Businesses are encouraged to use social media to attract more customers and become reliable amid highly competitive marketplace.

“Why do business on social media? Because everyone is on social media. No matter what country, everyone is on social media,” Gladys Lacorte, community team lead at Canva PH, said in a seminar organized by the Department of Trade and Industry-Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB).

She said someone goes to social media if he wants to learn about a business.

To master social media, Lacorte advised entrepreneurs to find their focus, set goals, define style, make it visual, tailor content, plan ahead, and build community.

She said businesses should first determine the social media platform where they spend most of their time in which they can start making social media pages for their brand and company.

“If your business for example is international, I would really suggest Facebook because Facebook is all over the world, except for China.

Facebook is the key,” she added.

Lacorte also underscored the need to set “attainable” goals for social media followings.

“In social media pages, yes you do post content, but how many people react, how many likes, how many shares, how many comments?,” she said.

In defining style in social media, Lacorte urged particularly exporters to identify items they are selling to clients to create moodboard, wherein they can arrange the images to “get a feel of look and what you want to tell the world”.

“Everything you post on social media is an extension of your brand so make sure that your content is unmistakably you,” she said, noting the importance of the personality of brands depending on the target market.

To create graphics for social media, Lacorte said they have to follow the 3Cs –color, contrast and clarity.

“Always tailor your content,” she added.”Follow other brands and study their strategy, and think how you would apply it into your brand. How do they do it?”

Lacorte further said entrepreneurs should also plan ahead by setting time for their content considering any trends.

“Always make sure that you jump on the positive trend. Let’s not talk about the negativity because people will react and will reshare any negative content even fake news,” she said.

Lacorte said they have to build community, noting it is about human connections.

“It is important to think about what will you post, it is important to think about your brand, it is important to stay within your brand character and personality. But the number one thing on social media is to connect with your followers, to your people,” she added.