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Social media can be a highly effective way to engage your fans, followers and customers. However, if you are not creating and then executing a social media strategy properly, then you may be leaving a lot of the upside on the table. Here are a few tips for engaging your customers through social media.
Create a publishing schedule
By now, you’ve probably heard that brands should be thinking like publishers. And that is indeed the case – just as major media companies have editorial meetings, publishing calendars, and content schedules, you should be creating a scaled-down version of this system for your own company. It all starts by committing to a certain number of posts per week for each different social media platform.
Prioritize different social media platforms
That being said, you probably don’t have the time or resources to produce prodigious amounts of content for every major social media platform. That means you will have to prioritize different social media platforms. For example, if you run a fashion business, you’ll definitely want to prioritize Instagram. If you run a B2B company, you’ll probably want to prioritize LinkedIn.
Focus on authenticity
The big buzzword in social media circles these days is “authenticity.” What this means in practical terms is that you should always be looking to showcase what makes you unique. Instead of a canned brand message full of industry jargon, for example, look for ways to explain what your business does in very simple terms that anyone (and especially potential prospects!) can understand. Above all, don’t try to pretend something that you’re not – people on social media are able to sniff out immediately if you are not being authentic.
Develop a consistent brand persona
The most successful brands on social media are able to develop a consistent voice and message that seamlessly transfers across platforms. This does not just mean cutting-and-pasting whatever you posted on Twitter and adding it to Facebook or other social media platforms. Instead, it means adapting your presence on each major platform so that different elements of your overall brand personality are able to shine. In other words, it shouldn’t feel like two different people are running two different social media accounts.
Listen
This bit of advice is perhaps the easiest to follow – but also the piece of advice that most brands tend to forget. We’re so programmed to think in terms of a “broadcast” marketing model, in which brand messages are blasted out to an unsuspecting audience, that we often forget that brands are really conversations. There are people talking about your brand online – so go out and find them. Even a very simple step – like doing a search for a certain hashtag – can often uncover conversations going on around you.
Final Thought
By following these tips above, you can help to optimize your social media presence. In addition to getting more fans and followers, you’ll also be getting a lot more engagement. With just a little effort, you’ll soon be able to convert a growing percentage of those fans and followers into customers.
