In this day and age, a strong social media presence is crucial for any brand that hopes to stay relevant. But social media is a crowded place, to succeed in creating a strong social media presence, you need to be aware of the following eight keys to success.
Quality over quantity
Quality over quantity applies to a couple of different things as it pertains to social media. The first is that you need to focus on making quality posts using quality images or quality video content rather than posting average stuff every couple of hours. The second is that you need to attract quality followers, people who will actively participate in conversations in the comments section of your posts and share your posts with their friends, not people who will give your page a “like” and never do anything else.
Success requires patience
Building a strong base of followers and establishing a real presence on any social media platform will take time. Go in with realistic expectations and be prepared to work very hard for a very long time to get the results you want.
Good content does the heavy lifting for you
One of the great things about social media is that you don’t have to do all the marketing yourself. Your followers will help make your content reach more people but only if you’re taking the time to craft quality content that makes people excited to share it with their friends.
Connect with influencers
Influencers are people with a much wider audience than the typical social media user. These are people with an established social media presence with a strong following that consists of the type of people who would really like your brand. You need to spend time on social media listening to conversation before adding to it to find out who these contributors are.
Don’t self-promote
People encounter enough advertising on social media as it is thanks to sponsored posts that intrude on their newsfeeds or video ads that play during the video content they’re trying to view. People who follow your brand on social media don’t do so because they want to be marketed to. They want to stay connected, see what things your brand is working on, and follow the conversations you’re engaging in. So focus on providing value to followers and not on promoting your own brand.
Be quick to respond
People like to feel acknowledged, so whether people are asking questions, adding insights to something you’ve posted, complementing your brand, or airing a grievance, you need to be quick to respond. If you don’t have the time to keep up with this yourself, then it’s worth paying someone who does to do it for you.
Return the favor
As you connect with influencers and followers online, it’s important to do for them what you hope they’ll do for you. Don’t just start conversations; add to existing ones. Follow influencers and share their content; help drive traffic their way. The more you do this, the more likely they are to do it for you. It also benefits you when social media users who aren’t aware of your brand see you interacting with people they do follow.
If you build it, they won’t come
Don’t expect your customers or people in your target audience to seek you out on social media. Just because you create a page for a social media platform doesn’t mean users of that platform will flock to it. You need to make use of your existing marketing channels to create awareness of your social media profiles. Prominently display links on your website that will connect people to various social media profiles. Use SMS to reach out to your most loyal customers and offer incentives to those who “like” your page or share your posts. These are the people who are most likely to be your first followers and they’ll kickstart your strong social media presence.
