There’s no doubt about it, the world of social media can be a vast and confusing place if you’re not totally familiar with it. Even if you are an active user, a lot of people still don’t know how to utilise it effectively when it comes to marketing their business — that’s a whole other ball game. The good news is, we’ve more than dabbled in the social media sphere and have learnt a thing or two that we want to pass on.
While there may be a whole lot of stuff you’d rather not have to see or read on these platforms, the reality is, they are an unmatchable resource in more ways than one in terms of generating interest in the products and services you have to offer. Not only can you increase your business visibility, but socials like Facebook and Instagram also act as a way for current, and more importantly, potential customers, to engage with what it is that you do and what you can do for them. Ultimately, the ability for people to easily connect with you and your brand is going to result in tangible business leads that pay off.
So how do you take full advantage of social media for marketing your business? The list of ways to do so is extensive, but instead of rattling on about every single one, we’ve come up with a handful of key things to keep in mind in order to make the most of this tool we call social media.
Actually Connect with your audience
The most successful business socials are the ones that show the people behind them. Because posting on platforms is all done behind a screen, it can often take the authenticity away from it all and make it difficult for customers to connect with. Almost every post we put on our social media that actually has us, our clients, or even our office pets in it (yes, we also run a zoo), performs substantially better than if we were to just post a stock or text image. It’s as simple as this, people want to interact with real people, even in the digital world. Not only does it let consumers put a face to the brand, but it’s also a whole lot more personable and relatable. When you can run your platforms as similar as possible to an in-person exchange, that’s when you’ll see results.
Post Regularly
You may or may not have heard about social media algorithms — they are very much a thing. Essentially, the more you post, the more your page is going to appear on other users’ newsfeeds, which in turn, will lead to more people engaging with what you’re posting. We recommend posting a few times a week or every second day to show you’re active and available to engage with your consumers. At the same time, you don’t want to bombard people with a whole lot of irrelevant content either because that can really put them off. Post with intention, whether it’s tips, facts about your business, insights into what you’re working on, or even pictures of the team having a bit of good old bonding time. Planning your posts a month in advance can also be really beneficial when you’re time-poor, that way you can simply schedule them in Creator Studio and not have to worry about content planning until the next month, just don’t forget to engage with any comments or messages when your post goes up.
Ask and answer questions
Find out what your target audience wants to see on your socials, literally by just asking them. Maybe there’s something they want to know more about or need help with — be the solution to their problem. The same goes for answering questions, if people are taking the time to comment on your posts, always reply in a friendly and professional manner and react to it so they know you value their engagement. The more you interact with the people posting on your page, the more your overall page engagement will increase — this is the ultimate goal for social media marketing. To get results, it has to be a two-way street. You can’t expect to get if you’re not giving back! Be consistent and you’ll reap the rewards with time, and of course, that means being patient. You know what they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day and the same goes for your social media engagement.
Keep it Fresh
Nobody wants to see the same thing harped on about over and over again, and the same thing goes for images and designs. In saying that, that doesn’t mean you should get too off-brand and start using colours and styles that aren’t reflective of your business’s look and tone. Get creative with what you post and alternate the copy that goes with the images. One day you might talk about something personal about you and your team, like introducing a team member, and the next could be an informative fact about your business or the industry it‘s part of. Always try to think to yourself, “What would I want to see from this business if I was looking at their social media?’’. If you’re stuck on ideas, there’s no harm in looking at other business pages for inspiration. What we find super helpful is sitting down once a week or even once a month to brainstorm as a team. That way, we end up having a whole host of new and unique ideas brought to the table to keep our socials appealing and relevant.
If after reading this you’re still unsure about what to do to get your social media marketing off the ground, don’t stress. We’re here to help when you’re feeling a little lost or just don’t have the time to invest in your socials. The bottom line is, it’s a marketing technique that really does work, you’ve just got to give it a chance.
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