If you’re a brand today, there’s a non-zero chance that you’re on social media in one way or another.
But how many brands have an active and flourishing social media presence? And how many of them are somehow there?
Reality Check: You can’t expect much from social media when you post random links @mention a few people and call it a day.
You need a structure. You need a social media strategy. And likewise, there’s a reason Go Pro Instagram posts get hundreds of thousands of ‘likes’. And while some of these brands can have successful budgets, the principles they use to create an impressive social presence can be replicated by businesses of all sizes. Having trouble finding subscribers? You don’t know what to do with your social accounts? We’ve all been there. That’s why we’ve broken down the little tips that any brand can follow to immediately increase their social media presence.
Now let’s dive in!
1. SET SMART GOALS
Pop quiz: why are you on social media in the first place?
If your response is resounding “Uh …” or “Because everyone’s on it,” You might have a problem. The concept of SMART Goals has been around for decades, but they are so important to your social media presence today. In short, brands should set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. An example of a good SMART goal for social media marketing would be something like ‘We will increase our Twitter response rate by 25% by the end of the first quarter.’
S specific: ‘We specifically identified the social channel (Twitter) and a statistic (response rate).’
Measurable: ‘The response rate can be measured from the HASHTAGS dashboard.’
To achievable: ‘We didn’t do a weird goal, like a 100% increase in 10 days.’
Relevant: ‘Our goal will impact our overall social media presence, which will make it very relevant.’
Time-bound: ‘The goal must be achieved by the end of the first trimester.’
Assigning your social media efforts a concrete purpose allows you to avoid the trap of aimless posting.
ADD EVEN MORE CONTEXT TO YOUR GOALS WITH ADVANCED SPROUT LISTENING
Your SMART goals probably have an element of content, but do you have the right tools to stand out in the conversation? With Sprout’s advanced listening functionality, connect your networks and set up topics to get a feel for what resonates most with social media audiences.
2. IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE
After you have defined your goals, you need to define your target audience.
Pro tip: “everyone” is not an audience.
They may be potential customers. They may be industry players and influencers. Either way, breaking down your audience will help you figure out the following:
What social media sites you are active on
Your publication schedule
The type of content you post
Your voice of the brand
Your profile information
Many brands are spinning their wheels because they don’t publish content that targets a specific audience. Spend time looking at the personalities in your audience, understanding what their challenges are and which brands they already love through social media. This type of competitive analysis can help you understand how your own social media presence can stand out from the crowd.
3. BE HUMAN
It’s a big problem.
One of the worst mistakes to make on social media is portraying itself as a faceless business with no personality. In the modern age of transparency, people want to know about your business on a more personal level. Today, many brands are making jokes and are not afraid to talk to their followers like they would their friends. While brands were once criticized for portraying themselves as bots, a human presence on social media has become an expectation among many followers.
Likewise, showing the human side of your brand means showing the faces behind your social feeds. Whether it’s desktop photos or snapshots of your team “in the wild”, getting to know your followers can help you make a much-needed connection. And hey, that brings us directly to our next point!
4. LOOK FOR RELATIONSHIPS, NOT JUST FOLLOWERS
We can debate all day whether your follower count is a vanity metric.
That said, having 100 subscribers who regularly interact with you and your content is infinitely more valuable than 10,000 who ignore you. It might be a cliché to say, but don’t let the “social” out of your social media presence. The beauty of social is that you can instantly build relationships with followers from anywhere. For example, HASHTAGS’ own #SproutChat gives us the ability to connect regularly with our lovely followers who are also happy to contact us.
If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to relationship building, here are some quick ideas:
Always @ mention the people you refer to in your social media posts
Respond to questions people ask
Respond when people @mention you or share your content
Don’t just retweet and like other people’s content; reply with a comment to start a conversation
5. CREATE AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR
Spoiler alert: Sticking to a content schedule isn’t just something “extra” brands do.
If there is one common denominator between the biggest brands on social media, it’s that they post consistently. Chances are, you’re juggling multiple social channels and trying to make sure you tick a lot of boxes in terms of descriptions and when to post, right? Think about how a content calendar can ease the process by …
Allowing you to refine each of your posts for each platform without having to switch between sites.
Time your posts to maximize engagement, so you don’t have to constantly post in real-time.
Avoid repeating the same content over and over again, making sure each of your posts or photos gets as much love as possible.
In short, taking the time to make a schedule does the double duty of keeping your presence on social networks organized while maximizing the reach of your content.
6. AUTOMATE THE RIGHT WAY
Automation is all the rage in marketing right now, and for good reason.
However, you can’t expect to be successful in putting your social presence on autopilot and going.
For example, the mass automatic response has followed the dinosaur’s path because it usually comes across as insincere. This now-classic Bank of America tweet is a good example of how to turn off your social followers through improper automation. Poor automation can make your business seem cold or indifferent
Fast forward to the present day and it’s clear that customer service is social media that needs to be personalized, not automated. Providing personalized help is a huge aspect of any given brand
That said, automating in the form of scheduling or curating content is a totally fair game. Just avoid this when dealing with actual customers or subscribers.
That’s why brands rely on social tools to help curate content already trusted by marketing leaders. Bambu by HASHTAGS is actually just that software needed to turn your employees into brand advocates. Call on your workforce to strengthen your presence! The functionality of current Bambu stories
7. FOCUS ON HELP RATHER THAN SELLING
While social selling is indeed on the rise, your social media presence should rarely be about ‘hard selling’. Of course, if you are in e-commerce, it makes sense to provide deals and deals to your subscribers. Most importantly, however, is answering subscribers’ questions, whether through responses or through content marketing. If your followers ask a question, you need to answer it in a timely manner. And if your followers seem to be bothered with a particular issue, you need to create content that speaks to them directly. By offering solutions to problems instead of just showcasing your products all the time, you prove that your business is an authority and potentially wins a customer for life.
