When it comes to mastering social media for your business, it is not as easy as it may seem on the surface. There are many things to do and consider, although plenty has been written on social media strategies for businesses, and how your branding efforts should look like.
However, there is something that constantly gets overlooked – a more generalized approach to the use of social media platforms by entrepreneurs and businesses alike. Succeeding in social media is challenging – there is a wide audience, but how exactly do you get to them? How do you reach them and make your voice heard, even though the noise around you is plenty?What trends should you be thinking of investing your time in? What makes good content?
Here are Some Useful Tips You can Apply to Grow Your Audience:
Making a Conscious Commitment to Social Media
Social media is like any other form of marketing yourself and your brand – and it can understandably get hard. It is not uncommon to see brands giving up after some months. In addition to the challenge, growing your audience is an uphill task, all while simultaneously trying to create great content that your audience connects with, and increase engagement. Many brands and people even resort to third party services that provide them with automatic followers that will like their posts and boost their visibility.
However, the secret to ultimate success with your account is planning it. You should make a social media strategy, then use it to help you stay accountable. The plan must have content plans, mission statement, and the goals you want to achieve.This will be the foundation for your success.
While it is great to be popular on social media and have your posts attract a wide audience, it is even better to be authentic. Think about all the brands you love and follow – what makes them interesting and why did you decide to follow them?
When you think about it, you will realize they must have had something special that made you decide to follow them. One thing all great brands have in common is that they are unapologetic about themselves, and they are not just posting content for the sake of it – they are honest with their audience.
The core of social media is about experiences and creating connections, and not just showing how valuable your product or service is. The most successful brands will share points of view with their fans and connect with their audiences in personal ways, making more people follow them.
Great brands on social media also go the extra mile to listen to their customers, not just promoting to them all the time. Social media is great because it gives you an open platform that you can use to connect to potential and current customers, and engage with them directly. This is why talking with your audience is a much better form of promotion, because they will ultimately connect with you in the long term.
Another thing that makes it important to engage is that social media is increasingly being seen as a customer service platform, where consumers can post their questions and expect answers. The section of frequently asked questions can prove to be a source of endless content ideas, and you can also look to the customers of your competitors to find out relevant topics in your industry.
Keep Your Focus on Select Networks
We understand that social media is highly shiny, and you want to be everywhere at once – kind of like how you would get excited when you get gifts from you friends and family and cannot wait to use them. You are probably thinking that all networks are the same, and you will succeed in quite a few of them. However, that is not the case – you will quickly discover even the maintenance of one account is rather tiring.
Believe us, we did it before. you might even think of tying your hand at the relatively obscure platforms like Tumblr or Beme. However, focusing too much of your time and effort across multiple platforms leads to average success at best, and it is not even sustainable in the long term.
While it may seem strange, it is actually better to focus on one network, because each platform has its own uniqueness and audiences that you must tailor specific content to in order to get their attention. For instance, you cannot use a LinkedIn article and post it in the same way on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The more you focus on one platform, the more you will find the best tactics to navigate it, and eventually become successful.
At the end of the day, the most important thing to remember is that passion will always be the key to creating amazing content. This is the most important tip to remember, whether you are operating a personal account or working on your social media business brand.
The passion you have for what you do will determine how far you make it down the road. Success on different social media platforms takes time, and you cannot expect to realistically be successful on the first try. However, as long as you love it, you will keep going and keep creating great content for people to enjoy, while also connecting with your audience.
The good news about social media is that you do not need to only post things directly related to what you do – you can be free to post anything you want. That also gives you sufficient freedom to operate your account on your own terms – you do not need to post what everyone else is posting.
Experiment with Different Deliveries
To make your content more interesting, it is important to experiment with different ways of delivering it, such as video marketing, using user-generated content, and so on. In case you need ideas on what to post, you can check from analytical sources to see the content types that generate the most traffic and see what you can do to follow a similar style that maximizes each platform.
Conclusion
Being successful in your social media branding requires commitment to what you are doing, and these tips will hopefully help you to maximize on that.
6 Tips to Help Your Business Brand Master Social Media
May 2, 2019 by