Digital Tune-Up: Prepare Your Business for 2018
By Anne Leonard
With the end of the year upon us, it’s time for a digital tune-up so you that you can prepare your business for the New Year! From keeping up with social media accounts to coming up with content for your website and newsletters, it’s easy to quickly fall behind. Though, with a little fine-tuning now, you’ll be in shipshape for the start of 2018.
Here are a few ways you can initiate a digital tune-up for your business:
Fine-tune your cybersecurity.
These days, clicking on one harmful link could corrupt your system’s files and jeopardize your personal information. Begin your business’s digital tune-up by making sure your cybersecurity programs are up to speed. Next, back up all of your files onto an external hard drive. This of course serves as a second copy of your files in the event that your computer becomes infected. Once you’ve fine-tuned your computer, take the same precautions for your business’s website and update it to the most current versions.
Don’t forget about LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is much more than a place to feature your resume. When used correctly, LinkedIn can serve as a great networking tool where you can engage in conversations, strengthen connections and offer expert advice for your field. To take your LinkedIn engagement a step further, you can publish thoughtful, industry-based articles via the built-in platform. This is a way to get on your connections’ radars as they’re notified when you publish an article. You can also view analytics to see how well your content is performing.
Continue to improve your social media presence.
Any business owner knows that you must be social media savvy to provide the best customer service. Ask yourself these three questions when considering your social media presence:
- Am I being consistent? Consider how often you post and how well your content portrays your brand. Experts recommend posting between two and four times weekly on each social media platform. Your content should of course reflect your brand’s mission and values.
- Am I being professional? Simply, make sure you are maintaining a professional appearance when responding to negative feedback. If a customer’s complaint gets out of hand, redirect your conversation to a private message.
- Am I responsive? A good rule of thumb is to not allow customers’ questions or comments to go unanswered for more than 24 hours. This is especially important for Facebook because your response rate is easily displayed.
Begin creating video content.
If you don’t have video in your marketing strategy, now’s the time to get a headstart for 2018! Experts predict that more than 80 percent of all web traffic will be attributed to videos. Videos allow for you to convey a wealth of information about your brand in a short amount of time. For starters, make sure that your video grabs your viewers’ attention within the first few seconds. Next, the longer the video doesn’t necessarily mean the more successful it will be. Whether your video is for training purposes or to highlight an event, videos can be as short as 10 seconds. Lastly, don’t forget about SEO, or search engine optimization, when adding a title, description and keywords to your video.
