If you’ve got a business, chances are you’ve either thought about creating a social media presence or are looking to build audiences for the ones you have. But cultivating and maintaining an engaged audience is no easy feat considering a lot of other businesses are trying to do the exact same thing. Though it may be tempting to forego social media completely, social media offers a lot of opportunities for businesses to connect and grow their following. If you’re wondering about ways to increase social media presence, our team at Resurge Digital have a compiled a quick guide of things you can do.
6 Ways to increase social media presence
Post regularly
Regularly posting on your social media profiles is one of the best ways to increase social media presence and keep your current audience engaged. Though it might hard to keep on top of your social media if you’re running a business, taking the time to post at least three times a week will keep your brand relevant. When you do post, consider uploading at a time you believe your audience might be online such as midday or 6pm. This will increase the chances of your audience seeing your posts and hopefully prompt them to engage. If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, try to have a look at what other similar companies are posting. While you should never copy competitor content, it should give you a better understanding of the types of content people are engaging with.
Set brand guidelines
Setting a brand guideline is a great way to maintain consistency across your business and is a good idea if social media accounts are run by multiple people. This is also a great way to attract the right audience to your business and boost social media presence, as people are more likely to follow a page that reflects their own values.
Some things to consider include:
Tone of voice: Is your business fun and cheeky? Or is it more professional and straight to the point? Do you use emojis?
Hashtags: Some simple keyword research can help you find the most popular hashtags for your industry, so consider consistently using them whenever you post to Instagram.
Image guidelines: Do your images require logos? What sort of font and colours will you use?
Customer response: How will you respond to customer queries or negative feedback?
Cover all bases
To reach the most people possible, consider posting to different social media channels. Typically, each social media channel offers something different but there’s no problem replicating the same content across different channels if you’re short on time. Below are the four most common social media channels and their purposes:
- Facebook - Almost everyone has a Facebook account, so if you have to pick just one social media channel, this one is it. You can opt for a Facebook page or try to cultivate a Facebook group. When it comes to content, try to mix things up a bit. You could try inspirational posts and quotes, blog posts, questions, link shares, videos, tips, infographics and humour.
- Instagram - If your business has a lot of visual elements to it, such as a lifestyle or food, Instagram will be your best friend. Good quality images and videos are key, so if you have the time to create some visual content, it’ll be worth it in the long run. Don’t forget to add hashtags as well, as people can find your page easier by searching certain keywords.
- LinkedIn - If you have a business or service that targets working professionals, LinkedIn is an invaluable asset. Unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn allows you to target people within certain industries and professions.
- Pinterest - If your business is highly visual like a wedding photography service, Pinterest is a highly effective way to drive people back to your blog or website. Pinterest is best used for businesses that fall into craft or lifestyle as it relies on good photography.
Another social platform called ‘Tik Tok’ is quickly gaining traction, though it’s a little bit trickier to navigate. If your business has a young market demographic and you’re good behind the camera, Tik Tok is a social media platform to consider.
Don’t go too hard on the sale tactics
If you think about it, how many ads do you think you see every day? Probably tens if not hundreds, depending on your internet use. Customers are constantly being sold to and are probably sick of clicking out of annoying popups or skipping radio channels. When it comes to keeping a potential customer or client, try to think of what you can offer them. This could be entertainment, education, or maybe inspirational content. For example, if you sell baby shoes, you might write a blog for expectant mothers about things they should buy before the baby is born. Instead of coming out with a hard sell, you might mention baby shoes as one of the items and have a link to that part of your website.
Try your hand at video content
It’s getting harder and harder to cut through the noise, which means your content often has to stand out to get noticed. According to Cisco, it’s estimated that by 2020, online videos will make up for more than 80% of internet traffic. Why is this? Because video gives people a more personal touch that text and photos can’t. To boost social media presence, consider creating short videos for your social media channels. There’s no need to hire a professional company (though it’s advised for web content), a simple phone camera will do. If you can, try to add subtitles to your videos as captioned videos are shown to increase views by up to forty percent.
Consider the help of a digital marketing agency
If you find that you’re time poor or having a lot of trouble growing your audience, consider enlisting the help of a marketing agency to boost social media presence for you. A marketing agency will have a dedicated social media expert who can plan and implement an effective social media marketing strategy for your business. They can then analyse those metrics and test a series of different strategies to attract more followers. If you’d like to do social media advertising, an agency can quickly work out the best way to stretch your ad budget so you’re not wasting money on trial and error.
Social media marketing services
We hope we’ve given you some ideas on the best ways to increase social media presence. If you think your business might benefit from social media marketing services, contact us today on 1300 659 035 and a member from our friendly team will get in touch soon.