Hello, I'm Josh - Digital Marketing Exec at PMC Telecom (I deal with social media and content).

I've been to plenty of social media talks where the speaker gives tips on 'How to be successful on social media' with great examples from businesses like Coca Cola. To me this was very disheartening and frustrating - of course Coca Cola do well on social media, they have 3.26m followers due to the fact that they're arguably the most famous brand in the world.

In this presentation I'm going to be covering the basics and going through some simple - but practical - social media advice that will help improve your social media skills. A lot of it sounds like common sense but didn't occur to me until I was explicitly told about it, so I hope it helps you in the same way.

The four main social media platforms you should be using if you're in B2B are Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google+.

Google+ is a strange one since no one uses it due to it being horribly unuser friendly. However, posting on it will help with Google rankings so my advice would be that if you post a link on any of the other 3 platforms, post the same link on Google+ anyway and it will be helpful for your rankings. The good thing about Google+ is that it requires little to no maintenance; just post and forget about it.

This presentation is focused on B2B social media however for B2C companies I would possibly ignore Linkedin and move towards platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat depending on the business.

To post on several platforms at once, schedule tweets and gain audience insights I'd recommend using something like Hootsuite or Buffer to manage all your social media platforms in one place.

Whatever social media site you use, make sure your profile is consistent throughout.

Have the same high quality image for your profile photo on every social media platform you use.

This is our twitter page.

This is our Facebook page (same high quality profile photo and banner).

This is our Linkedin page.

Having a consistent brand image can only boost your credibility online.

Here are some basic Twitter rules...

According to Buffer, tweets with images and GIFs have a 150% higher engagement rate than those without.

I make sure that EVERY tweet contains either an image, GIF or video for maximum engagement.

This may seem like common sense, but it wasn't until I was scrolling through my newsfeed that I noticed that my brain only registered the tweets with images and GIFs.

Have a decent 'Pinned Tweet'. It will always be the first tweet your audience sees so make sure it's worthwhile.

"How often should we tweet?"

This is the holy grail of questions. The truth is that it is completely subjective and so (rather frustratingly) no direct answer can be given.

We tweet daily as long as we have something to tweet about i.e as long as we have content to post.

Find a balance. Don't just post for the sake of it but don't let your feed dry up.

The amount of times you should tweet depends on your business, my advice would be to play around and test the waters.

If you use a review service, make sure you occasionally post your positive reviews on Twitter.

TrustPilot US have #TRUSTPILOTtuesday where they retweet everyone who uses that hashtag.

It's a great way to gain exposure to a greater audience and ensures that you have something to tweet about at least once a week.

It's also okay to occasionally (depending on the nature of the business) be a bit more lighthearted and show yourselves as a company of human beings as opposed to just a company.

^ I get the irony of "a company of human beings" with a photo of our building, but it's also good to show your audience where you're tweeting from too.

At times such as Christmas, it can be helpful for your brand to show a more human side.

It's always nice for your audience to put a face to the name (or tweet in this case).

"Josh, practice what you preach": I'm on the far right in the black hoodie holding my Secret Santa present in the same way Dobby held the sock that freed him from the Malfoys in the Chamber of Secrets).

It's also okay to use opportunities and events to shamelessly self-promote (obviously always make sure that what you're tweeting is appropriate).

I used Hootsuite to schedule this tweet to be sent out 1 hour before kickoff.

PS. This example may be too soon for some, sorry (but if you thought we'd win the Euros then you're delusional - sorry!)

SIDENOTE: you may have noticed in the previous slide that the link to our retro phone page is quite short.

Since Twitter has a 140 character limit it can be helpful to use sites like Bitly to shorten links.

If the content is a bit dry it can be useful to use a funny GIF or image to help draw in an audience (again, keep it appropriate).

It's important to remember that it is a person, not a business, who clicks on your links so make it enticing.

If it's not working, kill it.

I thought I had a genius idea with this #FridayFeeling #tGIF concept. If you're familiar with Twitter you'll know that #FridayFeeling trends every single Friday. I thought it would be funny to get on board with funny GIFs.

My USP was to play with the common phrase 'Thank God It's Friday' often shortened to TGIF. And use it as a hashtag for my GIF. tGIF - get it?!.

I thought it was really clever and funny but after 12 weeks of 0 engagement I got rid of it - painful as that was.

(Feel free to steal my tGIF idea - I'd love to see it flourish however if it does go well then please credit me in the form of lots of cash).

The key to success is to have realistic expectations.

If your goal is to gain 1 million followers in a month then you're setting yourself up to fail.

It's a simple idea but worth remembering.

Some Facebook rules...

Make sure you have all the correct and up to date information for your business page.

Again this seems obvious but is often neglected. Think of your online presence the same way you think of your psychical shop. It needs to be tidy, presentable and have all the correct and useful information for your customers.

Unlike Twitter, Facebook has no character limit which gives you more freedom when posting.

Instead of just posting the article title with the link I often use excerpts from the article as a taster. This gives the audience an idea of the tone and content and will hopefully persuade them to click the link.

Important: Posts with VIDEOS and IMAGES go straight to the top of the Facebook feed. As with Twitter, make sure your posts include some kind of media to boost engagement.

Facebook Algorithm:

When you post from a business page it only goes to around 9 users who follow you. If those 9 users engage then the post is opened up to everyone who follows your page. It sucks but that's the way it works so make sure your posts are as engaging as possible and don't be disheartened by the initial audience reach.

Some Linkedin rules...

Linkedin is the only social media platform that is fairly black and white in terms of what is and isn't appropriate.

On Linkedin, Keep It Professional!

(I'm slightly cynical of posts like these and think that they actually add to the problem. I think some of them do it for likes and exposure - look how many likes and comments he has. However, he has a point. People are beginning to use Linkedin as another Facebook which is entirely inappropriate).

Use the Linkedin blog feature.

Firstly, the layout is great.

Secondly, your Linkedin audience are more likely to read a lengthy blog post than your Twitter or Facebook audience.

As with every social media platform, use striking images to engage with your audience.

We post articles on Linkedin that originally featured on our blog, with a link to where it was first posted.

(The link doesn't help towards Google rankings but it's still useful to include it to encourage people to visit your site).

The great thing about it is that all of your connections are notified whenever you publish a post.

When it comes to the actual content it's important to create your own. If you're constantly sharing content from other people your audience will simply not stay on your page.

Wherever possible, create your own.

Make it interesting and engaging.

This is the first post I wrote when I joined PMC Telecom.

The phrase, "I bet you can't write an article about telecoms and relate it to Adele" was mentioned and the rest is history.

Use journalistic tools such as Response Source to gain expert opinions and comments from first hand users.

This is an extract from our article about how cloud technology has helped businesses. We asked business owners to give us their comment on how a service called Hosted VoIP has benefited them.

Not only does this boost the credibility of your article but it guarantees that the your article will be shared by the business who have contributed to it.

Now it's time to get practical.

I'd like for everyone to go round and tell us what line of work they're in and together we will brainstorm practical content ideas for each other.

At the end of this session I'd like every person to go away with a handful of helpful and engaging content ideas that they can use for their blogs and websites.