In a perfect world you would have the best product or service, everyone would know about your business and they’d buy your products. You wouldn’t have to worry about salespeople or advertising or much in the way of customer support as there would never be any issues. Sounds good, right?

In the real world, social media channels can be a great way to help support your current client base and make more people aware of your products.

With every venture, businesses want to be the best and reach as many people as possible with their product and service offerings.  Social media channels can facilitate interactive relationships with clients and grow their trust in your business. Trying to create too many connections can become tricky. I’ll explain.

An easy illustration is juggling. When you start off and make some connections it is like juggling 2 balls. Almost everyone can effectively manage that. The more and more connections you make, the greater the amount of effort it will take to effectively manage those accounts and relationships. Effectively managing accounts means actively listening and responding to consumers. Being an active part of a community, communicating your business’s value, and doing it all in a courteous, non-intrusive, and timely manner is what it is all about!

Is your business ready for that? How many relationships can your company juggle on Facebook and Twitter? Many small businesses are not equipped to manage growing accounts effectively due to either staff or budget constraints. Or, they may not know the value of participating in these social channels. No matter the reason, there are some tools businesses can put in place when these accounts start to get too big to control. Here are a few tips to make growing accounts easier to manage.

Clear out the Clutter

Know who your audience is and stick with them! Most businesses have some form of geographic limitation. Keeping up with followers in India, Brazil, or Ukraine may not be the best use of your time. Also, take a peek at their accounts and see what they are doing before following them in return.

• Are they shooting out a bunch of links? This could be the sign of an internet marketing spammer. You don’t need those cluttering your streams.
• Do they never post anything? If they don’t participate, why connect with them?
• Do you speak their language? If they do not speak English or you don’t have someone on staff that speaks their language, it will take a lot of effort to communicate with them. How effective can this be for your business?

Divide and Conquer

For Twitter, social media management platforms such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite will allow you to use lists created in Twitter to separate your audience out into their own independent streams. Once your accounts get into the 1,000s, single streams will seem to whiz by uncontrollably. These tools will allow you to visually separate the people into smaller groups so the fast moving streams will become more controllable.

Many Hands Make Light Work

On Facebook, you can add another admin to your page. Fortunately, most Facebook pages are based on comments to posts and it is not too difficult to follow the topic of discussion. What has been said or not said by an admin is very clear. It should not take much for two or more people to manage a busy Facebook page.

Search is Your Friend

There are several applications out there to help listen for your brand in time efficient ways. Being responsive to people airing their issues is important in building trust and showing that you are actively participating on a social media channel. You can set up search-based fields in Tweetdeck or Hootsuite that will best see Tweets in real-time. Or, you can check out services such as Topsy online, and do manual searches to see how your brand appears. You can also do the old-fashioned search in the native search bar on Twitter.com to check for mentions of your brands.

 

Need help with managing your social media outreach? Contact Cirrus ABS and one of our solution consultants can help you find a program that works for your business.