Small Businesses: A Sane and Simple Approach to Social Media
We get it. Updating social media can be overwhelming, especially when the basics of running a business are already time consuming. How do you prioritize creating blog posts and other website content? Or devote resources to maintaining a social media presence across multiple platforms? We get it because we struggle with the same issues.
Take heart. There are new, better resources for creating website content with seamless social media integration, enabling you to engage your online audience with minimal effort.
Bow Street Flowers, our favorite local florist, improved their social media presence overnight by integrating their website content into multiple social media platforms. Shelley, owner of Bow Street, initially contacted Fyfe Design to discuss updating the website. As we talked, we realized that it could be advantageous to review all of Shelley's online needs.
Our initial questions:
How do you want to use your website and social media and who is your audience?
How much time do you want to invest in updating your website and social media accounts?
If you don’t have any time, would you consider hiring out the work?
We found that Shelley hadn’t been writing many blog entries or updating her website very frequently, but she was posting a lot of captioned photos on Instagram. Shelley liked the ease of working with Instagram, but none of her posts were showing up on her website or Facebook page.
We felt it was important to link Shelley’s Instagram updates with her website, Facebook and email list. That simple move amplified her impact without adding any extra work, allowing to showcase her current work with her local and online community.
How we made it happen:
First, we built a new website using a Squarespace template. This was a cost-effective solution and a time-saving one since Squarespace provides tools for seamless integration with most social media platforms. Now Shelley's Instagram photos automatically display on the home page of her website.
Second, we linked up Bow Street's email lis and other social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter so that everything seamlessly shared the information she was posting.
Here is how it works now:
1. Bow Street Flowers posts a photo to Instagram. Instagram automatically shares it with the Bow Street Facebook page and the Bow Street website's homepage.
2. Bow Street Flowers writes a blog post on the website. The website automatically shares the blog post with Facebook. MailChimp, an electronic mail delivery service, sees the new blog post and sends it to the Bow Street Flowers email list.
In the end, it is important to focus on what feels right (and feasible) for you. Automatic feeds between social media can make updating a website and sharing important information pain free.
If you find that your website or social media presence isn’t working for you, let us know. We are happy to help structure a system that makes sense for you and your business.