Something social to celebrate

At approximately noon on Sunday we reached another milestone at SouthHams.com - our 500 th page Like on Facebook. We’re really pleased about that because there’s no disputing the advantages that a healthy social media following offers to businesses both large and small.

In our case, as the South Hams’ premier online business directory, a growing presence online increases awareness across the district of who we are and what we do. This, in turn, has a direct and positive impact on all the businesses who use our platform to advertise.

Nevertheless, we often meet with more than a little scepticism about the effectiveness of social media as a promotional tool. A widely held belief is that there is a relatively low return on the investment in time.

One of the keys to effective engagement is to bear in mind that social media is, well, social! If your sole output is a relentless plug of your business and products, your followers will soon lose interest. Pages which also strive to entertain, educate and inform with a good variety of posts tend to achieve better results. At SouthHams.com we aim for a lively mix of blogs and posts about the local businesses who advertise with us, events, activities and places of interest, and images which best express the diverse natural beauty to be found across the district. In brief, all the things we love about the South Hams.

We always try to keep in mind what our audience wants to see and know about, and are guided by the popularity of our posts. Facebook and other social platforms are essentially visual so, to give your post an edge a great image, info-graphics or engaging video are key. It also helps to post on a consistent basis and to ‘Like’ and share posts from other relevant pages. It’s all about being social and, generally, you get back what you put in. That said, there is no magic formula – we are learning all the time and that is part of the fun!

A big thank you to all our followers – business and social, near and far – for your great support, and we hope that you will continue to enjoy our posts in the future.

Want to know more about advertising on SouthHams.com? See our Join Us page for more information. Think we could do better on Facebook? Contact us here with your suggestions!