Social media can be a powerful tool for both new and well-established brands. Brands can use it to grow their following, generate leads, and increase sales etc. While doing all of these may seem daunting at first, particularly with the wide range of platforms available, social media is an easy way to connect with your customers and grow your brand.

In this article, we are providing tips for brands who have been active on social media and those who are just getting started. We will be covering social media tips and tricks you can apply that will optimise your marketing strategy.

But before we start, decide on what you would like to gain from using social media. That may help you pick which tip might be of use to you.

Decide on the platforms you would like to use

Once you have outlined your marketing plan and goals, decide on the platforms you would like to use and have a strategy on how you plan on executing your goals. There are over 5 social media platforms accessible to you and each platform has different uses.

For each platform, ask the Why, What, Which and How questions.

• Why am I using this platform?
• What post types work best on this platform?
• Which audience do I plan on reaching?
• How are my posts unique to this platform?

Answering these questions will not only help you with your strategy, but it also helps you know exactly why you are investing time [and perhaps advertising dollars] there. If you’re just getting started, prioritise the quality of your content over the number of your posts and sites that you use.

Social Media Posts

The next thing to do is to tailor your posts to the type of SM platform you pick. For example, Instagram is your go to platform for images and videos while Twitter is built like a community where you can say things for 280 characters at a time or less.

Its also important to understand the demographic you are trying to pass your message across to. It is easier to create content that resonates to your existing and prospective followers than putting out different types of content and hoping one sticks. Having a focused message would help bring relevance to your brand.

Also, look out for what’s trending. Once the key message has been decided upon, look out for a new pattern or strategy getting popular that aligns with it. You can then capitalise on that to generate engagement. However, try not to hop on every trend, whether or not it fits your messaging. The key is to make your brand stand out and not look like the brand that jumps on every trending topic.

Tip💡

• One way to have a steady supply of popular content is to create a list of sites in your industry that publish high quality, current content.
• Add them to an RSS reader like Feedly. Then you’ll have a dashboard full of the latest posts from sites you trust.

Posting Schedule

To figure out your posting strategy, a good thing to look at is if the platform posts content chronologically or otherwise. To aid with your social media strategy, identify things like how often you plan to post based on best practices for that platform, what type of content you plan to post on each platform, and who is your target audience on each platform. A good posting tool is Buffer.

Tip💡

• For Twitter and Instagram Stories, you might have to be active numerous times in a day to be able to get maximum reach and engagement.
• On the other hand, Instagram [feed] posts and Facebook updates can be used less actively.

Track your Posts

To make sure you’re getting the best results from your social media marketing, you need to be accurately tracking and measuring your efforts.

To simplify your tracking process, identify key metrics that are important to your brand.

Some of the metrics that you want to look for include:

• Reach and engagement for Facebook.
• Impressions, retweets, and mentions on Twitter.
• Clicks, impressions, and interactions on LinkedIn.
• Engagement and impressions on Pinterest.
• Likes, comments, and mentions on Instagram.
• Views and engagements on Instagram Stories.

The metrics above should be tracked weekly, monthly and quarterly so that it can be easy to identify what you need to change about your social media strategy. Other tips that can assist include investing in video content(Youtube, Facebook Live, IGTV etc).

Get to know your community

You can also join in on communities. Look for communities in your industry on the social media platform you’re on and start actively participating in the conversation. You can also start conversations with your audience by asking them questions and then responding or adding to that conversation. Most platforms make it easy to ask people questions and respond to them in the comments of that post.

Involve your Team

Finally and most importantly, involve your entire team. Encourage employees from your company’s other departments to help your social media marketing efforts. Whether it’s contributing content to the blog, sharing their photos, or taking followers behind the scenes, the more involved your team is the better. Showing your followers that there is a team of people behind the brand they follow will build transparency and grow their trust in you as a brand.

Conclusion

Social media is constantly changing. We’re seeing new updates and trends emerging every year, causing marketers to have to shift their strategies to keep up. Whether you have a huge social media following or are just getting started, use these tips to craft your social media marketing strategy. They can help put you ahead of your competitors and grow your audience in a way that adds value to them and your industry as a whole.