Social Media 101: How To Set Up Social Media Profile

You’ve been following every single one of the social marketing strategies we dish out and those of others in the sphere.

But you’ve hit a problem which no one seems to care about, and which is the reason your business is stunted – namely, “how do I improve my social media profile?”

The irony in this is that people spend an inordinate amount of time browsing through their timelines, yet they can’t spare a few minutes of their time to work on their social media profiles.

It’s understandable, in a way– considering we all have busy schedules. But there’s a whole lot you could do to your social media profile in just a few minutes of the time you have in a day.

This article walks you through 13 different things you could do to spice up the content on your social media profile.

How To Set Up Your Social Media Profile

• Optimise the size of your images

The photos you post should fall within the dimensions required by each social media network. Cropping is among the few tricks you could use to adjust the sizes to the recommended standards. And unless the images are in vector format, don’t make the mistake of enlarging them for the fear of getting them pixilated.

One common mistake people make all the time is assuming social media networks are designed to make necessary adjustments to the sizes of the images you post. There’s also a fair chance that someone may decide to re-use your photos elsewhere. So assuming they’re enlarged or compressed further, will they still retain the quality?

The sizes recommended by social networks are the most ideal because they allow the photos to be adjusted to a broad range of sizes without losing much of their quality. It’s therefore important that you try to adjust your photo sizes to that exact size before uploading them on social media.

Here’s a tabled rundown of the dimensions to adopt for the different social media networks:

Social Network	Recommended Profile Picture size	Recommended Cover Photo Size
Facebook	170 x 170 Pixels	828 x 465 Pixels
Twitter	400 x 400 Pixels	1500 x 500 Pixels
Google +	250 x 250 Pixels	1080 x 608 Pixels
LinkedIn	400 x 400 Pixels	1484 x 396 Pixels
YouTube	800 x 800 Pixels	2560 x 1440 Pixels
Pinterest	150 x 150 Pixels	N/A
Instagram	110 x 110 Pixels	N/A

• The photo you post must be consistent or uniform on every single one of your channels

This is important in branding your business. You want your followers to have easy telling if a particular social media page or channel belongs to you from a casual glance based on what they know about your business.

This also saves you the trouble of having to filter through the images you like and those you don’t like.

By using the same photo all across the different platforms, you just have to work on coming up with a favourite photo and thereafter work on using it on every single one of the social media channels you manage.

As people scroll through their feeds, they should be able to recognize your business at first glimpse. And the only way to achieve this is by working on uniformity across all social networks.

Start by working on the same colour scheme, especially if you’re planning to use your logo. Make sure the sizes are well-adjusted to display the same thing across all social networks and you’re good to go.

• Disable Unnecessary Tags and Delete all Inappropriate Posts You’re Tagged in

Go through your profile and perform all the necessary cleanings. Start with all the inappropriate photos you were tagged in or your past posts you suspect weren’t professional enough for your business.

The point is to make your social media profile as professional as you possibly can.

Start by checking your tagging setting and make sure they reflect the social media policy you’ve set for yourself. Check on the group of people with whom you have no trouble allowing them to tag your brand in their posts.

Also, remember to adjust the settings such that every tagged photo will have to be first approved by you before they can finally show up on your timeline.

• • With Facebook, you’re allowed to review the posts you’re tagged in and approve them before they can show on your timeline or profile.
  • The same goes for Instagram photos. Every single one of the photos you’re tagged in has to be first approved before they can appear on your profile.
  • For Twitter, you have the option to restrict who tags you in a Twitter post or even remove any of the tags you don’t approve of.

Even with all these, it’s still important that you develop a culture of reviewing all the posts you’re tagged in on a regular basis to catch on any inappropriate posts and bad photos before they end up showing on your profile and ruin all the fun.

Worth remembering is that you still have the option to shut off tagging completely.

But there’s the risk of losing all the benefits that come with allowing some of your followers to tag you in their posts and photos – especially where business is concerned.

One is, that some of your customers may decide to tag you in some of your products or services, and when they do, the photos will appear in the photo section of your profile.

That means you could still use the photos to provide more information about your product or service or they could still serve as a valuable piece of additional information to the prospects that check you out on social media.

So it’s important that you don’t completely shut off this valuable source of information. Instead, make a habit of reviewing everything you’re tagged in to filter out what’s important and what’s NOT.

• Be consistent with the handles you use

As with your profile photos, it’s important that you be consistent with the handles you use across the various social media platforms.

For profile pictures, consistency is all about making your brand easily recognizable. But for the handles you use, consistency is all about how easy can you be found on any social network.

In simpler terms, the username potential visitors use to trace your profile should be consistent across the networks.

