If you feel like your brand’s social media (or lack thereof) is totally awful, you’re not alone.
Making sure your social media plan aligns with your business plan can truly be overwhelming, but we’re here to simplify it for you.
Here’s the thing. If you Google, “social media tips,” you’ll quickly find an overwhelmingly large number of results. There’s so much great information out there, so how do you filter through it all and figure out what you actually need to be doing on social media?
We’ve already gone over why your business needs social media, so here are five simple tips to help you ace social media and grow your business:
1. Create a plan.
Have you been willy-nilly posting on your Facebook or Instagram?
Maybe you came up with a great idea one day and posted it, but then forgot to post again for the next 4 weeks?
Now is the time to come up with a plan and stick to it.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, start small. We recommend starting with the goal of posting once a week.
Next, use a content calendar to plan out your posts. Plan out which day you’ll post and what type of post it will be. — photo, article, video, quote, customer review, boomerang, etc.
This way, you can plan what you are going to post ahead of time so you’re not scrambling at the last minute. You can even write out the entire post so all you have to do is copy and paste when it comes time to publish the content.
2. Don’t spread yourself too thin.
It’s better to be on one social media channel and do it really well than to be on six of them and do them terribly.
Where do your customers spend their time on social media? Depending on your industry, you can pinpoint which platforms are most likely to meet your target audience. If your target audience is most likely to use Instagram, hone in on your Instagram strategy and master it before you add in an additional social media channel.
3. Be consistent.
Consistency is KEY! 🔑
If you want your audience to recognize your brand on social media, you must be consistent with your voice, messaging, post-frequency and overall aesthetics.
What does this mean?
When creating your posts, make sure your voice speaks to your target audience and be true to your brand! Like we mentioned above, don’t be scattered with your postings and come up with a consistent posting schedule.
Additionally, you want to give your brand an overall "feel" on social media. This could mean sticking to one specific color or photo style, specific caption formatting or overall voice. If you have multiple employees posting on your social media, make sure everyone is on the same page about your company's voice. (It's also a good practice to come up with an approval process so you don't run into any problems in the future.)
4. Monitor your competitors.
Who are your competitors?
What are they doing on social media?
How can you do it better?
Take some time each week to check in on your competitor’s social media accounts. Look to see what type of content is posted, who they follow, who follows them, what time of day they post, how often they post, and which posts performed best.
This is a great way to gauge what does and doesn’t work for your audience.
If their pages are doing really well, don’t try to copy them. Find ways to implement some of their strategies, but ultimately, your goal should be to improve upon them and make your page better using this information.
5. Engage with your audience.
How do you feel when someone comments on your posts?
It feels pretty great, right?
Any type of engagement on your published content is a sign that people like what you're posting, and it's important to return the favor.
Every single comment, question and message needs to be responded to in a timely manner. If you keep missing or forgetting to respond to these engagements, make sure you have notifications turned on for each social media app to help you stay on top of it.
Engaging with your audience is also important if you’re looking to naturally grow your social media following. Take some time each day to comment, like and engage with some of the content posted by your current followers.
There is a lot of time, organization and effort that goes in to creating a successful social media strategy. If you have any questions regarding your business’ social media, or want to continue this conversation, give us a shout on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Thanks for reading!
Much ❤️,
Your friends at Rosey Social🌹