So you’ve decided to create business accounts for your companies Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and finally get serious about your companies social media presence. At this point you’ve already taken a big step. It is really common for most start ups to operate out of their own personal social media accounts in the beginning, but in order to really start creating your brand and reaching a wider audience it is recommended that you separate business and pleasure.

Take Windy Graphic Tees, for example, they are a start up graphic tee shirts company that I have recently begun interning for that has shown interest in trying new things regarding social media. Up until last week Windy operated almost entirely out of Adrian Lopez’s personal Facebook account.

On his own personal account Adrian had about 800 friends who followed him many of which were Windy customers that began following his page after a tee shirt sale. However, on the Facebook like page that Windy already had there were only about 206 likes. Likewise on Adrian’s Twitter and Instagram accounts he had a substantial following, but for Windy itself the accounts were nonexistent. Adrian decided that he wanted to establish a brand presence separate from his own identity, and tasked me with his goal. In order to remedy some of these problems I decided to create a 4 step checklist to get me started.

1. Create all accounts Windy Tees (Twitter, Instagram, and later a blog) *Windy Already had a Facebook account

2. Begin the process of moving Windy’s fan base from Adrian’s personal accounts to the new business accounts

This process is still underway in is most likely going to take some time. Adrian and his twin brother Tony who is the co-creator of Windy have begun by posting on each of their personal Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts about the the new business accounts urging fans to follow these new pages and support the brand.

3. A big goal for Windy was to not only to get followers but to have an active engaged audience, and as of right now that has been mostly through Instagram

On Instagram we decided to continue something that Adrian and Tony had already been doing for a long time, and that is to request photo tags of any customer wearing their Windy tees. However, to make this a little more fun we emphasized  adventure with this post, “We’re taking #Windy all over, where have you taken your #Windy tee? #StayFresh” We then continued by posting picture of Adrian in Chicago and Tony in Paris wearing their Windy tees, and encouraged others to post their photos, tagging us in them. The traffic created Adrian and Tony’s  individual account along with this Instagram campaign created a flurry of follows, comments, likes, posts, and tags that quickly jump started our Instagram account. We have since then begun reposting photos that Windy is tagged in as a way of thanking our supporters and encouraging others to continue sending photos of their Windy tees.

4. Create a follow list of notable designers and graphic artist

Adrian expressed a desire to get more involved with and to begin creating connection with people who work in the same field. I am currently beginning a follow list of some of Adrian’s favorite designers and graphic artist, and have already asked him to begin actively searching for more people who inspire him. My plan is to not allow follow these people but to also like, repost, and engage with these other artist and help Windy get further noticed by people who are truly interested in design.