How to harness the power of social media

Archie the Anteater is the “pest czar” of ABC Home and Commercial Services and makes frequent appearances at events and online. (PHOTO: ABC HOME AND COMMERCIAL SERVICES)

Using social media comes more naturally to the younger generations, but we older folks can still sharpen our skills. I would not even pretend to be a social media expert, but just because I’m not a pro does not mean I should not engage as a business owner.

Social media has the power to help grow your audience and your company, but it also can hurt your business. Tempting as it may be, however, sticking your head in the sand is misguided.

Growing an audience for your social media can be tricky, but my team uses two primary tactics. Both are basic common sense — which, I realize, isn’t always common.

1. Create a presence. Today, almost everyone I know has a social media presence at some level. Making friends online is easier if you are a social person offline. Church, school parent-teacher associations (PTAs), clubs you are part of, organizations you support, neighbors and family are great places to start. Once you have those people as online friends, you can then begin to see their friends and grow your online presence.
2. Update your presence regularly. Having an audience is great, but more is needed to guarantee engagement and interaction with the page.

Lighthearted social media posts like this one encourages followers to like, share and comment. (PHOTO: ABC HOME AND COMMERICAL SERVICES)

We use a lot of humor and lightheartedness to get people engaged online. We have an Archie the Anteater costume that my daughter-in-law, Mary Margaret, will wear and dance to music at events. Last spring, Lindsey Mota, our call center director, dressed up in a pink bunny costume and went around the office passing out Easter candy to everyone. We filmed it, and it garnered a significant reaction online.

These lighthearted posts are followed closely in popularity by our “Dad joke” kinds of posts.

We regularly post about our community involvement, but humor, music and people dancing get the best reactions. When we post short clips of crickets or other pests “dancing,” we tend to get many views but few comments. Still, exposure is exposure!

By keeping a schedule for consistently posting and curating a good number of followers, we’ve found that staying social does not take much time or effort. In this new year, we will keep it going and growing.