson

That simple phrase we all throw out there, “keep me posted”, took on a new meaning when pro-manchester facilitated Tangerine Communications’ ‘Intro to Social Media for Business’ masterclass.

Delegates from our member companies were a diverse group of business professionals of mixed ages, backgrounds and levels of social media experience.

Tangerine’s Digital Planner, Kineta Kelsall and Senior Content Executive, Gemma Lockwood, focused on four major social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Their aim was to give knowledge of social media basics to those new to these platforms, as well as more technical advice for those with existing experience. Kineta and Gemma used on-screen demonstrations of each platform’s features to show how, why and when to post business-related content. For example, tools such as Twitter polls (used for market and brand research) and video posts were shown as different ways of pushing out content to online audiences.

Focusing specifically on these four popular platforms, Kineta and Gemma explained how to use and navigate them, their targeting capabilities and reach, the type of content posted on the platform and the importance of engagement with content posted.

One example showed Facebook having the best reach and targeting capabilities, simply because of the sheer number of people using the site. We’re talking in excess of two billion users! Personal account users can still be reached by advertising and brands. Personal Facebook accounts are ‘mined’ for snippets of personalities, interests and choices, providing very useful targets on a company to customer basis.

Other social media platforms do not offer as much information on user profiles.

Kineta explained that Facebook uses long form content, meaning longer and wordier posts, whereas Twitter posts are limited to shorter, snappier posts, more effective for a sales basis.

Twitter was explored as a platform for customer service and relationship building, and Instagram as a medium for inspirational visuals.

LinkedIn is held in high regard for employee engagement and helping people to network professionally.
Kineta explained how content having a high reach results in high engagement and the importance of this in a business capacity.

Relevant, targeted content means higher rates of engagement. Reaching the right audience is key and browsers can be converted into customers and clients.

Forms of engagement vary. Instagram sees likes, comments, shares and even viewing a minimum of three seconds of video content as engagement.

The demonstration of how to use Facebook’s Business Manager section to create and customise content was useful for those who felt they had enough knowledge now to begin posting advanced content from their companies’ social media accounts.

The latter half of the session ran through Tangerine’s tips for creating a social media strategy. This comprised three key components – spend, creative and audience. Having the money to put behind your ideas, creating compelling content and knowing your audience is the key to converting people into customers.

The masterclass was a fun and interactive way to gain an insight into the power of social media from a corporate viewpoint. Kineta and Gemma used demonstrations, group discussion and physical practice, with members signing into their social media accounts and testing their skills. They integrated tech-savvy tips and social media hacks such as their unique Twitter hashtag #TangTalksSocial for delegates to tag content they posted in the session.

Practical, relevant knowledge could be applied immediately back in the workplace to advance image, profile, sales, research, networking…the list goes on. Tangerine’s masterclass showed how companies can use the social media platform most suited to their content and professionals can use it to their advantage. Social media is making a massive difference to businesses globally.
Join in, keep posting and keep posted!

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