If you’re running a business in today’s digital world, having a social media presence is pretty much non-optional. Whether you’re tentatively on Facebook once a week or avidly Tweeting every hour of the day, we’re pretty sure you’re doing something highly social at some point.
However, is your social media presence currently the powerful marketing tool it should be? Are you thriving on social, or just surviving? Building a strong social media presence can make everything easier for your brand, from drumming up more website traffic to getting your content marketing out there.
But how can you get where you need to be? How does a brand migrate from a twice a week posting that generates less than a fistful of likes to a buzzing social presence with bucketloads of loyal fans? Here, we’ll explore what you need to do to build a social media presence and offer some top tips to get you started.
Starting social media, the right way
How many social accounts do you have right now? Three? Four? More? If you were to start brand building on every platform, how many do you think you’d need to look after? If you answered less than 10, you’re already living in cloud cuckoo land.
Judged by the number of monthly active users, there are at least 16 massive social networks out there which could be considered for your marketing stream. These are:
- Facebook: 2.2 billion users
- YouTube: 1.9 billion users
- Instagram: 800 million users
- Qzone: 563 million users
- Weibo: 376 million users
- Twitter: 336 million users
- Reddit: 330 million users
- Pinterest: 200 million users
- fm: 160 million users
- Tumblr: 115 million users
- Flickr: 112 million users
- Google+: 111 million users
- LinkedIn: 106 million users
- VK: 97 million users
- Odnoklassniki: 71 million users
- Meetup: 35 million users
Surprised? Thought so.
There may be a bunch of those you’ve never heard of, but you’re probably very familiar with others. The point here is that although you could, theoretically, have a presence on all of these channels, that’s going to be incredibly time consuming to manage effectively, meaning you’ll probably end up not doing any of them very well.
Even to try and maintain a strong presence on four or five of these platforms is going to take an immense amount of time and effort, so how can you do it effectively?
The key here is to prioritize quality over quantity. Do your customer research and find out where your target market hangs out. Unless your audience are Chinese or Russian, Weibo and Ocnoklassniki can be discounted right away.
A more middle-aged demographic is more likely to be found on Facebook, professionals on LinkedIn and millennials on Instagram. By figuring out which social networks your audience frequent, you can focus your attention there, instead of wasting time marketing to those who won’t be interested in your products.
Planning where your time and energy is best spent is stage one of your social media strategy. Now let’s look at some ways to maximize your impact.
Tips-
Finding the right outlet for your social media efforts is one hurdle to overcome. Once you’re there, you’ll need to work hard to build your brand and following if you want to stand out from the crowd. Here are our top tips for making it happen for your business:
- Be human
People don’t want to read a lot of corporate waffle on their timelines. They access social media for fun, so make your communications fun too. Some of the most successful brands aren’t afraid to crack jokes and generally to talk to their followers as if they were conversing with their friends.
- Interact
Relationship building is a huge part of social media. It’s a two-way street, so work to interact with your followers as much as you can. Listen to what they have to say, answer questions that they ask and @ mention those who share your content, mention you or when you reference their content in your own posts.
- Be consistent
Posting regularly is crucial, so use an editorial calendar to plan when and what you’re going to say. Time your posts to maximize engagement potential and bounce off important events such as the World Cup, Halloween or other popular events.
- Tailor your messages
If you’re going to be on more than one social media site (which, inevitably, you are), don’t just send out the same content on each and every one. Create tailored messages for each platform which suit the users and format better. Facebook is ideal for longer posts, Instagram is all about the hashtags and beautiful pictures… sticking to the same core message is fine, but it’s crucial to repackage it appropriately for each different audience.
- Help don’t sell
It can be tempting to push your offers and products constantly, but this is probably the quickest way to turn people off. Offer solutions to problems, respond in a timely manner to questions and get to know what’s trending in your industry. Buzzing topics on social media can be a great indicator of a demand for additional content, helping to inform your content creation strategy too.
- Be as visual as you like
Love it or hate it, video and photo content is the way forward, regardless of the platform. Facebook Live videos get around six times the engagement of any other form of content, and even on Twitter you’re sure to get more shares with video and graphic content than words alone.
- Be willing to pay, but spend wisely
Social media is no longer the ‘free’ marketing stream that is used to be. Businesses that are serious about social will need to experiment with advertising if they want to get the reach they desire. And it’s not just ads either. Influencer marketing is huge right now, so consider paid relationships with bigwigs in your sector to build your brand and following.
Being ‘on’ social media is no longer enough. You have to be in it, hook, line and sinker if you want to get the most out of it for your brand. As with any marketing activity, measuring your successes is crucial, so make sure you have a workable means of evaluation in place from the start.
With your target market suitably honed, your strategy firmly in place and your reporting tools up and running, having a couple of effective social media channels shouldn’t be a huge burden. There’s enough automation out there to avoid spending hours managing your channels, and an endless supply of willing professionals who can help to take the strain.
