According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2015 there were just under six million active businesses throughout the United States. Not every business may be active across multiple social media platforms, but an eMarketer study shows that 88% are. So, the challenge has become how to differentiate your business from your competitors’. How do you plan to stand out from the millions?
Here are 7 social media tips you can use to help keep your company and your clients ahead of the competition:
Perhaps the most important aspect of social media is knowing your followers. From gender, age, and geographic location to affinity categories and topics of interest, knowing what motivates your followers to follow, engage, and eventually purchase is critical. There are multiple tools that can be utilized to find out more information about your audience. I recommend starting with a review of your Google Analytics, specifically visitor affinity categories. Next, take a deeper dive into reporting tools offered by social platforms. With these resources, you'll have asolid foundation of insights as to who your social followers are.
Knowing that users pick and choose who they follow based on what’s shared and how they identify with such brands, it’s imperative that your pages produce creative and engaging content. The content best received and most interacted with by social users includes tips, tricks, how-to’s, insider industry news, and lists. What’s most important to remember is that your content must resonate with your audience. Content can only be king if it’s geared towards your social followers and target audience.
Being consistent in tone and style on social platforms isn’t always easy, especially when you have a niche, or complicated product or service. However, you must have a consistent voice that replicates your company’s philosophies and core values while being somewhat dictated by your customers’ mindsets. Imagine visiting a web page where technical language is used, only to visit their social pages and find posts with slang or sloppy writing. This creates a disconnect within your brand and how it is perceived between platforms.
Whether you are starting from scratch or ramping up existing efforts, a social audit of your competitors is always a good idea. Use a free tool like Fanpage Karma to compare your social presence to your competitors. Take some time to review the social pages of the major players in your industry. Not only will you garner ideas, but you’ll understand which social channels you should heavily pursue.
What good is social media if you’re not social with your followers? Be responsive to comments, questions, and reactions; good or bad, showing your business has a human side and takes its followers seriously. Simply starting the conversation with followers on social platforms by asking questions and creating a conversation sets the foundation for a strong relationship and allows you to further understand your audience. Here are a few good ways to get your followers talking:
The world is moving faster than ever and people don’t have time to read paragraph-long posts. Whether it be an infographic, photo, video or gif, it’s critical that your posts are visual in nature, regardless of the social platform. By enabling your audience to see colors, hear sounds, and feel emotions through stunning photos or engaging information portrayed in a beautiful manner, visual elements help tell your brand’s story better than any creative text can.
Developing a social presence takes time, effort, and dedication. Like many things in life, you get out what you put in. Develop a process for posting and refine it as you go. Over time, you’ll begin to understand what works and what needs more fine tuning.
Written December 8, 2017 by
"Blogging is the gateway to a realm of new adventures and your customers are ready for an adventure." - Oprah, probably