If you’re serious about your digital marketing game, you must take your social media presence to the next level. According to Datareportal, roughly 4.76 billion people are on social media as of January 2023 – that’s roughly 59.4% of the world’s population! Furthermore, about 137 million new users have joined social media since January 2022. That equates to an annualized growth of 3% at an average rate of more than four new users every second.
However, far too many marketers fail to develop effective social media strategies and turn followers away. They’re typically too aggressive, too friendly, or just plain predictable.
This likely leads you to wonder: how can you make sure you genuinely engage prospects on every social platform without ruining relationships and losing the attention you’re hoping to gain?
By the end of this post, you’ll have a firm understanding of how to grow your brand via social media the right way, engage followers, save time, and cultivate lifelong fans.
Furthermore, you’ll learn a hand foul of awesome strategies to keep social media management reasonable without spending your entire day on social networks.
Ready? Let’s go!
1.) Be Authentic and Provide Legitimate Value
Before you kick things off with social media marketing, you need to think carefully about why people use social media.
There are a handful of exceptions, but few people log onto Facebook or Pinterest to chat with their favorite brands. Instead, they’re there to socialize, to see pictures of family and friends, and to find something fun to do.
As marketers, we’re poking our noses where they don’t belong.
As we start marketing via social media, one of our primary goals is to be authentic. We also want to make the experience pleasant for those on social media for fun.
You need to forge genuine connections with your audience to achieve your goals. You must also develop a persona your fans enjoy and want to engage with.
Think of the type of friend you’d like to have on social media, and imitate that persona. You can be fun, humorous, and personable. Agree with fans, be honest, and make every interaction memorable.
While this is a tall task, and it can’t be done with a “quick hack,” — this is the secret to successful social media marketing.
Once you bridge this gap between “marketer” and “friend,” you can accomplish practically anything on social media. However, this takes time and effort to establish this sort of reputation.
2.) Show Credibility Beyond a Brand Account
All you have to do to create a brand account is upload a logo, enter your company’s name, and you’re done! However, building legitimate credibility is far more challenging. Social media has no room for vanity, so you must dig deeper.
First, you must show that you’re a human being, not just a brand account. Yea, sometimes an “official” brand response is necessary. However, for day-to-day interactions, you need to show your human nature. This is especially important if you’re a small business owner.
Second, you need to showcase your credentials. People are more likely to trust leaders on social media.
A study by Brandfog from 2018 found that customers are 93% more likely to purchase from a brand when they agree with the CEO on social media. On that note, don’t hesitate to share your title and credentials.
Lastly, you must be accessible. It’s great to have someone guide your social media. However, it’s equally important to show that you’re a team and that you collaborate. You can make this happen by including employees from across the company in your social media marketing.
3.) Don’t Market Too Hard
The previous two sections covered what you should do on social media: act like a friend, show your personality, and be honest and authentic.
However, too many marketers spend time trying to market. This typically results in the loss of credibility that they would have earned by acting more naturally.
To make social media less intense, you can always use cut-and-paste methods to keep customers engaged.
If you use lots of hashtags, constantly showcase products, and regularly repost old content, it likely means that you’re looking for shortcuts to effective marketing.
Instead, step back and think about the real value you can provide. Don’t be on social media only to sell because it will blow up in your face.
4.) Create Amazing Content that Earns Shares
Do you want to know the secret to doubling your social media traffic?
Well, the key lies in creating stellar content. If you don’t create content worthy of sharing, guess what? Your fans and followers won’t share it.
The best way to go viral is to create excellent content and promote it as if your life depended on it.
The best way to do this is to create content that over-delivers what you promise in the headline. This doesn’t mean that you should write lame titles. The total opposite is true. You want to write phenomenal headlines and craft content that blows all expectations out of the water.
As you create more and more content, you will start to pick up on what types of content your audience likes and what they don’t like. This knowledge helps you write more compelling content that will keep your audience engaged.
A great metric to track is your bounce rate. This percentage is the rate visitors leave your website after viewing just one page.
If your social media only drives visitors to a single page, you must concoct a more engaging website experience.
5.) Set Your Posts Up for Success
We now know the importance of writing great content that your audience will want to share.
However, that’s not the only secret to a powerful social media marketing strategy. You must also put effort into promoting your content the right way.
It doesn’t matter how excellent your content is if you fail to promote it effectively. Here are a few critical elements you can put into place to help people see and share your content.
Titles
We’ve already covered that your content should over-deliver on the headline’s promise. However, you still need to write wicked headlines.
First, you’ll want to test different headline options. One way to do this is to post different versions to Twitter before promoting your article and see which tweet gains the best traction.
Next, you can tinker with using numbers in your headlines. Odd numbers usually work best, but you’ll want to test nonetheless and see what works best with your unique audience.
