Building a social media presence is similar to other forms of digital marketing – it takes time to see real results, but the results are worth it. By giving your brand a presence beyond the website, you can:
- Speak to a potential audience of 3.5 billion people – all the world’s social media users combined
- Cement your tone of voice
- Complement your content marketing campaigns
- Get better search rankings
- Sell directly or generate leads.
But we all need to start somewhere. If you want to build a social media presence that works for you, try our tips below.
- Have a goal
- Research social channels
- Have a plan
- Learn about your customers
- ‘Bee’ accessible
- Combine your socials with other channels
- ‘Bee’ human
- Go beyond promotion
- Post regularly
- Use scheduling tools
- Respond and engage
- Don’t copy and paste
- Get clients involved
- Offer value
- Encourage interaction
- Maintain consistency
- Use media
- Incentivise
- Go beyond the social giants
- Measure your results!
1. Have a goal in mind before you start
Ask yourself: how will my social media presence improve my business? You may use it as a lead generation tool, a way to share content, to drive traffic, or learn more about your customers.
This will inform your strategy and the networks you will use.
2. Research the best channels to align with your goals
Certainly, there is no harm in having more than one social media profile – Facebook and Instagram, for example.
You need to consider your goals and if these networks are best for reaching your audience. Helpful B2B content is better shared on LinkedIn, while visual B2C content works perfectly on Pinterest.
3. Make an action plan with measurable steps to achieve your goals
Your goals need to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based – otherwise known as SMART goals. So, give yourself KPIs and the measurable steps to get there.
For example, you could schedule topical content with relevant hashtags, with a view to gaining X number of views/shares/followers in X amount of time.
4. Learn your customers’ pain points
Building a social media presence is invariably a great way to research your customers. You can find out their wants and needs by reading their comments, for example, on competitors’ profiles.
For clearer insights, try reading social media reviews – a bad Google review might show you what a company is missing…and what you could provide.
5. Make your socials accessible
Want your customers to get in touch via socials? Point them in the right direction! Leave your social media icons in the header/footer of your webpages, and at the bottom of marketing emails.
Likewise, do it in reverse – use interactive links, such as Linktree on Instagram, to encourage customers to engage with your site.
6. Combine your socials with other channels
Your social media strategy should complement your overall content marketing strategy. Try to create an editorial calendar three to six months in advance (with provisions for reactive posts and articles) that can guide your post schedule.
You can share written content, infographics, videos and more, giving you a better website and social media presence.
7. ‘Bee’ human
The faceless brand is no more – today, we are seeing social media managers giving brands a voice, often with thought-provoking, heart-warming or even hilarious results.
Your social profiles don’t need to make you sound like a corporate machine. Use personal pronouns and let your audience know there is a personality behind your brand. People buy from people!
8. Go beyond the promotion
It’s tempting to shout about all the benefits of working with your business. While there is a time and a place for highlighting your services, it shouldn’t be the only subject of your posts.
You can use posts to inform, educate, amuse, inspire – whatever drives that engagement and again, improves your social media presence overall.
9. Post consistently
There is nothing worse than a business social media page that hasn’t been updated in months. It sends the wrong message, and may even lead customers to think you are closed!
If you don’t have time to manage all your profiles, outsource your social media marketing or trim them down to the most effective networks only. Depending on the pace of change in your industry, you should be looking at anything from two to seven posts per week – but avoid more than twice a day!
10. Get help with scheduling tools
Scheduling tools will prove to be your saviour when it comes to putting that social media calendar into action. You can use free tools such as Buffer or Hootsuite, or gain more features from upgrading to their paid packages.
11. Respond to and engage with others
Social media isn’t just about shouting into the void – it’s about engaging with your network. Not only will this better connect you with the customers; it will also increase your social media presence.
Algorithms reward those who engage with other people’s content, for example, on LinkedIn. Reply to other people’s content and make sure you acknowledge anytime a customer interacts with you!
12. Don’t copy and paste content across all networks
You need to recognise the benefits of each social network as a whole. That’s why you can’t simply cookie-cutter content from one profile to another.
For one, those who follow you on multiple networks will notice. Instead, leverage the individual features, for example, hashtags for Twitter trends or polls on LinkedIn.
The same applies with engagement, as mentioned in number 11. For example, Twitter is a great place to go for real-time chats, while LinkedIn and Facebook can be used for live streaming.
13. Ask your clients to get involved
Perhaps your most loyal audience are those who are already buying from you, so don’t be afraid to ask them! Ask your clients to follow your profiles and share content.
Even better, make your content about them so they share without obligation. This increases your brand awareness and will likely keep them happy!
14. Offer valuable content
What constitutes ‘valuable’ is different for everybody, but all content should have a purpose. For example, you could introduce a longer blog post with an intriguing stat, or pull out a salient quote that attracts people’s attention.
You can use this as a ‘teaser’ to lead people to your website or other content. Don’t be afraid to use a call to action.
15. Encourage interactions
The beauty of social media is that posts are so much more than just words nowadays. To get more interaction from your audience, consider using games or polls for instant feedback. You can even ask others to share photographs with a hashtag, or advertise competitions.
This also doubles up as great market research into your audience. Ask questions and find out how you could better serve them.
16. Maintain a consistent tone of voice
You may have more than one person controlling your social media posts, and that’s fine, but you need to be consistent. Whether you’re outsourcing or keeping it in-house, you should produce brand guidelines to help those posting understand the tone, language and formats you use.
An inconsistent tone of voice suggests a weak brand, and customers will feel less inclined to trust or interact with it.
17. Use rich media
Social media is pretty clever these days, so once again, go beyond the words. Add images and optimise your videos for each network (for example, up to one minute on Instagram, but minimum three minutes for Facebook).
Infographics and GIFs can be shrunk automatically or with third-party tools. You might consider converting the same media to different formats using free software like Canva.
Don’t forget to make use of the individual functionality on each platform, either. We now have Twitter Fleets, LinkedIn Stories, Instagram Reels – you can change it up between bitesize and long-form content.
18. Give them a reason to connect
Again, this links to the valuable content point as above, but what can you do to increase your follower uptake in the first place? Try offering a little incentive, such as a competition to win a prize in exchange for likes and shares.
Even better, if you can encourage your followers to tag their friends, your post has the chance to ‘go viral’. Back up the incentive with eye-catching visuals.
19. Go beyond the Big 4
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn – all hugely valuable but not standalone! You can try more niched social networking sites such as Pinterest for visual content, or even geo-targeted sites, like Foursquare.
Keep your finger on the pulse with new app developments, too. TikTok now has 800 million users worldwide, for example, while audio chat app Clubhouse is gathering pace.
20. Measure your results
Like all forms of digital marketing, building your social media presence is useless if you do not measure the results! Take the time to determine which metrics are most valuable to you. Do user comments translate into leads? Do shares become web traffic?
Once you have measurable results for each platform, you can tailor your future campaigns to get the best response.
No time on your hands?
As you can see, mastering your social media presence is no mean feat. Our social media experts capture your tone of voice and work to your editorial schedule. Ask about our managed social media services and ‘bee’ found online today.
