Every small business owner nowadays knows how important it is to be on social media (as well as having a responsive website). Advertising on social media is cost-effective, and the fact that it has a potential reach of millions of people is something that makes it superior to traditional marketing.
Being on social media, however, isn’t enough. There must be engagement with your audience in order for your social media presence to be effective.
There are, of course, the standard ways of connecting to your audience, e.g., asking questions, being authentic, being personable, among others. There are more things you can do, though, to connect to your target market.
Here, then, are six more tips to improve your brand’s social media engagement.
1. Inspire your audience
No matter what niche you are in, you can definitely try to inspire your audience.
You can post inspirational quotes and pictures that fit your niche, or share them with others in your newsfeed.
People love to be inspired; they love to feel uplifted and positive.
You attract what you surround yourself with, so if you want to attract potential customers with similar mindset, this is a must.
2. Network
This is a big one for entrepreneurs. If you want to succeed, you need to take out the competition aspect and enter into the world of empowering yourself and others in your industry through networking.
So find others in your industry and follow them, like their page, Google+ them — and more to the point — share their content. You never know when a potential customer is checking you out on your social media platforms; if they are looking at your profile, don’t you want them to see that you are secure in your business enough to support others in your industry as well?
3. Divide your posts into thirds
As in photography, there is also a rule of thirds when it comes to sharing social media content. This is how it works: 1/3 of the time, post about your business on your social media. This includes your blogs, special offers, announcements, among others.
The second 1/3 involves posting about your interests and expertise but by using outside content (content from another source — here’s where your networking comes in handy), and the final third you use to get a bit more personal: ask your audience some questions, post your inspirational messages and pictures, write about your day, among others.
4. Get to know your social media audience
Before you can understand what your audience wants, you need to take the time to get to know them. If you have a Twitter account set up, click on the profiles of the people who are following you.
All of them made a decision to follow you online, and learning something about them will give you an idea of what your audience is like.
You want to cover the basics such as how old they are, the kind of work they do, what kinds of things they enjoy doing outside of work and more.
By following your followers, you can find out other relevant information about them, such as what kinds of things make their day memorable and what types of issues they are facing.
Look at social network sites as a place where you can find out more about your audience. If you’re going to offer them solutions to the problems that they have, you need to understand exactly what it is that they need and what circumstances would have to occur for them to decide to make a purchase.
5. Check out your competition’s social media efforts
If you want to make the most of your social media efforts, you also want to take some time to see what your competition is doing.
Find out what types of strategies they are using to interact with users and how your audience is responding to their efforts.
Ideally, what you want to do in your social media campaign is to position your product in a way that buyers understand and appreciate what makes it different from the available alternatives.
6. Interact with your social media audience
If you want to truly understand your audience, you need to spend time interacting with them.
Social media is all about conversations, and if you make a point of interacting with them, you will get to know them and the things which are most important to them.
By improving your brand’s social media engagement, and making sure that you have a responsive website, you can develop positive online relationships with your audience as well as position yourself as an expert in your niche, as someone that your followers can trust.
Taking the time to implement these strategies will help you understand your social media audience, but the information you can glean will be invaluable to your marketing efforts.
Nowadays, being on social media isn’t enough. There must be social media engagement as well, which shows that you have a connection with your audience.
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Originally published at www.bookmark.com on September 13, 2016.