Take Twitter for instance. Whenever someone happens to be searching for your brand, all they have to do is pick your name and throw in the (@) symbol and bingo! There you are.

It’s however frustrating when interested parties find out that you no longer use the same company name for a given social network.

They instead have to sift through a mishmash of possible names in a desperate bid to find you.

A simple trick would be to go for your company name without further complicating it.

This will increase your chances of getting found and even mentioned in the random posts people make, which can go a long way toward increasing your brand visibility.

• Optimise your site for SEO

How do you wish to brand your business? Are you a web developer based in Singapore or a renowned dentist looking to secure a top slot whenever someone searches for a dentist near you?

Well, here’s your chance to optimize your profile for SEO and get to gain some online visibility.

A few tips on how to go about it:

• • Start by identifying all the search terms your prospects use to look for a professional service provider or product vendor within your line of specialization. With search tools such as Google keyword planner and SEMrush, this shouldn’t be too much of a difficult undertaking provided you know how to use the tools.
  • Next, use the keywords you come up with to optimize your social media profile for ranking considerations in the SERPs. For instance, you could make the keywords appear on your LinkedIn job description, title and skills. Or be creative with how you use the keywords in bio copy or integrate it with your profile photo names.
  • Also, remember to naturally use the keywords to describe your interest, experience and just about anything that requires a description from you. Even more importantly, try to be more specific with how you use the keywords by getting to the juicy details of it.

For instance, you could specify your location and the exact area of specialization about it instead of taking a more generic approach.

In whatever you do, let the keywords flow naturally instead of haphazardly forcing them to fit in. If the keywords don’t make any professional sense, then you’re better off NOT using them.

• Fill in every single field you’re requested to (Including the optional ones)

Filling all the fields gives you the opportunity to use all the keywords you have. You just have to be creative with how you do it and you’re good to go.

Plus, some of your professional followers may interpret you as lazy when they found out that you skipped some of the optional fields you were asked to fill in.

The point is NOT to randomly write anything but to be super creative and concise with how you structure your profile content.

Start by explaining what your business does and what exactly it offers before getting to the juicy details of what else it’s involved with.

The copy you make has to be both detailed and interesting. Make it such that your reader will always be encouraged to read it to the end without losing interest somewhere in the middle.

If you can find a way to strike a balance between a playful tone and a professional one, then you’re on way to creating exciting profile content your visitors will enjoy reading.

• Link the profiles

You want your Facebook followers to also consider following you on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Then why NOT include the links to your other social media profiles?

The same goes for your website. Make sure you’ve included a link to your website.

Now go ahead and do the same from your website. Make sure you’ve all the links directing to your social media profiles included on your website, in a place where everyone can see them at first glance.

Don’t take a lazy approach by automating the posts you make. This is all about displaying the links to your various social media accounts on each of the profiles you make.

With Facebook, you have the option to include multiple links to your website field. Make sure every single one of your social media profiles is listed here.

There are several other apps that you could also use to display your YouTube and Instagram accounts on your Facebook tabs. Make good use of them while you still can.

For LinkedIn, you’re allowed to include your Twitter handle to your profile, while Pinterest allows you to integrate both Twitter and Facebook.

• Ask the people you know to Review, Endorse and Recommend you

People trust the reviews they receive from their family and friends more than any form of advert you put online.

They’d rather trust the reviews they read from your past clients and take them at face value that hears you belabour the quality of your products or services.

So it’s important that you begin by soliciting as many reviews as you possibly can from the people you know.

This is necessary for gaining trust from prospective customers, which in turn helps you increase your chances of converting the first few visitors you get into active customers and followers.

You only need a few minutes of your time to come up with a nice piece of writing to send to your friends, family and a few of your friendly clients asking them to review your services or products and even consider endorsing them where possible.

  Here are a few approaches to take:  

• Make good use of LinkedIn’s Endorsement

LinkedIn allows your follower to endorse you for the skills you post on your profile. They’re even allowed to write a detailed review of how they came to know about it, thus increasing your chances of winning possible clients.

• Leverage the Visitors Posts Section on Your Facebook Page

Your visitors are allowed to write to your Facebook page, either to request something or to comment on the quality of a product or service they bought from you. Use this section to line up the reviews you receive from them for all to see.

• Pin the Positive Reviews You Receive on Twitter

You can always pick one of the positive reviews you receive on Twitter and pin it on top of your Twitter stream.

That way, the people visiting your Twitter page will get to read it and maybe have a change of mind on whether your business can be trusted.

Works even better when the tweet is from a renowned figure in the industry, as this can be interpreted as an endorsement.

Another approach would be to take a screenshot of the tweet and post it on Instagram or Pinterest. Or consider embedding it on your site or on any other social media account that allows you to.

