Business social media guidance
Social media is a powerful communications tool. It can be tricky to get the mix of personal and professional right, and it can be overwhelming- who to follow? How often to engage? What platform to focus us? What to say?
Target, tone and type
Who are your target audiences on social media? Social media is global – you can reach all kinds of stakeholders and engage with them. It may help you start with a list of the kinds of people you want to engage with, including people you have not connected with before. As LinkedIn is universally recognised as being a professional sphere, it tends to be fairly formal. Posting on Twitter is informal and conversational. Twitter should demonstrate that behind your brand is a team of real people – it should be ‘human’ and not too salesy.
As a professional social account, content on the Business Partnerships and Engagement LinkedIn page should focus on:
- News stories
- Events
- Blogs
- Content marketing
- Case studies
- Commenting and sharing experts/professionals’ posts
When posting on LinkedIn, remember:
- Group discussion title can be up to 200 characters
- Group discussion body text can be up to 2,000 characters
- Group discussion comments can be up to 1,000 characters
- Post at least three time a week ideally
“A post needs to stand out otherwise it can get lost. A great way to go this is through striking images and videos.”
As Twitter is more casual than Linkedln, it can include:
- News stories
- Events
- Blogs
- Content marketing
- Case studies
- Commenting and sharing experts/professionals’ posts
- Shout outs/thanks to other organisations
- Using dates of interest as ‘hooks’ – e.g. using Earth Day to take about CGE
- Give-aways/competitions
- Highlighting USPs of Lancaster
- Behind the scenes/day-in-the-life posts
When posting on Twitter, remember:
- Tweets should be about 120-130 characters, but can be up to 280 characters
- Use 1-2 hashtags
- Try to include one mention (a partner company, venue, or student for example)
- Try to include a link
- Use a picture, video, gif, etc.
- Post at least once a day, if you can, several times a day
- Repost/share content at least once a day
- Pictures should be 1200 x 600 pixels (or equivalent ratio)
- You can post several tweets about the same topic, using different images, videos etc. each time
Find Out More
If you enjoyed this briefing paper, check out our other digital resources which cover a wide range of topics, including quantum computing, social media, and 3D printing.
The Lancashire Cyber Foundry runs a series of business strategy and cyber workshops specifically designed for SMEs in Lancashire. We’re passionate about seeing Lancashire business become more cyber-aware and innovative and so offer funded places for companies to come and learn how to defend, innovate and grow their business. Additionally, we have an experienced technical team ready to help you with your business innovation ideas, particularly around cyber and digital innovation.
To find out more about how your business can access support or register on one of upcoming workshops, contact us:
About the Author
Amanda Ross
Marketing Manager, Wellbeing Leader, Coach and Musician, Amanda manages the promotion of partnerships and business engagement activities for Lancaster University’s Faculty of Science and Technology. She provides marketing support to many large-scale, multi-million-pound regional economic development projects like the Lancashire Cyber Foundry, facilitating communications for businesses, university staff and students.
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