Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Setting Up Your Social Media
We’re always writing about the importance of social media for event organisers and small businesses and often giving you creative ideas for ways to use it.
However, we often take it for granted that our readers know exactly what we’re talking about when we use terms such as ‘profile’, ‘status’ and ‘feed’.
If you’re new to social media, you may well be intimidated by the seemingly confusing interfaces and special languages that accompany them. If you simply wish to know how to set up an account and send out your first updates, as opposed to planning a six-month strategic social media plan, then this is the post for you!
Read on to discover how to start using Twitter and Facebook for business in this absolute beginner’s guide to setting up your social media.
Step 1. Visit www.twitter.com and enter your name, email address and a password of your choosing in sign-up box. Click ‘Sign up for Twitter’.
Step 2. Select your username. This is also called a ‘handle’ and comes with prefix ‘@’ (this is automatically added). Usernames must be fewer than 15 characters
Your handle should be the name of your company or event (or a shortened version thereof). However, avoid including the year in your event name i.e ‘@GreatEvent2015’ or you will not be able to reuse it next year.
If your chosen name is not available, you can try adding something like a hyphen or underscore until you find a unique combination.
Complete the phone verification process for security purposes.
Now click on the ‘Create my account’ button. That’s it. You are now officially a member of the Twitter community. Congratulations!
Step 3. Next, Twitter will assist you in getting started. It will ask you about subjects of interest and then give suggestions of accounts to ‘follow’. You can click ‘Follow all’ or deselect those that are not of interest.
Related: The 71 Event-Related Accounts To Start Following On Twitter
Step 4. Click on ‘Upload image’ and navigate to the image you wish to use for your profile (this is your ‘avatar’), probably your company or event logo. Remember that the maximum upload size is 700k, so you may have to re-size your image to meet this requirement.
Now enter some information about your company or event in the ‘Bio’ section. You only have 160 characters so you’ll need to keep it succinct and include the most relevant keywords.
Step 5. Now you can find people you know using Twitter. This function works by connecting to the address book of your Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL or Outlook email account. If don’t want to do this, simply click the ‘Skip this step’ link and you can add friends later.
Once you are finished doing this, you will be prompted to confirm your email address, which you can do by clicking on the link sent to you by Twitter via email.
Step 6. You are now on your ‘Home’ page and will be able to see the tweets of the people you are following down the centre.
To the left you will see your profile picture (avatar) and underneath details of how many tweets you’ve sent, how many people you’re following and how many are following you back. You will not have many followers by this point, apart from maybe a few that ‘auto followed’ when you selected them at set-up.
Underneath you will see trending topics that are being discussed on Twitter. To become part of the conversation, simply insert the relevant ‘hashtag’ in your tweet i.e. #ThisIsAHotTopic. You can create a unique hashtag for your individual events or marketing campaigns – find out how here.
To the right side of your screen you will see further suggestions for who to follow, while at the top you will see a box saying ‘what’s happening?’. You can click here to write your first tweet. Click the camera symbol to add a photo to your message. Don’t forget, messages must be 140 characters or under (or 120 characters if you’re including an image).
Related: 5 Great Examples of Social Media Event Marketing
Step 7. To further tweak your settings, click on the small profile picture in the top right hand corner. A drop down menu will appear – select ‘settings’. Here you can adjust your time zone and country, amongst other things.
Step 8. Return to the drop down menu and select ‘View profile’. This is what your public profile looks like.
Towards the top, on the right hand side, you will see an ‘Edit profile’ button. Click here to edit your bio, location, profile picture, website address and profile theme.
Step 9. You can find people you know by searching for them by real name or username in the ‘search’ box located on the top bar. Simply click ‘Follow’ to begin following them.
Step 10. To the left of the search bar you will see three tabs: ‘Home’, ‘Notifications’ and ‘Messages’.
Click on Notifications to see any new followers you’ve gained or ‘mentions’ you’ve had in anyone else’s tweets. You can direct a tweet to another user by inserting their Twitter handle in the message. It will then show up in the Notifications section of the user’s account. However, be aware this is public messaging and will appear on your profile timeline.
If you’ve had a mention, you can ‘reply’, ‘favourite’, and ‘retweet’ it which enables your followers to see the message. These options appear as symbols underneath each tweet.
Now return to the top and click on the ‘Messages’ tab. Here is where you will find any private messages that have been sent to you. You can send a private message by clicking on the blue ‘New message’ button and entering the Twitter handle of the recipient. Due to some users’ privacy settings, you may only be able to send a private message to an account that’s following you.
