9 uncommon ways to leverage social media for your business in 2018 (1)
As social media keeps changing every day, businesses all over the world are coming up with new and uncommon ways to leverage the different platforms to gain and retain user’s attention ahead of the competition.
Originally published at www.wildreams.co.
So these are a few of the ways brands like yours are engaging with their audience on social media 2018.
1. Jumping on trending topics online
This is especially good on Twitter where hashtags are one of the main features of the platform.
Brands, however, do not do this enough on social media.
Whenever a topic is trending on social media and being widely talked about (especially if the people talking about it are in the demography you are trying to reach), find a way to jump on it.
You would, however, need to do this in such a way that you do not necessarily lean to any side of the divide, especially if it is a controversial topic.
Just put us a post good enough to get your brand in between the conversation.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>We now pronounce <a href=”https://twitter.com/Missmoshiku?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Missmoshiku</a> a <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/FirstGEM?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FirstGEM</a>. Welcome to the FirstBank Family!!! <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/YouFirst?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#YouFirst</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/KeepTheChangeBae?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KeepTheChangeBae</a> cc <a href=”https://twitter.com/IbukunAwosika?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IbukunAwosika</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/AAdeduntan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AAdeduntan</a> <a href=”https://t.co/XdvuxmnWyc">pic.twitter.com/XdvuxmnWyc</a></p>— FirstBank Nigeria (@FirstBankngr) <a href=”https://twitter.com/FirstBankngr/status/847401765985112069?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2017</a></blockquote>
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First Bank did this very nicely in 2017 when one 5kbae discussion was trending on Twitter for a few days.
This is however not only for Twitter, it actually works across platforms, especially on Facebook.
There were some posts we put up for a client recently which talked about the movies currently showing in cinemas and the football matches that were billed for the weekend.
We crafted the posts in such a way that they also promoted the brand in question.
The brand got more organic engagement on those posts than from anything else they had ever posted in a really long time.
2. Setting up chatbots on social media
A lot of brands have not yet caught on this. But a chatbot on Facebook Messenger is a really smart thing to do.
This is because Facebook Messenger is a really great platform to provide customer service.
It reduces the need to employ so many customer service personnel to reply customer’s messages over the internet.
Some banks in Nigeria like have built and implemented this already.
With this, customers do not have to call the brand’s customer service line all too often when they can message the brand on Facebook and be replied with something that almost feels like a human.
This is why it is one of the top digital solutions we offer to brands trying to further, solidify their online presence.
3. Leveraging social media influencers
Many brands around do this but just do not seem to be doing it right.
The use of social media influencers is one of the most effective channels for getting the word out about any product or brand in 2018.
Just because a person has a lot of followers online, however, does not mean they are right for your brand.
Some “influencers” online have a mammoth following but very little influence while some others have just a sizable amount of followers but with a really huge influence.
This is why it is super important to research an influencer and his level of interaction with followers before approaching them to promote anything for you.
It takes a lot of research into the key influencers in the niche you are trying to target, an examination of their audience, the kind of content they put up, their public perception of the etc before deciding to promote your brand through them.
You could end up not getting any results or in worst case scenarios, hurt your brand with the kind of influencer you have chosen to promote with.
Brands should also avoid only posting graphics, adverts and what not on the influncers social media page.
Though that method works too.
It is better to approach the influencer to create bespoke content for your brand and whatever you want to promote.
Emmanuella and Lasisi Elenu do this a lot really well.
… To be continued