Social Media Cards
Each social platform has a unique type of metadata. This means you must optimize it to ensure your content appears nicely in your audience’s feed.
URLs
When planning the URLs for your content, make sure they’re clear and let users know what they’ll find after they click.
If you lack a clear direction in your URL format, you might get visitors to bounce without realizing what your site offers.
Another option is to use a URL shortener. This can add a new element to your brand on social media.
Text
When you share a post on social media, the text is typically reduced to just a few sentences. You want to make sure those first few sentences are powerful and say precisely what you want.
You can use keywords and phrases that effectively explain what the post is about to earn more clicks. Naturally, you want the snippet to be exciting and click-worthy.
6.) Incorporate Stunning Images
The internet would be a very different and bland experience without images. So when you create content, include enticing media to ensure you capture your audience’s attention.
Furthermore, social media typically favors visual content, and you’ll find more success if you include jaw-dropping images.
A few image-related best practices include keeping it simple and focused around one subject that conveys your story as clearly as possible.
You should also include an image that works well with different social media display resolutions and layouts.
7.) Optimize Everything for Mobile
in 2021, 99% (or 4.43 billion) of social media users access the platforms via mobile devices. This means you must reach this extreme majority as effectively as possible.
There are several factors you need to take into account to reach mobile device users effectively.
First, you must ensure that your website displays correctly. If users click through to your site via social media, you want to provide a phenomenal experience.
If you don’t have a mobile-first responsive site, now’s the time to upgrade.
Next, you want to coordinate well with social media and ensure your profile picture, cover photo, and any media you share dazzles on mobile.
Remember that mobile devices come in various sizes, so test your site on a handful of display resolutions.
8.) Build a Reputation for Your Name and Brand Over Time
You’re gradually shaping your brand and your name with each piece of content you publish.
The big question now is whether you’re shaping a reputation that you’re proud of.
It’s nearly impossible to understand which ranking factors play a role in the traffic you earn, but there’s a good chance your brand reputation plays a key role.
Google shifted away from its “authorship” feature a while back. However, a lot of that data is still out there. So it isn’t too far-fetched to assume that search engines likely know who is writing each post.
On that note, it’s wise to think carefully about what you put your name on. You want to ensure you create quality content because what you publish today could influence your social media impact and search engine rankings for years.
9.) Optimize Your Conversion Rate via Psychology
When it comes to your social media tactics, it’s easy to get caught up with vanity metrics like social shares, clicks, and likes.
While these metrics are essential, the valuable data isn’t in engagement but in conversion rates and sales.
When you measure your campaigns, look for metrics like new subscribers and customers to determine if your game plan is working.
The internet is filled with strategies for boosting conversion rates. Of all the methods out there, the best ones are based on proven psychological principles.
For instance, you should make it painfully clear what the desired action is throughout your content. You can also sprinkle some curiosity into your headlines. Lastly, short and punch language is a great way to draw your audience in closer.
10.) Don’t Be Afraid to Get Creative
Do you want to see massive improvements?
If so, one of the best social media tips is to start coming up with your own ideas. You can only get so far using the same strategies that the experts and your competion employ.
However, the sky is the limit when you generate your own methods. You can apply your creativity towards your largest social media campaigns and discover new strategies you’ve never tried before.
Some of the most creative campaigns invovle using social media to coordinate offline adventures, experiences, or giveaways.
Other brands have used social media to shock fans with custom-made images, gifts, or other unexpected rewards.
11.) Explore New Social Platforms
You likely already know that you should use Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
However, the average American has 7.1 social media accounts today. This means that if you’re only on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you’re missing out on four additional platforms.
Different audiences prefer different platforms and it’s your job to figure out which platform(s) yields the best return on your investment.
You need to explore the most important types of accounts for your target market. FOr instance, provessionals are likely on LinkedIn, teens tend to favor Snapchat, gamers love Twitch, etc.
Don’t get stuck in a loo with your social media accounts. Engage with your audience, figure out which platforms they use, and experiment with as many as you can.
The best social netowrk for your brand could be one you’ve never heard of before!
Closing Thoughts
If your a digital marketer, social media can literally give life to your dreams.
Never before has a single brand been able to keep up with conversations with their global audience with a few mouse clicks or screen taps.
You have a ton of potential influence via social media. However, you must use it correctly. Show your true colors to yoru fans across all of the platforms and make sure you’re true and authentic.
It’s also a wise idea to create content that is worthy of shares and engagement. Don’t take the attention of your audience for granted, because you’re always competing for it.
Use the best principles, education, and lessons you can find to ensure your social media campaigns are a huge success. However, you shoudl also think outside the box and try new ideas.
Don’t shy away from testing new techniques. The creativity you use can differentiate your brand from the rest of the crowd.
Last, but not least, how will you start growing your brand via social media?
