9 December 2024
Author: Terri Cawood
This article is for small businesses or individuals just starting in the role of managing a social media account in their place of work, who have landed themselves in the deep end trying to figure out what to do, and for those starting a side-hustle with no marketing budget.
In this article I am going to focus on Facebook (this article would be too long if I explored all the social media platforms). I will touch on Content, Captions and Design only. Perhaps I will write a follow up article on scheduling posts, social media calendars and metrics at a later stage.
First things first, make sure you create a Facebook page, NOT a Facebook account. You need to have your own Facebook account in order to manage a Facebook page.
A Facebook account is your personal profile and serves a place to digitally connect with friends, while a Facebook page is for businesses and organisations to share information with and interact will followers. Please don't create a Facebook account for your business, this screams unprofessional and is detrimental to your gaining a reliable digital presence for your brand. Sending and accepting "friend requests" as a business is a waste of time you could be investing in building your presence online far more easily and professionally. Click here to learn how to create a Facebook page.
Disclaimer for the well-established graphic designers out there, "the greats!" (Boomers, Gen X and maybe some Milleniel graphic designers) - this article is NOT for you. I'm going to use some forbidden words in the graphic design industry (no don't worry it is not "comic sans" or "papyrus" - I wouldn't dare!), I am talking about words like "ChatGPT" and "Canva" - Gasp! I said what I said.
Having got that off my chest, let's get into it. What to post, what to say and how it should look.
THE CONTENT
Schools, Colleges and Learning Institutes
Events - Any relevant upcoming public events is a given. These should always be posted on your school's Facebook page, if there is something happening that you want people to show up to, you need to post about it - more than once. An initial advert, and then build momentum with follow up posts, reminders, supporting pics, "don't forget about our upcoming event..". If it is an important event, make sure to pin the main advert to the top of your school's Facebook page and consider creating an official event from your school's Facebook page, where all content related to the event will be posted.
Reels and stories - these are great but consider these as 'additional', they should not be your main content. Stories are temporary and reels are like appetisers, you still need to be providing the 'main course'. Make sure your reels keep the main thing the main thing - it is all about the pictures and videos of what the school and students are up to, with trending music (preferably selected from Facebook rather than from an external source - for two reasons... trading music increases your digital reach, music from selected from Facebook rather than an external app more easily curbs music license issues they may arise).
Galleries (or photo dumps) - this is the 'main course'. Parents want to see is snippets of their children's day, on the sports field, choir practice and cultural activities, awards and special mentions. Parents and family members want to see what the school (and their children are up to), likewise prospective parents. Photo Dumps are great for traffic to your page, often parents will scroll through these pictures and most of them will interact with a great deal of the photos - possibly liking every picture (It's me! I proudly do this for my children's school fb page). When it is sport or cultural event mention results, tag and thank the visiting schools - all of this is excellent for a greater reach across Facebook.
Keep active! Schools and learning institutes provide the unique advantage for your social media team in that you don't have to be constantly creating content as small businesses and entrepeneurs will need to, in a school or learning institure there is ALWAYS something happening - you just need to go out and find it, snap a great picture and tell your audience about it, super easy - lucky you.
Services
When it comes to Services, whether it is insurance, bookkeeping, web design, auto service or beauty spas, you need to be creating content. Keep your clients (and potential clients in mind) - What do they want to see or read? A weekly advert about your service offering is not going to cut it. Your potential clients what to SEE your service in action, post photos of recent work and client feedback or reviews, post before and after photos, post about your staff, post "sneak peaks" of your workshop or staff at work in your offices. Post DIY tips, even if it is a slight overlap of the service you are selling, why? - Because it builds credibility, likability and trust. For example, a beauty spa that offers professional make-up for events, will do well to post make-up tutorials for their audience to engage in; An auto service company offering full car services will gain credibility and likability in posting DIY tips on how clients can check their vehicle's oil or how to pump up their own tyres up at the petrol station; And maybe a graphic design and social media professional will write a blog for DIY Social Media Management when it something she makes a living off of (wink wink).
