Brands and organizations use social media platforms daily to connect with their audience, generate leads, boost sales, and raise awareness. With an engaged following on social media, you can effectively promote a new product or service and generate buzz around a campaign.
The key to building a thriving online community is creating content your audience can engage with and share within their networks.
Check out the helpful tips below on how you can boost your following:
What to Post
Your messaging should be relevant and consistent. Capture attention by informing on industry-related news and the latest trends. The goal is to keep your brand name and message top of mind with your audience. Research shows 89% of consumers buy from a brand after following them on social media. You must consistently remind consumers of the value you provide. Doing so secures the loyalty needed to convert page visitors into followers.
How to Post
Stay organized and manage all your social media accounts in one place. A Social Media Marketing (SMM) platform will provide tools like automation and analytics to improve your content delivery and quality. Pinpoint when and where your audience is most active on social media and schedule posts in advance. Analyzing how well your posts perform will allow you to optimize your posts and ensure your content resonates with your audience.
Engage Your Audience
Listen to your audience and respond promptly. 83% of Facebook users and 71% of Twitter users now expect a response to a question within the same day. That’s because more and more consumers are turning to social media for customer service rather than email or phone calls. When your audience feels heard and acknowledged, you’re more likely to generate repeat customers as well as a loyal fan base.
Tailor Your Content
Craft your message accordingly for each social channel. For example, Instagram is great for visual content like graphics and video using location tagging and hashtags. Facebook works well for visual storytelling when keeping copy concise and limiting hashtags. Twitter is a high-volume network that is useful for frequent news and updates. It’s important to know the strengths and demographics of each platform to see where you’ll best connect with your target audience.
Observe Your Competition
Competitive research will provide insight on where you can improve and where you excel. It starts with identifying the networks your competition is on, the size of their audience, how often they post, and how well they engage their audience. The observations can help fill in the gaps in your own social strategy.
Show Your Human Side
Being transparent and relatable as a brand goes a long way in earning someone’s business and achieving success. Rather than focusing primarily on what you’re selling, incorporate some humor and lightheartedness in what you share.
Get Attention
Video is the most engaging form of content across any social media platform. Therefore, it is essential to create video content to catch users’ attention and maximize engagement. Several views can lead to increased reach, interaction, and exposure for your brand.
Get the Word Out
Promote your social media handles wherever you can. Adding social media buttons to your website, blog, promotional items, and advertising helps you get discovered and generates awareness for your brand’s products and services.
Pay to Play
Increasing your social media presence often involves investing in paid advertisements. Paid ads help promote your content, increase conversions, and expand your reach by targeting audiences who have visited your website or have subscribed to your content. Paid ads are the best approach for reaching the right people at the right time.
#FollowMe
Hashtags help discover content relating to a specific topic or category. When used effectively, hashtags can help boost your brand’s social media reach and engagement. It can also be an effective way to promote your brand and drive conversions. Popular hashtags allow new users to discover your brand leading to potential new followers.
Quality Matters
While you might think you need to post all the time to remain relevant, don’t forget quality trumps quantity. Posting to post does not help grow your audience. Your content should be meaningful and relate to a broader objective.
Taking advantage of these tips will, in return, help your brand increase recognition, ROI, engagement, and customer loyalty.
