If you are a brand, today there is a high possibility of you being in social media in some kind of way or form.
Many brands own an active social media presence. But exactly how many of them exist? What makes them different from other brands that they get so much attention? These questions must have crossed your mind. The reality is you really can not expect to post some random links and dream to make a huge difference. You need to have strategies and solid plans for your brand to grow in a fast way.
Although some of these brands have a huge budget ideas they use to get attention can be replicated and used by businesses of all sizes. If you are struggling to get followers in your social media pages and really don’t have a clue what to do next. Let’s be honest, we all have been there. That’s why we have collected the tips and tricks you need to know to get a good start.
Now let’s get started.
1. Set Goals
Tell me one thing, why are you on social media?
If your answer is because everyone else is in it then you need to change your outlook. First, you need to set some smart goals. It has been around for decades and trust the process because it is so helpful.
Set small and firm goals. Don’t try to make progress in every social media platform at once. In short, brands should set goals for them which is achievable and specific. As an example let’s think that you want to increase your Instagram followers by 30% at the end of the month.
Did you just notice what we did?
We made very clear that we want to increase followers on Instagram not on any other social media. We made sure that this goal response is measurable. We didn’t set any impossible goals like 100% increase of followers by the end of the month. We kept it realistic and also set a particular time to achieve this. Having a firm goal will help you to avoid random posting.
2. Mark your Audience
After outlining your goals the next thing you want to do is to target your audience. Not everybody is going to be your audience.
You should break down your audience as per your field of work. Perhaps it’s book-loving people or game freaks. The kind of audience you are going to get completely depends on your content. Marking your audience will help you to realize the following:
· Your active social media sites.
· Posting schedule.
· Published content and response.
· The information provided on your profile.
Some brands don’t achieve the goals because they don’t post knowing what their audience particularly loves. Spend time looking at things from your audience’s perspective only then you will be able to mark down the content they love and want you to post about.
3. Be human
This is a very important thing. Most of the times people don’t enjoy a certain brand because of it’s expressionless communication. It feels like a robot is talking to them.
In this modern age, people want to know your brand on a personal level to understand you better. Don’t just talk in a professional manner. Act friendly and make your customers feel familiar and nice. Brands once were basted for their robotic approach but now a humanly presence is more appreciative and fun.
Showing off the human side of your brand means making people familiar with your whole team. It can be through stories, snapshots etc.
Let’s get to the next point!
4. Seek a relationship with your followers
Having a lot of followers is not only the thing you want for your brand. Your followers need to be active. You can have 20,000 inactive followers but that’s more like having none. But the 50 active followers you are going to get can result into something huge for your brand. They are going to hold a precious value. Don’t just make them feel like a follower. Make them feel loved and establish a strong bonding with them. This way they will be inspired to keep following your brand and sometimes advertise it on their own which is going to be a game-changer for you.
The beauty of social media is no matter where your followers are you can always establish a bonding from anywhere.
There are some ways to make them feel connected with you.
· Mention their name in your stories.
· Reply to their comments mentioning their name.
· Like or react love to their comments.
· Put the screenshot of their comments as stories and make them feel valued.
· Appreciate them for loving and choosing your brand.
5. Create your Official Calendar
Sticking to a schedule is something brands must do. All the successful brands on social media have one thing in common that is their regular posting schedule. Their posts are consistent. Having existence on multiple social media channels and posting on a regular basis and also when to post is a work that can be easily done if you have a content calendar.
This makes the process easy by
· Reminding you what to post on which social media on a certain date.
· Timing your posts helps you to maximize engagement without having to post real-time.
· Helps you to avoid the same content posting again and again.
Making a schedule helps you to organize your duties and while also maximizing content reach.
6. Automate in the right way
Automation is a very popular concept in the marketing department right at the moment. You cannot just put everything on automated mode and walk away. Sometimes not checking on pages and completely putting it on automation comes off as insincere.
What you can do is put the most basic answers in response and come back to them personally to answer their inquiries. It is very clear at the present that automation is not enough to satisfy the customers as it lacks human intelligence and may not be able to answer all the questions your customers have.
