If you’re a brand today, there’s a 90% chance you’re on a social media platform. But how many brands have an active, thriving social media presence?

And how many of them are just sort of there?

Reality check: you can’t expect much from social media when you post random links, mention a few friends, family, clients, and call it a day.

You need some structure. You need a social media strategy.

After all, you don’t reach the levels of Jalango on Instagram totally by accident.

And likewise, there’s a reason why influencers’ and celebrities’ Instagram posts get hundreds of thousands of likes, shares, and comments.

Although some of these brands might have big budgets, the principles they use to create an awesome social presence can be replicated by businesses of all sizes.

Struggling for followers? Stuck on what to do with your social media pages? We’ve all been there.

That’s why we’ve broken down the bite-sized tips any brand can follow to grow their social media presence right away.

Now, let’s dive in!

1. Set result-oriented Goals

Pop quiz: why are you on social media in the first place?

If your answer is a resounding “Uhh…” or “Because everyone else is on it,” you might have a problem.

The concept of smart result-oriented goals has been around for decades, but they are so important to your social media presence today.

In short, brands should set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

An example of a good SMART goal for social media marketing would be something like “We will increase our facebook response rate by 25% by the end of the first quarter.”

• Specific: “We have specifically identified the social channel (Facebook) and a metric (response rate).”
• Measurable: “The response rate can be measured from the Facebook business manager Social dashboard.”
• Achievable: “We didn’t make an outlandish goal of say, a100% increase in 10 days.”
• Relevant: “ Our goal will have an impact on our overall social media presence, making it very relevant. ”
• Time-bound: “The goal has to be met by the end of the first quarter.”

Assigning the social media efforts a concrete purpose helps you avoid the trap of posting aimlessly.

Add Even More Context to Your Goals with Advanced Listening and research By brandkings

Your SMART goals likely have a content element, but do you have the right tools to stand out in the conversation?

2. Identify Your Audience

After you’ve outlined your goals, you need to outline your target audience

Pro-tip: “everyone” is not your audience.

Maybe it’s prospective customers. Perhaps it’s industry players and influencers. Either way, breaking down your audience will help you figure out the following:

• Which social media sites you’re active on
• Your posting schedule
• The type of content you publish
• Your brand voice
• The information in your social media profiles

Many brands spin their wheels because they don’t post content that speaks to a defined audience. Spend some time looking at your audience personas, understanding what their challenges are and what brands they already love via social media. This sort of competitive analysis can help you understand how your own social media presence can stand out from the crowd.

 

3. Be Human

This is a big one.

One of the worst mistakes to make on social media is coming off as a faceless corporation with zero personality. In the modern age of transparency, people want to get to know your company on a more personal level.

Many brands today crack jokes and aren’t afraid to talk to their followers like they would their friends. Whereas brands were once lambasted for coming off like robots, a human social media presence has become an expectation among many followers and prospect clients.

Similarly, showing off the human side of your brand means showing off the faces behind your social feeds. Whether it’s office photos or snapshots of your team getting personal with your followers can help you form a much-needed connection. And hey, that leads us directly to our next point!

4. Seek Relationships, Not Just Followers

We can debate all day whether or not your follower count is a vanity metric.

That said, having 100 followers who regularly engage with you and your content is infinitely more valuable than 10,000 that ignore you.

It might be cliche to say, but don’t leave the “social” out of your social media presence. The beauty of social is that you can form relationships in an instant with followers from just about anywhere.

• Always, @mention people, you reference in your social media posts
• Answer questions people ask
• Reply when people @mention you or share your content
• Don’t just Retweet and Like other people’s content; reply with a comment to start a conversation

5. Create an Editorial Calendar

Spoiler alert: sticking to a content schedule isn’t just something “extra” that brands do.

If there’s a common thread between the biggest brands on social media, it’s that they post consistently.

Chances are you’re juggling multiple social channels and are trying to make sure you tick a lot of boxes in terms of descriptions and when to post, right? Consider how a content calendar can make the process much easier by…

• Allowing you to fine-tune each of your posts for each platform without having to jump between sites.
• Timing your posts to maximize engagement, keeping you from having to constantly post in real-time.
• Avoid repeating the same content over and over again, ensuring each of your articles or pictures gets the most love possible.

In short, taking the time to make a content calendar /schedule does double the duty of keeping your social media presence organized while also maximizing your contents’ reach.

