There are many advantages to cultivating your brand on social media, it will allow you to communicate with customers and prospects on a new level, help engage and reach new audiences, build authority, and drive traffic to your website.
In short creating a practical social media strategy can drive growth for your business by fostering lasting and loyal relationships with prospects and customers.
Identify the right social media channel
It is easy to lose yourself in the process of selecting the right social platform to work on. Generally, you should go for the social media space where your target audience spends most of their time.
Facebook may be best if you want to increase brand awareness or generate leads. On the other hand, if you want to expand your network of influencers and professionals, then Twitter and LinkedIn may be the top options. In contrast, TikTok and Instagram are prime choices to appeal to the younger demographics.
Make the most of live videos
Live videos are increasingly becoming popular among brands that wish to engage their audiences. So, if you’re going to improve your social media marketing efforts, a live video should be an important part of your marketing mix. You could live stream brand events, interviews, behind-the -scenes, etc., to increase the audience engagement ratio.
Use social media marketing tools
Ever wondered how to stay on top of your audience’s feeds? Well, social media marketing tools are the secret weapons that most marketers use daily to mark their territory on social media.
There are tons of social media marketing tools that can help you with powerful marketing functionalities like scheduling posts, analysing performance, capturing lead opportunities, engaging with clients, and more.
Create your brand’s story
The way you portray your brand has a huge impact on how people feel about it. Prominent businesses have resorted to effective storytelling for the success of their brand marketing.
Stories always help to develop an emotional connection between your brand and the target audience.
Leverage user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) is one of the most powerful ways to promote your products or services. People trust other people more than marketing gimmicks or the claims of brands themselves.
With UGS, your target audience will get honest feedback directly from other customers instead of having to trust your brand claims. This is a form of social proof that helps position your brand as trustworthy.
User-generated visuals are more trusted than other forms of content. More than 50% of respondents agree that UGC visuals are more influential and impactful than a brand’s own pictures or videos.
Hence, always give your users a platform through which they can brag about their purchases. Make it easy for your loyal fans and customers to share stories about why they are in love with your products or services.
Use social-friendly images
Audiences are getting pickier and rejecting the use of stock images. But how do you create new captivating images if you lack designer expertise?
For a start-up or a small business, it may not be viable to hire a designer. Worry not, because there are tons of tools available to address this problem.
Tools like Placeit, Canva, Cello, and Venngage can be used to create jaw-dropping graphics. Based on your promoting channel and post theme, they offer hundreds of templates to get you started. Also, while posting images on social, you need to consider the different image size requirements of every platform.
Use relevant hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to improve brand visibility. But in order to find the right hashtags to use, you need to do some research to find the most relevant and effective hashtags for your brand.
The hashtag should also be relevant to your targeted audience. The more specific the hashtag is, the more relevant your audience will be. This will lead to better visibility and higher engagement rates.
Always try to use variations of hashtags by including a generic one with a unique and specific hashtag. Once you figure out what is working for you, stick to it. And use similar combinations of hashtags on all social media platforms. It will be easier to identify your key supporters and track your mentions with the help of these hashtags.
Utilise employee advocacy
If you want to increase brand awareness across all social media platforms, employee advocacy is one of the best strategies. Your employees also have followers on their social medial handles. And who better than your own employees to help you.
Ask them to share their experiences of your product on their social media handles and grab more audience interest, employees are relevant, they are also easily approachable and a more trusted source of recommendations for your potential buyers.
Get your timing right
The secret behind a successful media post is to share the right post at the right time. No matter how strong your marketing campaign is, timing is a crucial factor. You might not get the desired results if you don’t publish your posts at the right times.
Use Instagram for posting ads
Instagram is one to the most widely used social platforms for social selling. There are now more than a billion active users on the platform.
The engagement rate on Instagram is higher than in Twitter or Facebook, and with the Reels and other shoppable features, the reach is phenomenal too.
The time is ripe for leveraging the power of Instagram ads to connect with potential buyers worldwide. Make sure your ads are visually appealing and targeted at the right audience to ensure success.
Finally, almost every business has been leveraging the vast user base and tools of social media platforms to realise its goals.
While your competitors are out there making a run for it, losing out on this terrific medium can cost you heavily.
It is the right time to revitalise your social media marketing efforts to drive growth and better results for your business.
The strategies outlined above are effective ways to increase social selling and improve branding.
