Cloud computing offers your business many benefits. It allows you to set up what is essentially a virtual office to give you the flexibility of connecting to your business anywhere, any time. With the growing number of web-enabled devices used in today's business environment (e.g. smartphones, tablets), access to your data is even easier. Show
There are many benefits to moving your business to the cloud: Reduced IT costsMoving to cloud computing may reduce the cost of managing and maintaining your IT systems. Rather than purchasing expensive systems and equipment for your business, you can reduce your costs by using the resources of your cloud computing service provider. You may be able to reduce your operating costs because:
ScalabilityYour business can scale up or scale down your operation and storage needs quickly to suit your situation, allowing flexibility as your needs change. Rather than purchasing and installing expensive upgrades yourself, your cloud computer service provider can handle this for you. Using the cloud frees up your time so you can get on with running your business. Business continuityProtecting your data and systems is an important part of business continuity planning. Whether you experience a natural disaster, power failure or other crisis, having your data stored in the cloud ensures it is backed up and protected in a secure and safe location. Being able to access your data again quickly allows you to conduct business as usual, minimising any downtime and loss of productivity. Collaboration efficiencyCollaboration in a cloud environment gives your business the ability to communicate and share more easily outside of the traditional methods. If you are working on a project across different locations, you could use cloud computing to give employees, contractors and third parties access to the same files. You could also choose a cloud computing model that makes it easy for you to share your records with your advisers (e.g. a quick and secure way to share accounting records with your accountant or financial adviser). Flexibility of work practicesCloud computing allows employees to be more flexible in their work practices. For example, you have the ability to access data from home, on holiday, or via the commute to and from work (providing you have an internet connection). If you need access to your data while you are off-site, you can connect to your virtual office, quickly and easily. Access to automatic updatesAccess to automatic updates for your IT requirements may be included in your service fee. Depending on your cloud computing service provider, your system will regularly be updated with the latest technology. This could include up-to-date versions of software, as well as upgrades to servers and computer processing power. Also consider...
Social media is a form of digital communication conducted on socially networked platforms. Social media sites are online platforms that let you interact with others and share and create content through communities. Social media communication has many forms, including text, images, videos, sounds, stories, posts and live streams. It is a powerful tool for your business. It can help spread the word about your products, services and brand, and gives your business the opportunity to educate, entertain and engage with your customers online for a heavily reduced marketing cost. On this pageSocial media and online marketing videoIn this video, learn about choosing social media platforms to help promote your business. This video covers:
Transcript of video Advantages of using social mediaSocial media use for business has many advantages.
Risks of using social mediaOf course, social media use for business also has risks.
It's important to be aware of these risks and have strategies to avoid them if you decide to use social media for business marketing. Platform selectionEnsure you are being selective about where you invest time and money on social media. Choose 1–3 platforms to focus on instead of having a small amount of content across all sites that doesn't work as effectively. The overview below will help you decide which platforms are best for your online business goals. Secure your business profilesYour business will benefit from creating a business profile on all social platforms, because you will then own all the spaces that could reflect your business and fully control your branding and presence online. Your business profile is your hub or landing page where your customers will find you. It will display all the information about your business. For example, a business profile may be represented by pages or accounts on:
Even if you do not intend to use a social media platform for your business, you should still secure your business profile as a placeholder. This will stop others from creating unauthorised profiles representing your business to deceive customers or ruin your brand. Social media platform overviewExpand each section for an explanation of the popular social media platforms and their main use and demographic. A social networking site that allows you to have conversations with customers, post photos and videos, promote special offers and more. Main use and demographics
A micro-blogging service that allows you to exchange short messages with customers. Main use and demographics
A video-sharing platform that dominates the market, which also offers live streaming options, playlists and user feedback and comments. Main use and demographics
Both a video and photographic sharing platform that offers live streaming, posts, filters and fun storytelling options. Main use and demographics
A social network for professionals with a focus on different industries. Main use and demographics
A short-form video platform used on mobile devices, with content up to 60 seconds long. Main use and demographics
A short-term content platform focused on connecting friends, where content is available for 24-hours before disappearing—it offers private and public options for creative content. Main use and demographics
The leading vision-board platform for sharing inspiration and ideas—users can pin their favourite content, gather and curate boards and pull content from other users. Main use and demographics
Social media demographicsTo effectively target your content to customers on different social media platforms, it is helpful to understand the platform demographics or characteristics that apply to the users. Understanding the features of the customers that commonly use a particular platform can help you choose the most suitable ones for your business. Female users in their teens accounted for 16.4% of active users. Female users aged 30–39 were the second largest user group. Reference:
Getting started on social mediaOnce you decide to engage in social media, you will need to create your business profile on each platform you join. Use the following checklist to set up your social media business profiles.