8. OPTIMIZE YOUR ACCOUNTS FOR ENGAGEMENT
The first thing to do: don’t let the word “optimization” scare you. Unlike SEO, social media optimization isn’t particularly technical. That said, profiles can be optimized through images, keywords, and completely filling out your account information. For example, brands can use their Instagram Bio to link to promotions, advertise their hashtag, and make their brand’s voice heard.
An optimized Instagram account includes relevant links, hashtags, and a taste of your brand
Likewise, a well-designed Twitter profile with the right @mentions and HD images can signal your authority and help you get more followers. An optimized Twitter profile helps you attract more
And as discussed in our guide to conducting a Facebook Audit, a fully optimized page with comprehensive business information can actually help your page rank higher in Google.
Marketers must
Here are some quick ways to optimize your social media presence on your various accounts: Add relevant keywords in your profile (hint: but not stuff them)
Share content related to your industry, including keywords and hashtags in your posts
Connect with popular accounts in your industry for additional visibility (tip: don’t be afraid to follow others)
9. IF IN DOUBT, BE VISUAL
No matter where you post, photo and video content is killing it completely.
Instagram’s image-based platform is exploding. Facebook notes that live videos are six times the engagement compared to any other type of content. And for those looking for more Twitter followers, graphics and videos are much more shared than text posts. The good news is that getting visual doesn’t mean you need insane gear or a full-blown production budget. Instead, consider images such as:
- Team photos or videos
- Customer Photos
- Event photos
- Backstage photos and videos
- Quote photos
- Infographics
- Juantastico: breaking the trend
It’s easy to get stuck in a routine, but creativity lives outside the lines. Take it from Juantastico, take a #Sharpie, and break the trend! #SharpieSquad
And with so many tools for creating social images and videos already available, it’s easier than ever to get visuals from your audience.
10. MAKE YOUR PRESENCE KNOWN
If you’ve done the legwork to increase your social media presence, you need to let the world know.
From home page feeds to icons on your site’s footer or email signature, anyone who comes in contact with your brand should be just one click away from becoming a long-time follower. term.
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram feeds can all be easily integrated into your site with little more than a cut and paste code. Find out how Keds offers customers to create a highly authentic lookbook on their site:
Keds offers an on-site user-generated content lookbook to increase social media conversions
Cross-promoting on your website and through other social channels is a proactive way to grow your audience over time.
11. STAY ACTIVE
Inactive social feeds are a bad look for brands, outright. Rather than letting your Facebook or Instagram gather cobwebs, you need to “show up” day in and day out with fresh content. Here are some quick tips to help you stay active: Incorporate social planning and automation to save time and energy.
Choose and prioritize your social networks according to the location of your audience.
Finding ways to reuse content So you don’t always try to reinvent the wheel.
Staying active on social media doesn’t have to be a total waste of time. By simply scheduling or blocking 10-15 minute slots, you can post content and address customer concerns without wasting time. You can also try basing your activity on the best times to post on social media to maximize engagement.
Best Times to Post on Facebook for All Industries 2020
12. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TRENDS
Between breaking news, trending hashtags, or whatever the latest meme, brands always have room to be current with their content. This is a great opportunity to not only leverage the buzz of an existing trend, but also to show off your brand’s personality.
For example, understanding the inputs and outputs of hashtags can help you think about time-sensitive topics that you can lean on. Of course, go lightly with anything openly controversial that might isolate your audience.
13. DON’T BE AFRAID TO PA
Like it or not, social media, in general, is no longer the totally “free” channel it once was. While there is still a lot to do organically, Facebook’s updated algorithm and new business features rolled out on Instagram are a clear signal that businesses need to experiment with ads. However, it’s not just the ads that deserve your attention. Looking at the recent boom in influencer marketing, paid relationships between social actors and shakers are increasingly common. The good news is that social ads and influencer marketing can have an insane return on your investment. Between laser targeting on Facebook or using hyper-engaged influencer audiences, a paid strategy certainly has its time and place depending on your company’s social goals.
14. USE TOOLS TO MONITOR YOUR ACTIVITY
When people complain about the lack of ROI they see on social media, chances are they’re not taking social media seriously. Just as we are often immersed in Google Analytics data, marketers should treat social media with the same kind of control. There are tons of analytics tools out there to help you identify your top-performing content, performance trends, and the essentials of your social media presence by the numbers. These data points can help you treat social media less like a guessing game and more like a science.
HASHTAGS group performance report
15. CREATE CONTENT THAT PEOPLE REALLY WANT TO SEE
If you want to stand out on social media, you can’t just replicate the content that everyone is posting.
In short, you have to create. Whether you’re trying to become a thought leader or want to stand out from your competition, original content is exactly how you’re going to get there. It could be your original blog posts, research, or infographics. It could be a striking snapshot you took on your last vacation. Or, it could be an opinionated rant about the state of your industry. Either way, you should make an effort to post content that compels your subscribers to stop in their tracks. There’s a lot of noise here on social media: make it a goal to breakthrough.
WHAT DOES YOUR COMPANY’S PRESENCE LOOK LIKE ON SOCIAL MEDIA?
Listen: there is no “secret” or turnkey solution for a better presence on social networks. Instead, there are little tactics and strategies that can help you develop social accounts that drive engagement. The principles we’ve outlined are core principles of the brands killing her on social media right now. If you can keep up with them yourself, you are already ahead of the game. However, we do want to hear from you. What are you struggling with regarding your social media presence? Any tips or tactics we missed? Let us know in the comments below!
