I am not a social media expert, but I would say I have a critical eye and observe trends and patterns. I was lucky enough to work with the amazing team at Twelve North Consulting earlier in the year to get my ish together related to social media. I’ve been able to implement their framework into my own practices and now I get to share some of it with you.

Over the last few months I have witnessed the good, ugly and bad of social media. From misspellings to misquotes, it’s can be a jungle. There is an understandable fear and resistance to social media – especially Instagram and Facebook. With new technology, tags, boosts, and trolls, it can be easy to sit things out and not engage.

But, engage you must! With most of your target market on smart phones throughout their day, they’re looking for you online beyond your website.

So what do you need to know to be effective?

1) What are your goals? Do you want to educate, play, inform, inspire, etc. Once you figure that out…

2) What is your tone? Are you snarky, supportive, direct, bold, passionate, sympathetic? Once you figure that out…

3) What are you known for? Are you a service provider, honest source, creator of smiles, etc? Once you figure that out…

4) Who are you speaking to? Who is your target market? Stay at home moms, small business owners, executives?...

5) What is your target market looking for? Check out their liked posts and note the hash tags. How frequently are they engaging? When? (Get Instagram Insights to tap into your post effectiveness)

6) Make your posts consistent. In color, themes, messaging.

7) Don’t be afraid to comment and direct message people. Give words of encouragement and compliments. Make sure it’s your authentic voice.

8) Too much or too little? If you are getting less than 5% of your followers engaging (likes and comments), you are part of the noise and need to examine the above items.

It may be too many posts. It may be flat content. Ask for an outside opinion if it’s not clear to you. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you don’t know. What’s the worst thing that could happen?