Whichever approach you decide to take, you can always reach out to a few of your friends and ask them for their feedback or review. You’d be surprised by the sheer number of people willing to step out of their way to do it for you, gratis.

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Common Mistakes Brands Make When Creating Social Media Profile

Social media marketing has immense potential to grow your brand.

The above tips will help you create a robust social media profile. Let us shift gears and look at mistakes that you should avoid when creating a profile on any of the platforms.

• Using Generic Visuals

One of the challenges that you have to deal with when doing marketing via social media is competition for the target customers’ attention.

Keep in mind that other brands are also using the same platforms to attract customers. Therefore, you need to develop smart ways of endearing your brand to customers.

Unknown to most brands is that the visuals that you post have a major impact on the performance of a social media marketing campaign. Posting generic images and videos that are widely shared online won’t get the job done.

If you want to stand out from the crowd, you cannot afford to recycle visuals. Take time to create your own images to stand out from the crowd.

Unlike before, there are a plethora of free tools that you can use to create custom images in seconds and without spending a fortune. Make sure that the visuals match your brand’s image to get the best results. 

• Limiting Yourself to Just One Type of Images

Having worked with hundreds of brands, one of the common mistakes that we see is brands only posting professionally photographed and edited images of their products on social media.

They think raw or unedited images can ruin their reputation online. The truth is that even amateur images have the potential to market their products.

The modern-day audience loves diverse content as it grasps their attention and shows a different side of the brand. If you only post perfect images, they will get bored and soon will unfollow you.

Therefore, develop a plan to be posting different types of visuals to continuously engage with the target customers. Each visual should be meaningful and contribute positively to your branding and marketing efforts. 

Product images shouldn’t only be those that you captured on your business premises.

Go against the grind to post user-generated posts to win their trust and drive sales. How-to based content will also contribute positively to your bottom line as they are more likely to get shared or saved than other conventional forms of content. 

The goal should be to give followers a well-rounded story of your brand when they scroll through your social media account.

For example, behind-the-scene images will show potential customers the great lengths your team goes to ensure that the final product meets the needs of the customers.

• Not Optimising Posts for Different Platforms

Different platforms have varying rules that govern the type of posts that users can publish.

The type of content that you post on Instagram Stories will be different from what you post on LinkedIn. Content posted on Instagram can be focused on the target customers while LinkedIn posts are professional and focused on the business.

Your LinkedIn users are more likely to read and interact with long posts than Instagram users who scroll through the feed quickly.

Concisely, each social media platform has its own best practices, unique quirks, and user behaviours. Understanding how each work will help you to come up with the most ideal content for your target customers.

For example, the image size requirements on Facebook are different from Twitter.

Make sure that your images meet the requirements before you post. Snappa is one of the credible graphic design tools that you can use to get image templates for Facebook and Instagram. 

• No Knowledge About the Platforms Algorithms

Every social media platform has an algorithm that determines the type of content displayed to users. The content on your feed is different from what other users see when they log in.

This is based on the fact that the algorithm uses background information such as your browsing behaviour, location, and age to determine the most relevant content to you.

When doing social media marketing, it’s imperative to understand how the algorithms work.

Otherwise, you will struggle to connect with the target customers since your content won’t be displayed to them.

Information on how the algorithm work is a well-guarded secret but here are some of the things we know about it to point you in the right direction.

• • Posts that get many likes and comments soon after posting is considered highly engaging and is given more priority in the feed than other posts.
  • Followers to interact with your content more often are more likely to view your posts moving forward. The algorithm interprets their action as a sign that they are interested in your brand.
  • Peak posting times impact the performance of a social media marketing campaign, especially on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
  • If the target customers regularly interact with a specific type of content such as tutorials or instructional videos, the platform algorithm displays similar content on their feed.

Learn how the platform works and be on the lookout for new algorithm updates.

Follow social media gurus who post authority content online to be among the first people to change your campaign to match the new algorithm.

 If you don’t optimise your content and overall campaign to match the algorithms, your posts will sink into the bottomless pit.

You will end up spending thousands of dollars creating and posting content but get no tangible results. 

• An Incomplete Profile

One of the primary reasons why most brands struggle to generate sales via social media is having an incomplete profile.

When registering, it’s important to make sure that you fill all the fields to not only get your profile approved but also give the target audience a clear perspective of your brand.

Needless to say, if the followers can’t tell what your brand is all about by reading your profile, they are less likely to do business with you.

Cushion them from the need to contact the support team by making sure that your profile is complete.

Ideally, the profile should have details of your physical address (if you have a brick-and-mortar store), header images, links to your website, brand missions, operational hours, unique selling points (USPs), a succinct description of your business and what it offers, and links to your other social profiles. 

