Social Media 101
The current landscape of social media may seem like a daunting place — an endless sea of constant content, senseless memes, rapid-fire ads, questionable trends, and fake news. Digital fads are shifting every day, hour, and minute, so you may be wondering how you can keep up.
As random as it all seems, there is a rhyme and reason behind those with the most online success, besides the small handful of anomalies that may go viral overnight out of nowhere. By putting the strategies below into practice, you can feel your way through the madness and find a spotlight that makes sense for you and your brand.
Target your audience
First and foremost, figure out who your audience is. How old are they? Where do they live? What are their goals and challenges, and how can you solve them?
Determine who your target audience is based on their behaviours and demographics. Identify characteristics such as age, gender, location, occupation, interests, and other personal habits that can help you gauge what kind of content appeals to them. Research which platforms they spend the most time on, the timeframe when they are online, how they interact, and why your brand should be relevant to their lives.
Not sure where to start? Research your competitors and examine their posting patterns. Experiment by testing your content on various platforms to see how it performs. Lean on in-platform insights and analytic tools that break down the demographics of your reach to help guide you in the right direction.
TIP: If one of your posts performs very well compared to others, study why this could be, and try to replicate that momentum in future promotions. Watching tutorials and reading articles online is helpful, but trial and error is the truest teacher.
Invest in SEM, SEO, and other paid advertisement methods to push your brand in front of the right people.
Set a daily budget or overall campaign budget to manage and make the most of your ad spend. Most SEM platforms include tools to monitor and modify bids based on performance and budget constraints. Choose keywords that are relevant to your business so that your sponsored ads will appear in front of users who are specifically searching for what you are offering.
To take it a step further, you can even launch a dedicated landing page that aligns with your ad campaign if it is targeting something specific. The dedicated landing page can be optimized for conversions and designed to provide a seamless experience for the user.
Consistency is key
Stay active — stay relevant! Algorithms tend to favour accounts that post often and regularly, so you’ll want to post consistently to stay in front of your audience.
The best way to stay on top of consistent posting is by scheduling posts through a third-party platform — (like Hootsuite). Scheduling your future posts all at once saves you time and energy in the long run. To benefit from the highest exposure you can, consider days and times that your audience is most active so you can post when they are online.
Another factor you’ll want to stay consistent with is your branding. Reinforce your brand recognition in your posts and captions by maintaining a cohesive visual identity via style, colour, font, logo usage, and tone-of-voice. Reflect your brand in your username, bio, profile picture, cover photo, banner, and any other hallmark identifiers that characterize your profile.
TIP: Embrace consistency, but don’t be overly repetitive. Keep things interesting with a healthy mix of videos, photos, stories, text, polls, and other mediums that offer versatile opportunities. You want to be consistent, but not boring! You can stray away from the norm here and there when it comes to unique announcements like company milestones, celebrations, or holidays, as long as you’re still on-brand.
Engage, engage, engage!
Talk to your audience. Especially when you’re first starting or don’t have much of a following — respond to all comments, messages, mentions, and tagged posts as much as you can, and as quickly as you can. Timely responses make users feel appreciated and signal that you value and prioritize their participation.
Listen to your audience. Create content that sparks conversations and drives replies. Ask for opinions, host live streams and Q&A sessions, conduct surveys and polls, and then apply that feedback to your brand where applicable. You may discover answers to questions that you didn’t realize you needed to ask.
Create a community-oriented atmosphere around your brand. Build relationships with like-minded brands and individuals by collaborating on products, posts, and promos together. Host contests and giveaways that prompt followers to comment, post, and share with their friends in order to participate. Re-post mentions of your brand, tag happy customers, and share positive reviews.
TIP: 100 loyal supporters are far more valuable than 10,000 random follows. Leverage the power of authentic engagement versus a high “like” or follower count. Your true fans are the ones who will share, support, and ultimately buy into your brand.
Adapt & evolve
Now you’re on your way! You will find your groove, but you can never get too comfortable. Trends and industries are constantly evolving, so you have to keep your finger on the pulse of the market around you. What’s working great now may not work in a few years. You’ll have to rely on a balance of logic and instinct to steer your brand on the right track.
Keep an eye on platform changes, such as features, policies, or algorithm updates, and adjust your strategies accordingly. Stay ahead of the curve by experimenting with new formats and platforms that emerge — you never know which small startup will become the next TikTok! Lastly, develop a crisis preparedness plan to mitigate any potentially negative situations that can damage your brand’s reputation.
As time goes on, you may eventually consider re-branding, re-modelling your strategy, or re-assessing your target audience based on market trends. Things happen! Just take it step by step and enjoy the process.
