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How to Optimize your Public Agency’s Social Media

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Social media platforms are in a constant state of evolution. What remains unchanged is the value that social media brings to public agencies. Our social media management work over time has given us insight on what it takes to have a strong social media presence. Below are some tips we recommend for optimizing your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram social media sites.

LinkedIn Page

  • Bio Information
    • When creating your LinkedIn Company Page, it is crucial to add your agency’s website URL, address, industry and company size in the bio fields. This information is searchable for LinkedIn users and is your key to being discovered.
  • Custom URL
    • After creating a Company Page, you may notice that LinkedIn has assigned you a randomly generated URL. You can customize this URL by signing into your Page admin center and selecting the ‘Admin Tools’ dropdown menu. From there, you will find ‘Public URL’ listed and by clicking that you will be able to edit and save your new custom URL. Your URL should have your agency name in it.
  • Profile Photo and Page Banner
    • The first thing a visitor will see on your Page is the profile photo and Page banner. The profile photo should be a clear logo for your agency and should be consistent with the profile photos on all your other social media platforms. According to LinkedIn, you are likely to have six times as many visitors on your Company Page by adding a profile photo. A Page banner is a creative way to represent your agency. Use this space to not only display your branding but to share important information. These banners can be interchanged with new banners that promote upcoming events or highlight services.
  • Specialities and About Us
    • Ensure that your ‘Specialities’ and ‘About Us’ sections are updated. Your ‘Specialities’ list the services that your agency can offer. The ‘About Us’ section is limited to 2,000 characters, so you will want to capture your company’s mission and values in a way that uses keywords and encourages visitors to view your Page. Make sure that your ‘About Us’ tells everyone who and where you are, what you offer and how people can reach you.
  • Showcase Pages
    • Showcase Pages are a feature provided for LinkedIn Company Pages that is widely underused. These are great for highlighting your agency’s brands or ventures and promoting sponsored content or upcoming events. To keep the engagement high on Showcase Pages, you must regularly post content. LinkedIn allows Company Pages to have up to 10 Showcase Pages. You can add one by simply going to your ‘Admin Tools’ and clicking ‘Create Showcase Page’.
  • Career Page
    • If you are looking to boost your recruitment efforts for your agency, add listings to your Career Page by going to your ‘Admin Tools’ and clicking ‘Post A Free Job’. You will want to prepare your account with images, videos and articles about working at your company before posting the job so prospective employees can see your agency’s culture. You should also add your current employees to your Company Page so applicants can reach out to learn more about the agency.
  • Drive Engagement
    • To make sure you are getting the best engagement possible, you should post and share content often on your Company Page. Content involving employees or testimonials tend to perform well. It is also important to use targeted and sponsored updates. Targeted updates are free and they allow you to post content that is boosted to a specific audience. Sponsored updates are paid posts that are focused on gaining more visibility by all instead of a single audience.

Facebook

  • Custom URL
    • Like LinkedIn, Facebook will assign your Page with a randomly generated URL. You will want your URL to match your Page’s title or your agency name. Customize your URL by clicking ‘Edit Page’ on your Page’s Admin Panel, then go to ‘Basic Information’ and ‘Change Username’.
  • Profile Information
    • Your Page is not complete without your agency’s information. Upload a profile photo and cover photo that reflects your agency’s branding and personality. You will also need to add a bio and profile information to your Page so visitors can get to know your agency. The bio is found in the ‘About Us’ section of your Page. It is limited to 155 characters, so make sure to include key details like location, services, operating hours and keywords. Lastly, you will have to choose a category for your Page. Make sure that the category appropriately fits your agency’s mission and values. The categories offered that may best fit a public agency include local business or place; company, organization or institution or cause or community.
  • Call to Action Button
    • Facebook’s ‘Call to Action’ button is a great tool for driving visitors to your website or any other agency resource. The buttons available are as follows: sign up, book now, contact us, use app, play game, shop now and watch video.
  • Messenger
    • You will want to make your Facebook Page a resource for visitors to contact you if they have any questions. You can open the Messenger ability for your Page by going to your Page settings and clicking into ‘General’ and ‘Messages’. From there, you will be able to allow visitors to contact your Page privately. You will want to be as responsive as possible to incoming messages as Facebook advertises your responsiveness rate to visitors. If your response time is high, Facebook users will not feel inclined to contact you and may go elsewhere. Be prepared for those times that you are out of office by creating Saved Replies. Saved Replies are general replies that will automatically send to those who message your Page after operating hours. These replies should typically say something along the lines of “we apologize for the delay in response and we will get back to you as soon as possible.” You can set these up by going to your Page’s Inbox and clicking ‘Create Saved Replies’.

Twitter

  • Username and Profile Information
    • Ideally, you will have an effective Twitter username that is simply your agency name. You will also need a strong bio that is 160 characters or less. We suggest using hashtags and/or relevant keywords in your bio. Lastly, you will want to add a location and website URL to your profile.
  • Profile and Banner Images
    • Make sure to add a profile photo and banner image. The profile photo should be a clear image of your logo and the banner image should represent your company’s personality. You can also switch out your banner image as time goes on to promote services, team photos, events and more. You will want to consider the way your images look on a mobile device as this is the viewing mode for many Twitter users. Are the colors too harsh? Can you read the text? Are the images too small?
  • Post Accessibility
    • This is a simple fix that will open up your posts to be seen by a broader audience. Make sure to switch your account from private to public.
  • Set-Up Your Profile for More Engagement
    • Much like Facebook, users may see your social media site as an easy way to contact you. You will want to make sure that you’ve enabled direct messaging. You can open this by going to your direct messages and checking ‘Receive Direct Messages from Anyone’. This will leave you as an open resource for visitors. You will also want to include photos, videos, hashtags and emojis in your tweets to keep them engaging and to populate your media library. Lastly, when you have tweets that share important information that you don’t want visitors to miss, you can ‘pin’ them to the top of your profile. You can simply do this by clicking the 3 dots in the top right corner of your tweet and selecting ‘Pin to your Profile’.

Instagram

  • Profile Setup
    • As you set up your Instagram profile, you will need to choose a username and profile photo. Your profile photo should be your agency logo (the same as your other social media profiles). Your bio is only 150 characters, so make sure to include relevant keywords and/or hashtags. Your website URL will be in its own category, so there’s no need to use characters towards that.
  • Business Profile
    • A personal Instagram profile does not give you the ability to add contact buttons and find analytics on your posts, so you should switch to a Business Profile. This can be done by going to your Settings and tapping ‘Account’. There, you’ll be able to switch to a Business Profile. After doing so, you will be prompted to choose a category for your agency and you’ll be able to list an email, phone number and address.
  • Stories
    • Stories are a great way to put casual and fun content on your account. Instagram Stories are photo or video posts that are only available to other users for 24 hours. But, you can display certain Stories permanently on your Profile by sorting them into Highlights. You can use filters, stickers, GIFs and more to customize your Stories content. You can add cover art to your Highlights to match your agency’s branding and they can be used to display products, services or key information.
  • Generate Content
    • You will maximize your Instagram engagement by posting people-centric content regularly. “People-centric” means you will want your content to include more faces, such as customer and employee highlights. This is also a great chance to repost user-generated content. Your posts will appear as a three-column grid on your Profile, so make sure to consider a consistent color palette and font so your Profile is effectively branded. Lastly, if you are trying to drive high traffic towards select posts, Instagram Ads may be your best option. This will display your post as a sponsored content across a broader audience’s feeds.