Boosting your Social Media Literacy

We have found the below 5 steps targeting business owners to boost their social media literacy - and boost their business!

1. Understand that relationships with customers, staff, suppliers, distributors and other business contacts extend beyond the four walls of your office. Whether you agree with the idea of social media or not, millions of people around the world use social networks every day and if you own a business, social media literacy is a must.

2. Engage with customers on social media. Accept customers as friends, followers and connections. You can always set privacy options to limit what you share with customers, but keep the engagement flowing by connecting with them on social media.

3. Have a Facebook Fan Page for your business. Invite customers to “like” your page and offer an incentive to do so. Include content-rich articles. Have contents. Create an online culture that will help customers get to know and love you, your products, services and business.

4. Connect with your team online. There are differing opinions out there among human resources professionals about whether managers should connect with staff on social networks, but the point is to create, then cultivate, healthy relationships with your staff that will build trust on and off line amongst you all.

5. Develop a Social Media Policy with your staff. Notice that did not read “for your staff”. Engage and empower your staff in conversations about social media. If you are not entirely convinced of why social media is useful for a business, ask your staff to help you. Rather than imposing rules on them about what they can and can not post and how they must or must not interact with others, engage them in conversations about what makes sense for them, for you and for the business.