Social media is one of the must-have marketing channels of the modern age. Unfortunately, many small business owners don’t know where to start when it comes to creating and growing a social media presence.
If your brand doesn’t have a strong social media presence yet, use these five tips to lay a great foundation and build your following for better brand awareness, increased conversions and more loyal customers.
- Choose your platforms carefully: If you want to generate a large following on social media, you need to meet your customers where they already are. Not all brands will have customers on every platform, so trying to build a following on all of them can burn you out and waste your time! You’ll want to dive into analytics and discover which platforms your target audiences use the most. B2B and professional audiences will be more likely to use LinkedIn or Twitter, while a younger audience is probably on Instagram. Additionally, different audience segments might be on different platforms, so you’ll want to make a unique plan for each segment and account.
- Create a social media calendar: Consistency is key on social media. Followers like to see fresh content every few days that falls in line with your brand and its messages. To ensure your company is posting consistently, create a social media content calendar that outlines what you plan to post and when. Planning your posts ahead of time and scheduling them using a social media automation program not only ensures that you’re posting regularly but also that your content is varied and your messages are consistent.
- Post valuable content: Your social media platforms shouldn’t just be filled with promotions for your products and services. Social media is a great place to share valuable content that inspires, teaches and informs your audience. Valuable content is what entices consumers to follow your channels and engage day after day. Make a list of a few topics your audience is interested in and that relate to your brand, then share content related to those things. And, of course, everything you post should be eye-catching and high quality to draw the most attention.
- Engage with followers: Social media is a great place to build relationships with your customers—not just sell to them. You can encourage customers to follow, like, share and engage with your social media posts by engaging back! Share user-generated content on your feed, respond to DMs, reply to comments and host interactive polls, Q&As, giveaways and much more to get people talking and make your social media account into a community.
- Optimize your accounts: Social media can be optimized with keywords in the same way a blog post or web page can. Help customers find your brand by using relevant keywords, hashtags and content on your social platforms. If your brand has a unique hashtag, make sure to include it in your posts, along with other industry-specific hashtags. Additionally, always make sure your profile’s “About” or bio section is filled out completely with identifying information that will show up in Google.
Using social media to your brand’s advantage doesn’t have to be difficult—you just need to set clear goals and generate a strategy that allows your platforms to grow.