We live in a hyper-connected world. Consumers, employees, businesses, professionals — everyone is within reach thanks to social media networks. This hyper-connectivity can be great in certain scenarios, even driving tons of engagement and fostering a feeling of community digitally.
Unfortunately, plenty of businesses utilize social media websites solely as content distribution channels. Put simply, if your entire social media strategy is to log in and share content from your website, you’re doing it wrong. There’s so much more to Facebook, LinkedIn, and every other major network than that. In this post, we'll delve into social media marketing tactics that lead to measurable brand growth.
1. Cover popular topics.
One of the interesting aspects of social media is how news and trends can spread like wildfire. This gives businesses the opportunity to jump in, provide their take, and raise brand awareness in the process.
A content research tool like BuzzSumo can kick things off by letting you be in-tune with your niche. All you need to do is to provide a relevant keyword, and the tool will automatically scrape the latest popular content on the web. You can also use Google Trends to spot trending, relevant topics in real-time.
Upon finding an idea, repurpose the concept into something more valuable and original. It can be a “how-to” guide, a review article, or anything that makes sense for both the topic and your brand.
While it might be tempting to jump on every trend, it’s not practical. Not only is this incredibly time-consuming, but it also can be confusing for your audience. Stick to trends that are relevant to your brand and audience.
2. Go visual.
Sure, social media users may sometimes be in the mood for a full-length article. But to get clicks, you need to capture their interest — away from the posts and updates made by their peers. And for that purpose, written headlines can only do so much, regardless of how creative and thought-provoking they are.
A better strategy is to wrap up value propositions into bite-sized visuals. According to statistics, visual content like infographics is shared 3 x more on social media. Facebook images, on the other hand, get 2-3 x more engagement than plain-text updates.
Adding an eye-catching featured image in blog posts is a step in the right direction. You can also use image editing tools like Canva or Venngage to create infographics without requiring a professional designer. There are also plenty of resources online that can give you an easy crash course on how to great an nice looking inforgrapic. YouTube, for example, should have plenty of tutorials available on making a nice and clean infographic.
3. Invest in engagement.
Keep in mind that social media is called “social” for a reason. You are supposed to interact with your audience if you want to earn their trust.
It has become all-too-common for brands to use social media to broadcast their content. They want to reach their target audience by consistently and repeatedly publishing their latest posts on Facebook and Twitter. However, the problem with these "broadcasters" is that they don't connect with their followers. Their social accounts are on autopilot sharing links to their posts without taking time to engage with their followers.
Therefore, you need to find a way to connect with your audience other than just putting your content in their faces. Below are simple, yet effective ways to establish open communication between you and your customers on social media:
Acknowledge their posts mentioning your brand - Some people tag you on their posts and tweets with comments about your business. Take the time to answer each one of them. Even a simple “thank you” goes a long way in your efforts to build better connections with people. As a bonus\, if other customers see you engaging on posts\, they’ll be more likely to make a positive post themselves.
Post content of others - Another purpose of social media is to provide value to your followers. Therefore\, don't be averse to sharing the content of other brands if it means offering your audience information that you haven't covered before.
Create posts for engagement - Engaging brands on social media always spark healthy discussion and conversation with their fans and followers. Asking questions relevant to your brand and audience interests to help skyrocket engagement on your social media.
4. Monitor for brand mentions.
If you've been in business for a while, chances are, customers already talk about you. They may ask about your brand, discuss a negative experience, or seek assistance with one of your products.
Regardless, you need to connect with these users and help address their concerns. I’ve mentioned above that you need to acknowledge people that tag you on social media. However, not all will tag your brand even if they have something important to say. As a result, you will not be notified of the mention unless you seek it out.
To monitor for brand mentions, you need a tool like Awario. It helps you track your brand name or link for any mentions on social media or blogs even if your brand isn’t tagged. Once you’ve identified the mentions, you can reach out and build relationships with them.
Brand monitoring is crucial for businesses that require client servicing. There’s a chance that people are expressing their displeasure about your products and services on social media. With a monitoring tool to help you collect these mentions, you can immediately take action and iron things out with disgruntled customers. Take this opportunity as a way to connect with your customers and provide solutions to their problems instead of shying away from conflict.
5. Reach out to influencers.
To help grow your business faster and more efficiently, you need help from influencers relevant to your niche. They usually have hundreds and thousands of vibrant fans who admire them and trust their opinion. Influencers’ fans help amplify their message. A single update on social media can spark a wildfire of comments, like, and retweets.
Assuming that you don’t have a significant following established on social media, it’s wise to piggyback on the authority that these influencers wield. By striking a conversion with them and building up a working relationship from there, you can ask them to help you promote your site to their followers and drive more attention to your business.
BuzzSumo can help you find the right influencers to connect with on Twitter. Go to the Influencers link on the menu bar and type your niche on the search bar to reveal Twitter users you should befriend.
You can filter the users according to different parameters like Reply Ratio, Retweet Ratio, Number of Followers, and others. The higher the number of all parameters, the more reason you have to connect with them.
6. Embrace going live.
Facebook Live has made it easier for brands to conduct live videos to engage with their followers. Despite the opportunities this feature presents, only a couple of brands have been doing it correctly. Facebook Live is not simply a video streaming platform where you can record a video, talk in front of a camera, and press “Publish” once you’re done. The interactive nature of Facebook requires you to engage with people in real-time.
This is all true of going live on Instagram, LinkedIn, and any other social platform as well.
Below are tips to help you launch a live video the right way so you can maximize its results:
Promote your live session in advance - Let people know ahead of time when you will hold your live stream so they can clear their schedule in preparation for the video. Ideally\, prompt them a week before the actual date of the live session. You can also remind them a few days leading up to the event to help them remember.
Ensure you have a secure internet connection - The last thing you need during your Livestream is a choppy internet connection. Make sure that your internet is stable and strong enough to stream so you can focus on delivering the message in your video.
Respond to comments live - Put the focus on your audience by replying to their comments and mentioning their names. Make the most out of this opportunity to get to know your die-hard fans better and begin building relationships with them.
7. Showcase your brand’s personality.
If your brand doesn't have a fleshed-out character, it's high time that you develop one for your business. Let's face it - people gravitate towards personalities. They identify with people who share their values and beliefs and are not afraid to express them. Even in the B2B world, people connect with and want to buy from people they like and trust.
By developing a personality for your brand, you distinguish yourself from similar brands in the market. Your personality is what makes you unique and helps you attract the right people to do business with.
Popular nowadays are memes and pop culture references. People love memes because they take something familiar and twist it around to come up with something new. In the case of most brands, memes offer an opportunity to showcase their funny side.
However, not all brands can be funny, and that's not a bad thing. Don’t let your seriousness get in the way of being authentic to your audience. After all, your personality highly depends on them. As long as they can relate to what you're saying on social media, then you have this in the bag.
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