Social Media is integral to any brand today but how many brands actually have an active, fresh social media presence?
Like anything in life, what you put into social media, you receive. However, with a market saturated with voices and accounts, you need some structure and a defined strategy to stand out. Read more for some of our tips on how to build and maintain a social media presence!
Seek Relationships, Not Just Followers
We’ve all heard the age old saying ‘quality over quantity’ and when it comes to Instagram followers, there’s no exception.
Although large follower counts are conventionally attractive as they signify credibility, accumulating masses of followers means nothing if your engagement is stagnant.
It might be cliché to say but don’t forget the ‘social’ element of your social media presence. Remember, social media is not just a billboard for your brand; its inherent affordance is to form connections and relationships, without the constraints of locality. Take advantage of this!
If you’re not exactly sure how to start relationship-building, here are some quick ideas:
Focus on Helping rather than Selling
With a plethora of e-commerce industries on the rise, be careful not to fall into the trap of focusing all your content on the ‘hard sell’ because this should rarely be the case.
Rather than always pushing offers and deals to your followers, answering questions is more important. This could be through replies or content marketing. Prompting questions from your followers through tools like polls or open-ended question boxes in Instagram stories, is also extremely valuable.
Stay Active
It is a popular notion that inactive or inconsistent social feeds create more damage to a business than having no social media at all. To put it simply, it’s a bad look for your brand.
When customers are developing their impression of you, they’re looking for indications of reputation, credibility, popularity and trust. This doesn’t happen without fresh content and consistent engagement.
Some quick tips to help you stay active include:
Staying active on social media doesn’t have to feel like a burden and in fact, if you’re passionate about your brand, it should be a fun experience. Organisation is key! Through scheduling or simply blocking out a 10-15 min chunk of time, you can post content and respond to customer concerns without compromising time.
Identify your Audience
Finally, after you’ve outlined your goals, it is paramount to outline your target audience as this will affect your positioning and tone.
Remember! ‘Everyone’ is not an audience or a very effective one at the least…
You have to ascertain who you would like to reach based on the internal goals of your brand and timeline of your respective campaigns/ products/ releases or whatever it may be. Irrespective, breaking down your audience will help you figure out the following:
Incorporating too many voices or tones online can dilute and decrease the veracity of your messaging, rather than resonate with a broad audience.
It is wise to invest some time looking at your audience personas, understanding what their challenges are and what brands they already love via social media. From there, you will get an indication of how you can cut-through and be fresh whilst always remaining true to your brand and vision.
Let’s have a chat to explore how Wise Up Marketing can help you grow your business
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