In today’s world, it’s almost impossible to thrive as a brand without a social media presence. That being said, many brands’ presences are lacking and inconsistent. Below are twelve steps that you can, and should, incorporate to increase your social media presence and also increase your brand’s success.
What is a Social Media Presence?
Facebook has over 2.5 billion users. Other platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Twitter all have hundreds of millions of people also using them. Your social media presence is simply how visible and connected you are to these millions. It is important to note that the connection you have to those seeing your content matters. Without any value to your consumers, it doesn’t matter if your content is visible. Visibility and connection work together to form a social media presence.
The stronger your social media presence is, the more your brand will be seen, known and trusted among the public. 57% of consumers visit a brand’s social media pages to learn more about them. This all goes to show that how you are presenting your brand on social media matters.
How to Increase Your Social Media Presence
1. Be Human
Consumers care about authenticity. Showing your followers and visitors on your page that your brand is genuine and real can go a long way. This means giving peeks into what office life is like, who is running the company and having some fun.
If you don’t want to fill your feeds with casual posting, incorporate things like Instagram stories to produce content that is only visible for 24 hours. This won’t be on your feed forever but can show consumers that real human beings are posting content and running the brand.
Being human also means making mistakes. If your brand slips up, own it and fix it. People want that personal connection with companies. Being personable, showing your emotions and being human can help your brand stand out.
2. Engage Your Audience
The beautiful thing about social media is that it has allowed brands to interact with their audience more often and much quicker than ever before. Instead of throwing up content and forgetting about it, use your platforms to interact with your following.
This could mean asking them a question, reposting things that are relevant to your brand or replying to comments. Social media opens the door to a lot of conversations and connections between consumers and brands. Don’t close that door and lose potential business.
3. Be Active and Consistent
In the digital marketing world, consistent, good content is better than occasional, great content. Having a schedule or number of times a week you’re planning on posting can up your content game immensely. Of course, you can’t throw up anything just to hit a posting quota. Quality still matters, but rather than posting randomly and when you have the perfect caption and image, post content that is consistent and worthwhile.
Building up enough content may take time so that you aren’t scrambling every week to post something. Schedule content weeks in advance to ensure you will be ready and be consistently active on social media.
This is crucial because it shows consumers you’re on top of your game and allows them to get any updates they need on your brand.
4. Maintain Your Brand’s Voice
Not only does your posting need to be consistent, but your voice does too. Consumers should know what to expect from your brand’s content because of your brand’s personality. Before posting anything make sure it aligns with your values, tone and goals.
Having a brand voice can give your brand a personality and continue on the human-like factor mentioned previously. Is your brand goofy and child-like, or is it serious and informative? Plan this out and fit your content around this.
5. Follow Related Pages
Building positive relationships with other brands can help boost both of your revenues. Interacting with and following brands in your community or industry can show your support. When you have positive relationships with other brands that your consumers love, it will cause them to love you even more. This can also open the door to finding new customers who may be interested in some of the pages you choose to follow.
If you want to be more successful than your competitors, you have to study them. While you may not give their page a like on Facebook, being aware of the types of content others in your industry are posting can allow you to know what is successful and what you can do better.
6. Provide Content That Matters
If your content holds no value, there’s no point in posting it. Depending on what your brand does, ensure that all of your content is relevant and interesting. This is not to say your brand cannot have any fun on their pages. Employee highlights, holidays and trends can all fit into your social media presence. The point here is to just make sure you have reasoning for what you’re posting and to keep it relevant to your brand.
7. Track Trends and Current Events
Social media trends come and go quickly. This means it is important to stay aware and informed. While trends can be a great way to increase engagement, you do not necessarily need to hop on every single one. Make sure it is in some way related to your brand and your values before posting.
We are currently in an era where people expect their favorite brands to speak up on current events that matter. If there is an event that you think pertains to your brand’s values, talk about it. Again, you don’t need to speak on every event that happens but select the ones that matter to your following and to your industry. Here’s a previous blog we wrote about values messaging and how to manage it.
8. Invest in Your Creatives
First impressions matter and on social media, the image you post is usually the first look people get into your brand. Many brands may not have a graphic designer or photographer on their team to whip up a bunch of social posts. Investing does not always have to be money, and it could just mean you spend a little extra time making sure every image or graphic posted is of good quality.
Additionally, don’t find random content and publish it as your own. While inspired by others, individualize content for your platforms. Incorporate your brand’s colors, tag lines and personality into your content.
9. Listen to Your Audience
If your audience gives you feedback on your posts, use this to grow. Interacting with your audience on social media can be an excellent way to better hear what they want from you. Answer their questions and address their concerns.
Ask your following what types of content they enjoy and what they want to see from you. Social media allows for this conversation and it would be a waste not to use it. As you hear from your audience, adjust your strategy and content to match what you’re hearing.
10. Understand the Platforms You Use
Not every brand needs to be on every platform. Before creating an account on different platforms, make sure you know how to use it and what types of users are active on it.
Here is a general list of some of the most popular platforms. Having a personal account on these platforms can be a great way to trial them and get a grip on how to use them. These platforms get updated fairly frequently so if new features come about, don’t be afraid to try them. One of the newer social media trends is stories and Twitter recently released their version of it- Fleets. Don’t be intimidated by trying something new.
11. Monitor Your Posts
If you don’t monitor your posts, you won’t know what to change and what to keep. Using either internal insights or another reporting site can allow you to track how things are going.
KPIs such as impressions, follower growth and engagement numbers can allow you to see what posts are working and which need to be adjusted. Getting a lot of likes on a post is great, but knowing why you got a lot of likes and how to do it again is better.
12. Promote Your Platforms
What’s the point of creating awesome content if no one sees it? Promote your social media on your website, in emails and in advertising. Linking your social media platforms to other existing mediums you use is a sure way to keep your customers informed. Pointing potential consumers to your page can help seal the deal once they see your brand’s amazing personality on social media.
If your social media presence is lacking, you’re likely missing out on a lot of business. Contact us today to learn how to increase your social media presence.
