Social Media Basics

There are many features within Facebook and Twitter that can be confusing. The options become even more cumbersome from a company point of view. One of the main starting points with any company page is to “LIKE” them on Facebook and “FOLLOW” them on Twitter. This allows users to keep up to date with a company's events and information. These two platforms, however, act very different.

For example, within Facebook, complicated algorithms dictate which posts will be seen by the public. Not all updates are pushed out to all the fans of a company page. Due to this, a company needs to utilize other tools to reach their audience. This comes from loyal followers as well as engaging content. 

So how can loyal followers help a company page thrive? There are three ways, Like, Comment and Share. When a company pushes out a post there are three options at the bottom of each post that allow for user interaction. By clicking the Like option, you are both notifying the company as well as Facebook that you found the content interesting. This ups the level of visibility of the post to the public by positively influencing the aforementioned algorithm. If you Comment on the post, it has a similar effect as a Like, but it holds more weight with Facebook as well as offers the company more information beyond a simple Like. The final, and most productive way, is to Share. This allows a company’s post to go beyond the people who are fans of the page. This allows everyone of the user’s friends to see the information as well. The goal is for the information to be engaging enough so that the friend will then Like the company’s main page. The more shares a post receives, the wider the influence a post will have.

Twitter also has three options, but they act very different from Facebook. A user can Favorite, Retweet and Reply. The first one, Favorite, is useful to the user and the company. A user can Favorite a tweet, which saves it as such in a separate tab in your profile. This serves as a bookmarking tool. By clicking Favorite, this also sends feedback to the company letting them know they like this type of post.  The other options are even more useful for a company. The goal is to get your tweet Retweeted by followers. Like Facebook’s Share, this allows the information to go beyond the people that only follow the company and extends to the users circle of friends. Reply is very similar in its range of influence, but it also allows for the user to offer more information to the company regarding the tweet.

When it comes to organic marketing, these techniques are vital in getting our information out. The first line of offense is the employees who work for the company as well as your own friends and loyal fans. By utilizing some of the above mentioned techniques, you can extend your reach to a much wider net that will only grow larger.

For more information on social media, check out our upcoming classes - http://goo.gl/0fJbM2.