For social media in general, what’s the difference between a personal account and a business account?
It’s fair to say that almost everyone is on social media today. Not just millennials, but people from all ages. If you’re reading this, I’m willing to bet that you are on social media in some way, shape or form - whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn or Pinterest. So when you start to think about how to handle social media marketing for your business, it’s no doubt that you’re going to approach it from the experience you have from a personal account. You may even look back at your account and think about the types of posts that you’ve done that received the most attention from your friends in terms of likes, comments and shares. So,naturally, when you start thinking about what types of posts you should do for your business, you reflect on your experience.
If you like something or think it’s funny (like a meme), you share to your page expecting the same response that it did from your profile. And this may work. If you look closely at why you think it “works,” it’s because you have shares and likes. But have you ever really looked at this data?
Most of the time, if you find yourself in this thought process you’ll see that most of these shares/likes/comments are from either your personal account that you switched over to, your family or close friends. Maybe the reason for this is because you read online that the more likes, shares and comments your posts get, the more that Facebook, Twitter or Instagram will be likely to put that at the top of other people’s news feeds. So you think as soon as you post on your company page that you have to automatically switch over to your personal profile and like/comment/share accordingly.
This may help from time to time but if you do this every single time, you run the risk of getting your friends, who might actually be interested, to become numb to it. They won’t think that it is a great post worthy of their attention because they’ll think you only publish it like a robot because it’s your business.
Pick and choose carefully. Not every post needs to be a homerun. But if you feel extra strong about one and feel it’s really good and deserves attention, by all means engage with it from your personal profile/account. Take an honest look back at your posts and how they’re performing to know if this is you or not. If the majority of your interactions are from you and your family, it’s time to look at other ways your content can help drive further engagement and truly speak to your audience. Your business will benefit from it.
You also may think that you have to get a post out because you haven’t in a couple days, or even a week. So, you look around your business, you hurry up and take a picture or video, and you post it so that you can check it off your list. But did it point to something actionable? Was it matching the goals or objectives that you’ve set for your business?
The more you are just shooting from the hip and thinking of social media posts as another box on your to-do list, you won’t be able to get the attention that you’re hoping for. And you won’t be helping your business the way these channels are able to.
Does your business have a standard font that you use? Are there certain color schemes that you use in all the designs for your business? These may seem like “corporate” type things and needing to follow certain guidelines, but I don’t want you to think of it that way. Staying with certain fonts and colors can help make your business look a lot more professional and consistent.
What you don’t want is to have something completely different every time you post making it look like someone new is doing your marketing. What you want is for someone to see a picture or a graphic and recognize that it’s from your business. You want that additional thought in the back of their minds about your business when they see that certain look and style.
If you have a standard font that you use, make sure to use it with any overlays you might be doing on top of pictures. If you do not have one, start looking around. My advice would be to pick a font family that has a lot of different variants (bold, italic, bold italic, etc.) so that you can still be creative with your messaging while having it look similar across your posts.
Next, make sure that it’s a font that is widely used so no matter what platform it’s viewed on, it can display the text correctly. Google Fonts is a GREAT tool for looking through fonts that you might want. And the best part is - it’s FREE to download the font if your computer doesn’t have it!
So, when you think about the types of content that you want to post to your business social media account, you need to give it some thought. Write out what area of your business that you want your social media accounts to help with. Then start thinking of ways that your posts can connect back to those objectives. We’re not saying you have to write every post like a robot and not do anything fun - quite the opposite! Your posts should reflect your brand, and it’s important to make that show so it can connect with your audience. All of your posts should be relevant to your company, it’s industry and, most importantly, your customers.
Personal Account
Share what you want when you want
Pictures, Videos, Memes – on a whim
Presents your own personal image and reputation
Can be random and without specific meaning
Can be multiple unrelated posts covering different topics
Align with your personal beliefs and/or feelings
Business Account
Share business relevant content
Let your company’s personality show - think in terms of overall public relations
Pictures and videos are tied to business objectives and strategically placed
Present the image of your entire brand and company - think in terms of public relations
Intended to leave an impression on, or create a behavior change in, a customer
All posts should be relevant to the company and connected in some way to business objectives