Remember - Your website (yes you must have a website, eventually), is a place for all things professional and static - your mission, vision, values, service offering, location and contact details.
Your Facebook page is for current and more informal news and information, as well as specials and events, and it is place to engage with your audience (who are your potential clients), so make sure someone is managing the page, not just posting, but also replying to enquiries, responding to comments etc.
Products and Retail
Well it goes without saying, if you are selling a product - post about it! Your pics need to be great (hire a professional or take a course in photography - your photos are your product!). When you sell a product, ask your customers to tag your page, if they are posting about it, tag your page or share it to your page. Ask clients to write a review. Snap pictures of your products in different locations or your "product in use". If you have a client make a big order or a special order, post a gratitude post thanking them (and tagging the relevant business or individual) - this further increases your digital reach and page traffic.
THE CAPTIONS
ChatGPT is a great tool for helping you write professional captions for your social media posts, however I stress the words "tool for helping" - not to replace your doing the work. Yes your posts need to be professional, refined, grammatically correct and not have spelling mistakes, but your brand needs to have your voice, your vibe. Where most small businesses are failing in their social media captions are that they're taking the shortcut and relying solely on ChatGPT to word their captions - and it shows! For people in the know (and even to the slightly observant) it is blatant, obvious and an eyesore. It can come across as lazy or give the impression that you don't really have anything to say, you're here just to say something so that you've posted something on today (giving a 'tick it off the list' feel). It also comes across that you don't have a strong drive and passion for your brand. People who are interested in your product or service want to hear your voice, they want to feel like they know you, they want to trust that your product/service/brand is something you live and breathe and believe in. (And just in case you were wondering... this article was NOT written by ChatGPT, these thoughts are my own).
Tips for using ChatGPT for writing captions:
Do the work yourself - think about what you want to say and how you want to say it. Then put it through chatGPT and use prompts like "check the spelling and grammar of the following...", and "is there a more refined and professional way I can state the following?" ChatGPT might then give you a few options, again don't copy, paste and post, read it, reflect on it, ask yourself "does this sound like me?" and then further refine and make changes to find the happy balance between professional and your brand's voice.
THE DESIGN
Let's talk design. We talked about posting photos, but what about adverts or posts that need a design? There are many design programs and apps available, some free and others not. Let's talk about one of these most popular resources available - Canva. Here is where I have to tread lightly as a graphic designer... or all the graphic designers will be hating. Remember that I am not writing this blog for bigger corporations (you need to hire a professional, let us manage your page and keep your corporate identity in check), I am also not writing this article for graphic designers and social media managers (as you were, get back to work, stay in your lane), no I am writing this blog as a resource to the general public who run small businesses or have been tasked to manage the social media page of their place of work.
Now that I have cleared the air and hopefully the people this article was not written for have got back to their own business... I will say the words a lot of graphic designers will cringe to hear a fellow graphic designer say: Canva is a useful and time-saving tool for creating social posts. However, you need to have your brand or company's corporate identity constantly in mind - stick to your company's colours and fonts as much as possible. Using a template as a base for your design is very helpful if you have no design background (most templates will readily look good and have elements in place that might not have crossed your mind - such as spacing, heading and sub-headings, a tag line size that naturally captures your attention). But then make it your own. Use your brand's colours and fonts where applicable and your own photos as much as possible, and if you are using the free version of Canva (or another application), change the stock or paid images, don't use pictures that have the words "canva" or "stock" screened over them - this is a dead giveaway that you don't know what you are doing... and while that might be the case (that you don't know what you are doing in terms of design but have been forced into this position) it will unfortunately translate into further looking like you don't know what you are doing in your service offering or the product you are selling. So if you really don't know what you are doing but have to keep doing it, just start slow and keep it simple, don't try to do too much, don't jump at every design template the captures your eye, always refer back to your brand, your product, your vibe - and stick to it, your audience really do want to hear your voice and see your product/service and what makes it unique.