Support, 'how to' guides and step-by-step instructions are provided for all the major social media platforms to help you get started. Social media features and termsGet to know the common features and terms of social media to help develop your social media profile and grow your following. Hashtags are used for content searches. You add it to your content to make it discoverable to others online. Hashtags link your content to other content using the same hashtags so that customers can search for related posts. Hashtags link to search terms like location names, business types and other identifying items. For example, a hairdresser in Queensland may use the hashtags #Queensland, #Hairdresser, #Summerhair. The more popular (trending) the hashtag you use, the more people will find your business using it. There are lists online of the most popular hashtags to help guide your selection. Creating a theme for your social media content (e.g. with certain styles of photos and videos) is a fast way to create a professional and engaging profile. A theme for your social media can enhance the way you present your brand online and encourage the audience to follow your account. A theme may be as simple as:
Creating a theme for your content is a great way to separate you from your competitors. Your theme needs to remain consistent with your branding and personality. Tips for social media themes
Different social media platforms allow you to interact with customers in various ways—the 2 most common are 'friends' and 'followers'. Friends are other users on the social media platform that you have 'followed'. They are accounts that interest you and you want to see more of their activity. Followers are user accounts that have followed your business profile. They are your fans and are interested in your content and posts. It is important to engage with your followers on your platforms. If they comment on your posts, for example, it is essential to 'like' or reply to increase audience engagement and make your fan feel appreciated. All social media platforms are most effective when you have a high level of engagement. Algorithms and code built into these platforms highlight and share popular or trending content—this means that the more friends and followers or interactions you have, the more reach your content can have. Finding ways to use platform-specific features to drive higher engagement and interaction is vital for your social media to be effective. Frequency of posting refers to how many times a day you are uploading content to your social media profiles. Each social media site has a preferred frequency volume and you should post no more than that. You should post each day when growing your profile. Posting when your audience is most likely to be online is important to increase your posts' impact. Research social media frequency and timing guides online for more information. Tagging is a way to directly connect others to your content so that it may also show up on their social media profiles. Tagging is a great way to get free exposure. Re-post a photo of your customer using your product and then tag that customer in the post on your business page. The photo will then appear on your customer's page and all their community will also see your product, increasing your brand awareness and expanding your online reach. If you are using and sharing content from other accounts, contact the content owner and ask permission to avoid copyright infringement and other legal issues. Tagging is also highly effective when used as a part of cross-promotions with well-known persons, accounts or other businesses. Your business can tag or be tagged in content on different accounts, which will increase the number of people who can see and interact with your business content. Social media glossaryUnderstanding the following terms can help you better manage your social media. Alerts
Algorithms
Analytics
Bio
Direct message
Emoji
Engagement
Feed
Follow
Follower
Handle
Hashtag
Live stream
Post
Profile
Repost
Social media platform
Story
Tag
Thread
Trending
Viral
Social media brandingBranding is a way of identifying your business—it is how your customers recognise and experience your business. Branding is the perception of your product that you leave in a customer's mind. Having consistent branding across all platforms where customers can see or engage with your business is very important—this makes your brand recognisable. Branding on your social media allows you to continue to share the story of your business with the bonus of creating a visual personality through the content you create and share with audiences.
Action item: Perform a social media branding optimisationAssess all your business profiles across social media platforms to ensure they reflect your business brand.
Platform-specific guides and supportYou can complete training and do more research into using the different social media platforms to further your business goals. Review the resources below from the most common platforms.
Managing your social mediaSocial media is an ever-changing world with millions of people online every day searching for a product or business precisely like yours. Managing your social media productively allows you to be discovered by new fans or customers. Managing your social media benefits your business in many ways:
Ensuring you have a strong presence online requires managing your social media content delivery. DIY social mediaIf you want to be hands-on with the creation and management of your social media, there are applications on the market that can help you. DIY-type applications require you to spend time setting up your weekly social media posts and prepping them to post on a set day at a set time automatically. DIY applications allow you to post with freedom and autonomy. Some applications allow you to reply to comments made on any social media platform directly from within their application. By using DIY social media applications, you can take control of your social media publishing without a low learning curve and with lower costs compared to the costs that may be associated with hiring a full-service social media company. Action item: Do a web search for 'manage social media apps'You will find various applications to support you with DIY social media. See which one best fits your needs, budget and technical skillset. Action item: Develop a content calendarA great way to get started with DIY social media management is to create a content calendar. These calendars allow you to map out which platforms you will post content on and when. You can then visualise your entire year or month and review and adjust the content as required. Web search for 'content calendar' or 'social media scheduling' and view the image results for examples you can use. Action item: Create social media guidelinesUse this template to develop social media guidelines for your business, so you have a reference point for anyone managing your social media accounts to ensure your messaging and processes are consistent. Outsourced social mediaIf you do not want to self-manage your business’s social media, you can hire a professional social media consultant. You may also want to contact large social media agencies that can create and manage a complete social media strategy and campaign for you if it’s within your budget. Outsourcing your social media provides for:
Maintaining control of your social mediaYour social media account can become an important business asset and maintaining control and access to it is essential. Using staff or other people to manage your social media for you has many benefits but you should also be aware of the risks. Access enables a person to have a dedicated role and responsibility in managing your accounts, so allowing staff access to your accounts means sharing your login details and password with them. Sharing login details exposes your business to the risk of:
A high level of trust is required to share passwords with staff. Some social media platforms have different access levels that can be assigned, which may not require the password to be shared but still enable users to make changes to the account as necessary to complete their role. This feature provides a security barrier between employees and the business and reduces the risk of losing your social media account to an unhappy employee. Some platforms now allow for a business to set up editor access, so there is less of a risk giving staff access accounts. Tips for reducing social media security risks
Training your staff on social mediaYou should train your staff on social media awareness and use before giving them access to your accounts. Social media training should cover:
By training your staff before granting access to your social media accounts, you will protect your image and give your employees the freedom to create within the boundaries of your brand. Communicating professionally on social mediaEnsuring all staff understand the image and voice you want your business to portray online is vital for managing your brand. You should train your staff in the professional communication standards that you want to be used in your social media accounts. Professional communication training for social media should cover:
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