This is why brands rely on social tools approved by marketing leaders cause this small piece of software is enough to turn your office employees into brand advocates.
7. Focus on helping sells
Social selling is on the rise at the moment. Surely if you are in business it makes sense to push offers and deals to your followers.
Answering the question of your followers through replies or content posting also plays an important role in marketing. If your followers have a quest you should fulfill it by answering it properly in a timely manner. This way your customers will be satisfied with your service and will entrust you with their orders.
By offering a solution to the problems your customers are facing you are winning their trust as an authentic source and also earning a lifelong customer.
8. Account Optimization for Engagement
Social media optimization is not fully technical. Your accounts can be optimized by using keywords, images and by filling in your account information. Brands can use their Instagram bios to link down their website and promote their brand by using hashtags. This way people will recognize their brand.
A well built social media profile with the right information and images will help you to attract followers. Some quick ways to optimize your social media presence
· Add relevant keywords but don’t jam-pack everything
· Share content related to your field of work
· Follow other popular accounts and use hashtags.
9. Visual posting
Basically, photo and video content are really killing it right now. In every social media, it is proved from the statistics that people are showing more interest in visual content rather than text-based information. Instagram is based on pictures mainly. Facebook lives are more popular than other features. Photos and videos get more shares on Twitter. You don’t need a thousand camera equipment for the photos. Just a good quality mobile camera and some editing skills are enough. The kind of photos you can post
· Your team photos or videos
· Product photos were taken by your customers
· Photos of events
· Behind the scenes photos and videos
· Photos of your beloved customers
10. Make your presence known
If you have gone through the work of establishing your social media presence you need the world to recognize your existence.
From news feed posts to icons on your site footer or email signature, everyone who comes in contact with your brand should be just a click away in the path of being your long time follower.
Facebook, Instagram, and other social sites can be compacted with your site with just a copy-paste code. Promoting your product through various social channels is the way to grow your business.
11. Be active and prompt
Inactive social media pages is a bad outlook for your brand. Rather than posting the same thing again and again or posting after a long time, you should post fresh content on a consistent basis.
Some quick expert tips to stay active
· Schedule your posts through automation to save time
· Prioritize your social networks based on your followers
· Organize your content and posts before the posting time
You can also mark down the best times to post on social media for better engagement. If you base your activities around that time your followers will reach your content.
12. Follow on Trends
Between breaking news and whatever the new hot topic might be brands always have room to get creative with their content. It also helps them to add the latest hashtags and get people’s attention.
The kind of trends you are following or speaking off also shows your brand’s personality. In the past months in every social media channel hashtag me too kinda stormed and ruled. If you use it too it means you are in support of women’s rights. Also, tread lightly when the issue is more political or controversial because it can lose your audience.
13. Try Paid promotions
Social media is not completely free in a sense. Well, many things can be done organically there are many new Facebook or Instagram features that require you to pay. Like if you pay a certain amount of money Facebook or any social channel will advertise your website or brand by showing people ads for your products. This way people will know your brand and if you are good enough they will visit you again and again. Influential marketing is also in full bloom right now. If you pay people having a lot of followers or fan base to promote your product it will be a beneficial bonding for both of you. For this kind of marketing, you need to have a paid strategy and promote it through people related to your business social goals.
14. Use monitoring activity tools
When people complain about not getting a good response from social media accounts it is maybe because they are not taking it seriously.
Marketers need to treat this in a more professional manner as an outcome. There are many analytics tools that help brands to identify their top performing content and posts. This helps to break down the response of people by showing statistics. This also helps brands to understand the contents people have a liking towards. This data helps to understand your business growth on a more scientific level.
15. Create content considering People’s likings
If you want people to recognize your brand you can not just post the nine to five things other people are posting.
You need to be creative with your content. Adapt ideas and give that a unique essence that will attract people. We find thousands of results when we search for something on Google. But we don’t click every single one of them. We click on something that catches our eyes. Original contents are the way to make your brand stand apart. Maybe it is some eye-catching photos you took or your opinion regarding a matter.
You just need to post stuff that makes your followers want to click on.
These 15 tips are the staples in the way of building your social media. There are no magic only strategies. If you are following these trends you are already a step ahead of your competitors.
