5 ways to get your business noticed on social media.
For many brands, the idea of getting noticed on social media fills them with dread. How do you stand out from the pack amid millions of screaming voices often saying the same thing about the same subject across social channels? It’s not easy but building a successful small business is often not about making the most noise, it’s about making the right noise to the right people.
Building a social media presence should be a critical part of your marketing strategy, no matter how small the brand. Social media could be the one way you can cut across the noise online and make your brand shine. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn are effective tools for engaging customers, telling your brand story, knowing who you are telling it to, and starting conversations with potential and existing buyers. It’s all about focusing on how you can show up for that one ideal customer or customer group, focus on building relationships with them, so you can listen to what they need.
5 top tips for getting your brand noticed:
1 Know your goals
What are your business goals when it comes to social media? Before you post haphazardly, think about these first:
- What type of social followers do you want?
- What channels do they tend to follow?
- Which channels are right for your business?
- How much time can you allow each week to manage your social?
- How do you tell your unique brand story across all these channels?
- Which channel should you focus on the most?
- What results are you hoping to achieve – brand awareness, leads or traffic to your site?
2 Build relationships
The foundation of a strong brand is how well you understand your audience and the problems they face. Then, you can define why you care and how you solve these problems. Build your community of likeminded people:
- Create interesting content that inspires people to engage, talk and tell you their thoughts. Focus on strong, attention-grabbing visuals and clever copy.
- Stop selling and start sharing. Don’t push your product or service in every post, share your knowledge, your personality, your loves and likes.
- Listen. Social media for brands is a listening tool. Ask the right questions, post authentic, relationship-building content, and you’ll learn more about your potential customers and their needs than most other marketing tools.
3 Be authentic
Be a master of your craft, skillset or industry; then your content will help amplify who you are. Your reputation will help build your brand. Consider these points:
- Be genuine. Social used to be about community; now, it’s about being authentic. Purposefully showcase your authentic self to your audience, and you’ll build trust. Your content should be a true reflection of your brand values, beliefs, way of life. True engagement goes beyond the superficial.
- Be remembered. What are you saying in your content or imagery – is it memorable? Create a true connection with your audience.
- Be consistent. Create consistent brand voice copy and visuals to become known for the content you create.
4 Work with the algorithm
Ever wondered why some posts appear on your social feeds over others? Based on specific signals, the algorithm prioritises posts and pushes the relevant ones towards the top of your user’s feed and gives them the most visibility while other content ends up being pushed down feeds.
Learning how this works and different on each channel is key. On Facebook, when something is popular, they are more likely to show that content to more people, but on Instagram, the algorithm is based on personal, not public use. So how do you know how to work with the algorithm and not against it?
- Share only your best content. Emphasise quality over quantity. Even if you haven’t posted in a week and you think you must post to be seen. If that post is not quality i.e. a strong image, a captivating caption and the right hashtags, you are most likely wasting your time.
- Focus on relationships. If a user has interacted with lots of your past content, they’re more likely to be served more of your content for repeat engagement. So make it matter.
- If you know your audience and the posts in which they engage, try to create similar posts using similar hashtags, the algorithm is more likely to serve them your posts based on previous preferences.
5 Quality content
People scroll really fast. Create content that is literally thumb-stopping. Find content that resonates with your audience, stops them in the feed, makes them pay attention. Some tips:
- Craft a bio that tells people who you are and what you do with purpose. This is your first impression. The 20-second elevator pitch that will convince a stranger to follow you.
- Focus on the visuals – blurry images, poor video or visuals that don’t relate to your brand will confuse and create disinterest.
- Keep it relatable. Tell the story of you and your brand but keep the content based around what you are ultimately trying to do – sell your product or service. Look back through old content and serve up more of what interests your followers.
- Pay it forward to increase exposure for your brand. This is an effective tactic. Promote others on your page and tag them or repurpose their content to create a buzz on Instagram Stories will polls. Don’t forget to always tag the original content creator.
This post first appeared on RTE’s Boost My Business section. Catch-up with all my brand development features on RTE.IE HERE.
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