Home
Who We Are
Our Services
Our Work
Blog
Get In Touch
We often get asked, by our clients, how to build a strong social media presence. Most of it is common sense and obvious, but for users just starting out, it can be very overwhelming. Follow the pointers in this blog and you won’t go far wrong!
Building a strong social media presence doesn’t happen overnight. You need to commit to making it work and stick to a plan. All the points below will help your social media take off, but they all require patience.
Be careful not to post too many posts that are simply selling your business. The one-in-seven rule is; for every 1 post that is a blatant advert for your company, you should have 6 posts that are focussed on sharing valuable content.
The majority of people love sharing their opinions, so ask your fans to weigh in on topics that are relevant to your business and interesting to them. For example, a fitness club may ask fans to vote on their exercise. The questions should engage fans and inspire them to refer business while giving the business owner great insight.
Keep in mind why people are following your business on social media. It isn’t so you can sell to them, its because they want tips, advice, and useful information from your industry. Share your expertise by posting tips on best practices or offering special deals on products or services.
Tweets and Facebook posts get more engagement when posted alongside images. This is because it grabs people’s attention but also helps the user visualise the point you are trying to make.
Especially for posts which are quite lengthy in size, its crucial to think about the headline and the first sentence, because that’s what will draw the user in to read the full post or article.
You don’t just settle for one title either. You can post your content multiple times creating different titles, and perform A/B testing to see which headlines most effectively promote your content on which social networks.
Don’t just set up a social media channel on every platform for the sake of it. Each platform has a slightly different audience, use your social media effectively and target the right people with your posts and offers.
Think about your target audience and when they are most likely to be online and see your content. If you are not sure, you can use tools such as BUFFER that will tell you when your audience is most active. Then you can compile a posting schedule to ensure you post during a certain time of day. Keep in mind that different social media platforms may not have the same peak times.
You can use multiple images and multiple headlines for your content. This way you engage with your followers without them even knowing you’re reposting the same content. Social media users don’t see most of your posts on any given day anyway. So posting multiple times ensures your audience has a chance to see your content.
It’s important to have content on your social media pages before you start adding friends and followers. When you try to find friends, they’re going to look at the page to see if they want to follow you. So you need to give them a reason to follow you first.
You still need to maintain a regular presence, but one great post a day can be far more effective than endless screeds of mediocre content. It is about quality rather than quantity. The number of times you post a day matters less than what you are posting and who you are targeting it at.
You can generate a lot of value by paying for “targeted” posts – where you ask Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to use their data to make sure your posts are seen by specific people who might be interested in your business. For example, you could target people in certain locations, in a set age bracket or who have specific interests or hobbies.
Scrambling to create posts at the last minute can lead to low-quality content. A lack of organisation can lead to repeated posts or a lull in your presence on one of your channels. Make a point of sitting down on a regular basis and plan the next few weeks ahead, plan a campaign thinking about what you want to say, who you want to say it to and how to execute it.
Hopefully you receive mostly positive feedback on social media. Occasionally you may encounter someone who is upset, argumentative or has something negative to say about your company. You should carefully monitor mentions of your brand on social channels, so you can catch issues before they escalate. If you spot a problem, engage with the person by offering to solve the problem over a direct message exchange.
Instead of trying to get as many followers as possible, focus on finding customers who are interested, loyal and engaged. These people are more likely to repost your content, like your posts and become customers. When you build a community around your brand, the people within that community will engage with each other and help to promote your content. You could even try reaching out to exceptionally influential social media users and asking them to help you by reviewing a product or mentioning you in a post.
If you want to talk to us about your social media and how we could help you further, call us today.