We quite often hear the questions like ‘we’re opening a business, currently creating the website, what to do before starting on social media?’

So before you go into social media with your business this is what is best to do:

1. choose the social networks your business will be present at
2. register there as yourself, as a person, get yourself acquainted with them

How to choose social networks where you business should be present is a long topic for a separate article and we’ll cover it someday. But the whole point of you registering there is that you need to feel it, how it works, what people do their, what is the accustomed way of doing things there.

Start by going for your colleagues, current and former, real life friends and acquaintances. Follow some brands you like or use, see what they’re doing there. Not that you have to copy world’s famous brand (you don’t have to), but it all gives you the overall feeling, the ‘atmosphere’ of this social network.

The other reason you’d to this for is to have some initial audience which might support you when you launch a social network page of your new business. When you do, you’ll easily post on your own personal wall something like ‘I’m starting my own business, here is the page, please show your support, join it, share if you like it…’ etc. It might give you some initial inflow of followers, may be not even potential buyers, but at least you’ll start not with 1 follower, but say with 50. It means quite a lot when you just starting. It is very difficult to like a page which only 1-2-3 people liked before you, so having there something, even just 20 is much better start.

So, try going into your social networks of choice as a person, and get a feeling from them.