Happy tweeting!
Related: Steps To Creating a Social Presence for Your Endurance Event
Step 1. Go to www.facebook.com and log in if you already have a personal account.
If you are not currently a member of Facebook you’ll need to sign-up. Don’t worry; your personal information will not be displayed on the page you are about to create, unless you choose to. Your personal profile simply gives you administrative access to the page you are creating.
Complete your details in the sign up form and click the green ‘Sign up’ button. You will be prompted to fill in personal information, choose interests and add a profile picture, but you can skip these steps by clicking the ‘Skip’ link, to the left of the ‘Save & continue’ button.
Confirm your email address or phone number (Facebook will send you an email or text message in order to do this).
Step 2. Locate the small downward pointing arrow in the blue bar running across the top. Click on it and select ‘Create page’ from the drop down menu.
Select the category that best suits your purposes (i.e local business, company or brand). If you’re unsure, don’t worry; you can always change the category later in your page settings.
Now select the sector that best describes your business and enter the business name and (for local businesses) address. Click on ‘Get started’.
Step 3. Facebook will take you step-by-step through a set-up wizard.
Fill out the description for your business, taking care to include relevant keywords to help your page get picked up by search engines.
Enter your company website address, then select a customised address for your Facebook page. It’s important you customise this because Facebook’s default addresses are very long.
Step 4. Upload a profile picture, most likely your logo, which should be sized at 180 x 180 pixels.
Step 5. Select ‘Add to favourites’ – this will add a quick-link to the left hand column on your home page, under the ‘Pages‘ heading, giving you easy access to your company page.
Step 6. A Facebook company page is completely free of charge, but if you want to expand your reach (get seen by more people than just your followers) you can pay for ‘promoted posts’. Let’s skip this step for now.
Related: Your Guide to Using Facebook and Twitter Advertising For Events
Step 7. Woo hoo, we have a page (albeit a bare one)! Facebook will prompt you with a tour of its features.
Across the top you will see a number of tabs. Click on ‘Settings’ (on the right hand side) and add or amend any details. Be sure to attend to any sections displaying a yellow warning triangle.
If the page is to be updated by multiple users, you can grant other Facebook users administrative access in the ‘Page Roles’ section.
If you’re already friends with the person on Facebook you want to nominate, all you have to do is start typing their name and you will see their profile picture appear. If you’re not friends, you’ll have to use the email address they have associated to their Facebook account. You can control their level of access by assigning them different roles i.e. Admin, Editor, Moderator.
Click ‘Save’ and enter your password.
Step 7. Click on the ‘Page’ tab at the top of the page to return home. Now you can customise your page. Start by adding a ‘cover photo’. This should be sized 851 x 315 pixels.
Now add your first ‘Status’ by clicking in the white box at the top of your page where it says ‘what have you been up to?’ You can add photos, videos, offers or events to your messages by selecting the tabs above.
Related: The Importance of Photography and Social to a Brand Experience
Step 8. If you are already a Facebook user, you can invite all of your friends to ‘like’ your page.
Navigate to the button on your cover photo that contains three dots. Click on it and select ‘Invite friends’. Unfortunately, you will have to select each friend individually.
You can also select ‘Share’ from the above menu to share a link to your new page on your personal timeline. Be sure to ask all your friends to check it out and to share it themselves.
Step 9. To monitor all the activity on your page, click on the ‘Notifications’ tab across the top. You will be able to see everyone who has liked or commented on your updates.
For further insights click on the ‘Insights’ tab where you will be able to see weekly engagement stats.
Meanwhile, under the ‘Messages’ tab you will be able to view any private messages that have been sent to your company page.
Step 10. To help with time management, you can pre-schedule posts for publication. Simply click on the ‘Publishing Tools’ tab, navigate to ‘Scheduled Posts’ and click ‘+Create’.
Compose your post and click on the arrow next to the ‘Publish’ button, where you can select ‘Schedule’. You will then be able to enter the date and time.
All your scheduled posts will be viewable in this section, helping you plan ahead. Alternatively, you can use a third party service such as Hootsuite to manage multiple social media accounts in one place.
Happy Facebooking!
Related: The Small Business Guide to Social Media and Event Marketing
Conclusion
You can be set up on social media in no time at all. Now you’re ready to go, you’ll need to get yourself some followers!
Read our post on building a strong social media following, including instructions on how to integrate your social media accounts with your Eventbrite event page.