“Nobody follows me on social media anyway.”
That is a common excuse that many businesses make for ignoring their social media accounts. Whether it’s Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or something else, many businesses skip social media altogether, and simply let their accounts sit there inactive for months on end.
Leaving your social media accounts “dead,” however, is a mistake.
Social Media and Branding
Social media is overrated. The amount of money and time that some small companies put into their social media accounts is borderline silly. There are small businesses with almost no marketing budget that will invest hundreds of dollars a week simply to make sure someone is trying to grow their social media presence.
There are certainly benefits to investing thousands into your social media account if you have the budget. But for those that do not, investing that same amount of money into content and other forms of online marketing makes far more sense in the short and long term. Unless you have a wicked personality, time to engage with users, and a strategy that will help you build a following, it is unlikely that you are going to attract very much business through your social media account.
Yet that doesn’t mean that you should let it die, either.
Although you may not be likely to develop much a following without a substantial commitment and a little bit of luck, social media accounts are often the first thing people see if they search for your name in a search engine. Generally, most search engine results for a company name are, in this order:
- Website
That means that social media often takes of 3 of the top 4 spots for your company name, and while most searchers will click on your website first, some will click on your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
If they see that you’re completely inactive, it gives the impression that your company is:
- Poor
- Closed Down/Out of Business
- Overly Corporate
In rare cases, with individual-based businesses (such as psychologists, dentists, and artists) an inactive social media account can cause people to wonder, subconsciously, whether or not you are even still alive.
Judgments will vary depending on the industry and the viewer, but there are very real issues that can occur if you have an inactive account.
There is even an argument to be made that it would even be better to have no account at all. But if you had no account at all, you’re going to have a much harder time starting a social media account in the future, you lose out on the potential of social media, and you lose that valuable search engine placement that can help you fend off your competitors.
The Solution – Filler Content
Products like HootSuite allow you to maintain an active social media account automatically. You simply set up posts in advance to run daily or every other day, post interesting links related to your industry, quotes, promotional material, etc., and let them run automatically:
- You are not interacting with people.
- You are not trying to grow your social media presence.
- You are not expecting your social media account to create sales.
But because of that, you are also not investing very much into your social media account either. At Great Leap Studios, for example, we have worked with countless clients creating monthly social media content that runs automatically every day starting at only $99* – much less than the time and cost it would take to actually run a social media account in its entirety.
In addition, because of the way social media works, these “filler” posts still have the potential to bring you business and grow your following. Through hashtags and high quality content, it’s possible that you’ll receive the likes, shares, and other interactions that help your business create business.
But perhaps most importantly, you’ll have a social media account that will not turn off any buyers. If a potential client happens to find your social media account, they’ll see active content that interests them, know that you’re still in business, and consider calling you for your products or services.
Don’t let your social media accounts die simply because they don’t generate revenue. Fill them with content that runs automatically for an inexpensive price, and make sure that you’re still active to anyone that finds you.
