Social media has become a major part of our lives. Whether using Facebook or Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat, social media has become an integral part of our daily routines.
Social media platforms are constantly evolving and changing. In order to stay relevant and successful, businesses should update their strategies accordingly. These days, social media marketing is no longer only limited to advertising or promoting brands. For example, you can use social media to connect with potential customers, build brand awareness, engage current clients, and much more.
There are lots of ways to increase social media presence. While some require time and effort, others take only minutes or even seconds. In this article, we'll explore 10 super simple strategies that will boost your social media presence.
Tips For Social Media Presence
1. Use visuals:
Visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared on social media than any other content, so including it in your social posts is a must. And as Millennials continue influencing into positions of greater purchasing power and decision-making within companies, using visuals to appeal to them will be critical. Photos/Videos of your product solving a customer’s problem are great, and infographics about your services are helpful for your audience to understand what value you can deliver. Try visually publicizing your community involvement with photos and videos.
2. Give a shout-out to clients and partners:
Grow the love when you share content on social media by tagging clients or partners in your posts. If you mention a client or a partner’s business, tag the client or company in your post to give a shout-out, this will, in turn, increase your reach, and improve your chances for engagement. If your team uses and admires a product or service, let others know you find it valuable, and tag the business in your post.
3. Engage in conversations:
The concept behind social media is to foster social interaction, therefore establish trust, and build relationships with others, which is only possible when you and your audience engage in meaningful conversations. By doing this, you’re humanizing your brand and your company, which makes trusting relationships come more naturally.
Furthermore, people like to talk, ask, and answer questions, and give opinions, so encourage them to do this. When you share a piece of content, try asking a question directly to your audience within the post, and respond to them when they engage with you.
4. Use polls and surveys:
Not only the results from polls and surveys give you relevant information about pain points and problems, but they also provide your audiences with the chance to give their feedback and feel heard. This signals them that you’re interested in what their needs and interests are.
5. Get creative with hashtags:
Pay attention to hashtags! If you can come up with clever word combinations, use them as often as possible. Ask your audience members to use your hashtags, and you can also use theirs in your posts.
6. Give Promotions:
Promotions are a great way to spur engagement. Give your customers a discount or a freebie for a share or retweet, and you’ll see your post spread like fire through their social networks. If you offer them a promotion at the point of sale, it can be a pleasant surprise, especially if they were already planning to buy it.
7. Include a Call to Action:
You should always include some call to action. Avoid using phrases like “Please RT this” or “Like this post…” unless it is a promotion. Rather, try to get a bit more creative.
For instance, if you wish someone to share your post on Facebook, try concluding your post with “Ask your friends and family what they think.” The easiest way to do that is simply pressing the share button.
Gaining social media engagement isn’t rocket science. All you need to do is design your posts and make it easy for your customers to engage.
8. Make Your Presence Known:
If you’ve gone through the legwork of developing your social media presence, you need to let the world know.
From the homepage feeds to the icons on the website footer/email signature, anyone who comes in contact with your brand should only be a click away from becoming a loyal follower.
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram feeds can all be easily integrated into your site with a copy-paste code.
9. Switch things up:
Not all post formats will see a similar rate of response. Videos might get the most impressions but may not obtain high engagement because the audience sees it more as a show, rather than a conversation.
Likewise, the audience of a technology-related B2B social media page may not respond to a light-hearted GIF as compared to a substantial infographic.
A good strategy is to try a variety of formats – news, quotes, entertainment, surveys, videos, pictures, infographics. Track what works, then gear your campaign accordingly.
10. Don’t ignore analytics:
The admin of any social media account has access to analytics. When you access the data and go through reports, you can gather critical information.
Use this insight to tailor your social strategy and optimize your efforts. Track your exercises, analyze your successes, and listen to your audience.
A social media strategy should improve not only the number of followers your business has but also the quality of those followers. Your ultimate goal should be to draw the people who are most likely to find your message valuable and continually engage with them. A plan like the one above takes effort, but if you set aside time and concentrate your efforts on your active, valuable platforms, you can increase your social engagement.
Social media is a great way to promote your business and connect with customers. But it doesn't always work out so well. In fact, many small businesses end up hating social media because they spend all this time trying to grow their following only to see their numbers crash. It's important to remember your audience isn't just looking at social media; they're using every available means to reach you, including search engines and word of mouth. If you ignore any of these options, you might be losing half your sales!