6 Ways To Develop a Strong Social Media Presence
By Shelby Ballou
Social media is an ideal marketing channel because it provides businesses with extensive information to create messages targeted to niche audiences. However, it’s no longer good enough to merely “show up”. To make an impact online, companies need to create an engaging social presence. Here are seven ways to develop a strong social media presence.
1. Know your audience.
In order to create an influential social media presence, you must first understand your audience. What are their likes and dislikes? How do they typically consume media? Which social media platforms do they use the most? After you’ve answered these questions, create a customer persona. This is a way of summarizing a group’s demographic and psychographic tendencies.
2. Study the competition
If you’re new to social media, it might be hard to know how to best engage followers. To kickstart your social media growth, check out direct competitors who are active on social media. How do they engage followers, and what kind of content do they post? Use these ideas, and you’ll eventually find your footing.
3. Mix up media formats.
Content freshness refers to the format of the posted content. It can be image, text, video, story, and so on. As a social media manager, you have to constantly vary the media formats you’re using. If you don’t, your followers might become bored and unfollow your account.
4. Understand that each social media platform is different.
Each social media platform has unique qualities, and it’s important to understand them. Once you do, make sure your content is taking full advantage of the platform’s strong points. For example, Twitter shouldn’t be used to share an abundance of photos and videos (Instagram is great for that). Likewise, you shouldn’t use LinkedIn to share personal updates about your business (Facebook is better for that).
5. Look into live-streaming.
Many people prefer live videos over blog posts. This new interest in streaming explains why Facebook and Instagram have heavily invested in live-streaming capabilities or users. If you want to quickly engage your followers, live-streaming is the way to go. In addition, some platforms (like Instagram and Facebook) alert followers when you go live.
6. Interact with followers.
Responding to comments is a great way to interact with followers. It might not always be possible to respond to every single person, but if you consistently respond to a handful of comments here or there, it will show your followers that you’re engaged. This process can create a positive cycle that helps to consistently increase engagement on your page.
[Original post here.]