6. Focus on Helping Over Selling

Although social selling is indeed on the rise, rarely should your social media presence be about the “hard sell.”

Sure, if you’re in eCommerce it makes sense to push offers and deals to your followers. What’s more important, though, is answering the questions of followers whether through replies or content marketing.

If your followers ask a question, you should respond promptly.

And if your followers seem to be buzzing about a particular problem, you should craft content that speaks directly to it.

By offering solutions to problems instead of just pitching your products all the time, you’re proving your company is an authority and potentially earning a lifelong customer.

7. Optimize Your Accounts for Engagement

First thing’s first: don’t let the word “optimization” freak you out.

Unlike SEO, Social media optimization isn’t particularly technical. That said, profiles can be optimized through imagery, keywords and filling out your account information.

For example, brands can use their Instagram, bio to link to promotions, advertise their hashtag and let their brand’s voice be heard.

Similarly, a well-crafted Twitter profile with the right @mentions and HD imagery can signal your authority, helping you attract more followers.

And as noted in our guide for conducting a Facebook audit, a fully optimized page with complete business info can help your page rank better in Google.

Some quick ways to optimize your social media presence across your various accounts include:

• Adding relevant keywords in your profile (hint: but not stuffing them)
• Sharing content related to your industry—including keywords and hashtags in your posts
• Connecting with popular accounts in your industry to additional exposure (hint: don’t be afraid to follow others)

8. When in Doubt, Get Visual

No matter where you’re posting, photo and video content are killing it right now.

Instagram’s image / video -based platform is exploding.

Facebook notes that Live videos get six times the engagement versus any other type of content.

And for those looking for more Twitter followers, graphics and videos get way more shares than text-based posts.

The good news is that getting visual doesn’t mean you need any sort of insane equipment or a full-blown production budget. Instead, consider imagery such as:

• Team photos or videos
• Photos of customers
• Photos of events
• Behind-the-scenes photos and videos
• Quote photos
• Infographics

And with so many tools to create images and videos already out there, it’s easier than ever to get visual with your audience.

9. Make Your Presence Known

If you’ve gone through the legwork of growing your social media presence, you need to let the world know.

From homepage feeds to icons on your site footer or email signature, anyone who comes in contact with your brand should only be a click away from becoming a long-term follower.

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram feeds can all be easily integrated into your site with little more than a copy-paste code. 

Cross-promotion on your website and through other social channels is a proactive way to grow your following over time.

10. Stay Active

Inactive social feeds are a bad look for brands, plain and simple. Rather than let your Facebook or Instagram gather cobwebs, you need to “show up” day after day with fresh content.

Some quick tips to help you stay active include:

• Incorporating social scheduling and automation to save time and energy.
• Picking and prioritizing your social networks based on your audience location.
• Finding ways to repurpose content so you’re not always trying to reinvent the wheel.

Staying active on social media doesn’t have to be a total time-suck. Through scheduling or simply blocking out 10-15 minute chunks throughout, you can post content and respond to customer concerns without wasting time. Also, you can try to base your activity around busy times on social media to maximize engagement.

11. What’s Trending

Between breaking news, trending hashtags, or whatever the latest meme might be, brands always have room to get topical with their content. This is a great opportunity not only to build off of the buzz of an existing trend but also to show off your brand’s personality

12. Use Tools to Monitor Your Activity

When people complain about the lack of ROI they’re seeing from social, there’s a good chance they aren’t taking social seriously.

Just like we’re often knee-deep in Google Analytics data, marketers need to treat social with the same sort of scrutiny. There are tons of analytics tools out there to help you identify your top-performing content, performance trends and essentially break down your social media presence by the numbers. These data points can help you treat social media less like a guessing game and more like a science.

13 . Create Content People Want to See

If you want to stand out on social media, you can’t just parrot the content everyone else is posting.

In short, you need to create.

Whether you’re trying to build yourself up as a thought leader or want to stand apart from your competitors, original content is exactly how you’re going to make it happen.

Perhaps it’s your original blog posts, research, or infographics.

Maybe it’s an eye-popping snapshot you took during your last vacation.

Or hey, it might be an opinionated rant on the state of your industry.

Either way, you should strive to post content that forces your followers to stop in their tracks. There’s a lot of noise out there on social media: make it a goal to break through it.

If you’re still trying to prioritize your next step to improving your social presence, try out our Digital marketing plan