7 Ways to Improve Your Brand’s Social Media Presence
Starting your own business can be very exciting. There are a lot of things you have to get done to keep it running successfully, but don’t let social media take a backseat. When it comes to building and growing your social media, there are many tested strategies to improve your brand’s social media and for solidifying your online presence. Whether you are trying to promote your new collection of bridal earrings and your latest choker necklace designs, or you are crafting handmade furniture and trying to show the world your talent, there is a strategy out there for every type of business.
Social media marketing is a very powerful tool for businesses and brands as it provides the opportunity to reach hundreds, if not thousands, of users. All of these users could potentially become your customers, which is why implementing the right social media marketing campaign is vital for any business trying to flourish in this digital era. This can be done if you consider a few tips while launching and growing your online presence. Here are seven top tips that will help you boost your social media.
1. Pick the Right Channels for Your Business
Before embarking on this journey, carefully consider which social media channels are the best fit for your business and your overall goals. This means analyzing your audience demographic and figuring out which social networks will deliver the best results. After all, you don’t want to put all your marketing efforts on social platforms that aren’t relevant to your ideal customers. Instead, match your ideal customer to the demographics of each social media platform to maximize your chances of seeing tangible results. For example, if you own a jewelry brand specializing in pearl necklaces and you are targeting millennials, share visual content on Instagram and Pinterest – and TikTok for a much younger audience. However, if your small business is selling office supplies, you will most likely find a relevant audience on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook.
2. Create a Strategy
The best way you can drive your business closer to your marketing goals is by having a plan and strategy in place from the beginning. Write down the objectives you want to achieve with your social media presence and make sure they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound). Whether you want to increase your sales, boost website traffic, or grow your mailing list, you should have a clear social media strategy in mind before embarking on this journey. This means identifying the right channels for your business, spelling out the key topics you want to tackle, creating a post calendar and detailing the KPIs (key performance indicators) to help you measure success.
3. Provide Valuable Content
Simply having a presence on social media isn’t enough to help you improve your brand’s image. You must constantly post content that will appeal to your target audience. And be consistent. Posting once a month and forgetting about your account won’t achieve anything. Instead of posting what everyone else is sharing, try to come up with creative ideas to engage your audience. Always consider current trends and topics when crafting your posts and create stories about your brand. Things like blog posts, videos or even team photos would make for great things to share on your social media accounts.
4. Interact With the Community
Building your social media following is not an easy task. It takes consistent effort and a good strategy to create and engaged social media community. Dedicating a few hours each week to research, finding relevant accounts to follow, replying to comments on your posts and asking questions to your followers are some of the best things you can do to grow your social media presence. Try finding users that are interested in businesses similar to yours and connect with them (by leaving comments to their posts), even before they’ve engaged with your brand. Ideally, you want to search for accounts that are relevant to your brand and gain their attention. Having consistent, positive interactions with your audience is one of the most effective ways to expand your social media presence.
5. Schedule Your Posts
If you are serious about finding success on social media, you should be prepared to be in it for the long-term, as building an engaged community doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, probably one of the best ways you can grow your following is by creating a content posting schedule. Figure out how many hours per week you are willing to allocate to social media marketing and start from there. Use your social media analytics to find the days of the week and the time of day when your audience is most active online and create your scheduled posts around these times. Make sure your posts are regular and sustainable if you want to maximize the success of your strategy.
6. Monitor Your Results
If you are willing to invest time and money into building an enviable social media presence, you should always track your performance and measure your results. As you have already set your KPIs (key performance indicators) in the strategy part, you can start analyzing your growth – preferably on a monthly basis. The most important parameters to check for in your monthly report are engagement rate, follower growth and reach (the number of users who are seeing your content). Use this valuable information to adapt and refine your social media strategy for the following actions.
7. Promote Your Social Media Accounts
You are promoting your business on social media but are you promoting your social media channels as well? Most people forget about this important step when starting out with marketing their business. What you can do to make sure you increase your brand’s visibility is to promote your social channels on other marketing platforms. It would be a good idea to incorporate links to your social media channels in your website footer, into your email newsletters and next to your blog posts. Keep in mind that the more you promote your social media channels, the more your social presence will grow.