Make sure that the information is accurate to avoid misleading potential customers.

For example, if you relocate to a new premise, make sure that you update your address.

Leverage every opportunity to give customers valuable information about your business. For purpose of increasing your page visibility, include target keywords in the descriptions.

A branded hashtag can also increase your profile discoverability especially if it goes viral. Go the extra mile and include a call-to-action to encourage followers to share their experience with your products or services.

Such user-generated content will encourage customers who are not sure about your brand to convert. Use incentives to encourage customers to share their experiences such as discounts on their new purchases.

• Not Engaging with the Target Customers Regularly

Firstly, social media marketing is primarily social-based and that’s why it’s effective in helping businesses generate sales. Through socialising, brands get a chance to convince potential customers why they should shop on their website.

Think of your social media marketing campaigns as a relationship-building strategy.

The customers need to know that you care about their feelings and perception of your offers. Therefore, take time to respond to their comments (both positive and negative). 

Yes, a chatbot can help you to respond to messages promptly especially when you’re not online.

However, you still need to personally send replies as the chatbot messages are automated and so they may be inaccurate or irrelevant. Do everything you can do and respond promptly to both messages and comments left on your posts.

The most successful brands do so within five hours or less. Well, you may not be able to do the same especially if you have a busy schedule, but ensure that no message goes unanswered for more than 24 hours.

In the automated chatbot messages, insert links to website pages that the followers can visit to get more information. Alternatively, you can include your support team’s contact information and email address.

As your social media community grows, you will need to use social media management tools to complete tasks such as posting. 

Keep in mind that if comments and questions are not answered promptly, customers will think that your support team is not responsive or available.

Consider hiring a team to monitor the campaigns and profile on your behalf. 

• Not Having a Content Posting Schedule

For your social media marketing campaign to be successful, it should be intentional and strategic. More importantly, you need to consistently post to continuously engage with the customers. One sure way of achieving this goal is by creating a content posting schedule.

Without a schedule, you won’t be able to engage with the target customers well. They should expect a new post at a specific day and time and the only way to achieve this goal is by having a posting schedule.

Consider the time of the day a majority of your followers are online to know when you should post.

There are also tools that you can use to schedule posts.

Compare the features and how every tool works to find one that best resonates with your business needs and goals. Also, consult other marketers who have used the tools to make the right decision. 

It’s not each to create great content every day to keep your audience engaged. One trick that works like a charm is spending a few days at the start of the month to create posts for the entire month.

The more is less approach will come in handy as posting more than one post per day is almost impossible. 

Prioritise the most important events and offers then focus on the less important events. For example, if you have an upcoming discount in the next two weeks, you can decide to share two posts per week on all the platforms to encourage more people to participate. 

Online customers trust reviews from other customers more than content published by the brand on the website.

Don’t share posts about your products and services only. Spice things up by posting user-generated content (UGC) several times per week. This form of content will show prospects that your products or service amicably meets the needs of the target customers. 

In addition, be open-minded and ready to make changes to the schedule as the market dynamics change. For example, if competition gets tougher, you may have to create new discount banners and post more UGC content.

Some of the posts scheduled for the month may have to be carried forward to the following month to make room for the new posts.

Three of the best social media management and scheduling tools you can use are;

• • Hootsuite
  • Buffer
  • Agorapulse

As mentioned earlier, take time to learn how each tool functions to get maximum utility from it.

• Being Active on Social Media Platforms

There are more than ten social media platforms today. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to be active on all the platforms.

An attempt to be active on all platforms will result in a wastage of time and resources. It’s also not possible to monitor multiple platforms at the same time as each is unique.

The rule of thumb is; fewer social media channels, more focus and better content.

Monitor the performance of each platform to find the ones that work best for your business. 

That way, you will maximumly use your social media marketing budget and efforts. Note that every platform that you join and use for marketing means additional effort and time to create stellar content and engage with the followers. 

• Publishing the Same Content on Multiple Platforms

Each platform has its own audience and this calls for the creation of unique content for each platform.

It’s highly recommended to create unique content for each platform. Otherwise, rehashing or posting the same content on multiple platforms is counterproductive. 

Use hashtags to increase your post’s reach on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms.

Monitor the engagement level different forms of content generate to know which one you should focus more on and which ones you should stop publishing.

It’s a Wrap

By improving your profile, you’ll be using available platforms to tell your customers a little bit more about your business, in addition to solidifying yourself as a reliable business entity.

Your customers want to trust you and are willing to use every resource at your disposal to make sure they actually do. Don’t deny them the chance by skimping on the information you provide.

For information on how best you can optimize your profile, you’re invited to contact MediaOne today for a free consultation and further clarification on any of the points made.