How to boost your social media presence
Published by Rachel Partridge, here are 10 tips to help boost your company's social media presence in the kbb industry.
In this digital world, social media is crucial for any business. If your business is not present on social media, it needs to be!
Having a great social media presence can help a business grow in many ways, but this isn’t something that will evolve overnight and miraculously improve with random posts and mentions every now and then. It requires time and effort on your behalf.
This is why we have put together 10 steps to help boost your company’s social media presence – let’s get started.
1. Strategy
It all starts with a plan!
Start by writing down your goals and objectives for the year, as well as the timeframe in which you want to achieve these by. What do you want to get out of social media?
This could be building on your brand awareness; increasing the number of followers; generating leads etc. Come up with a plan that allows you to see exactly how you are going to achieve these goals and objectives. Think about splitting your overall goals in to bite size chunks for the year, which will make it easier for you to achieve and monitor. Your goals should be realistic, measurable and achievable within the timeframe you have set. Having a clear structure will help you to create valuable content for each channel.
2. Identify your audience
Research your target audience – it will help if you have documented your customer types (personas). Here is a free persona template.
Find out what social media channels each persona typically uses. This will help you decide which channels your business should be on. Pick the channels you know will be most beneficial to your business and avoid spreading yourself too thin.
Think about customer interests, the time they typically spend on these channels as well how often they visit them throughout the day. This will help you identify how often you should post, the types of content you should be posting and when the best time to do this is.
3. Check out the competition
Find out what your competition are up to. Look in to what social media channels they are on, have they posted any new content or blog posts? Take a look into what’s working for them.
This doesn’t mean that you copy what they do – as what works for them won’t necessarily work for you. It’s just a chance to analyse and think about what could work for your business’s campaign needs. At the end of the day, you both have the same target audience.
4. Comment, like and share other people’s content
Let people know there is a human behind the account! Get involved and interact with others. Like posts, comment and join conversations, or even start them yourself. Share other people’s content that you see fit for your audience. Make it yours by adding your own heading, even if it’s asking your audience if they agree with the below. @someone if you are posting something that references them and make sure that you reply to anyone that has tagged you in a comment. Even if the comments you receive are negative, it is important that you respond. This shows that you are listening to what they have to say.
5. Create and post valuable content
You should be posting content regularly but whatever you post must be seen to be useful to your target audience.
Create content that you know your audience wants to see!
Meaningless posting isn’t going to bring you a lot of engagement or return visits. It needs to be interesting, captivating and most of all, valuable. Otherwise, your audience will scroll past your post like it never existed.
This next step goes without saying… post when it’s the best time to engage with your audience. Each channel can give you this insight.
That said, you shouldn’t post and sign off, that’s not how it works. Be around to answer any questions that may arise from your post or interaction. Customers and especially potential sales leads won’t want to be left hanging around to find out the answers they need if they can get them quicker from a competitor.
Using #hashtags in your posts is a great way for people to find you. Use them wisely though, don’t be that person that hashtags the whole description. Think of these as keywords. What would your customers search for? Take a look at the hashtags your competitors use. If they work for them, they are bound to work for you.
Stories or ‘Going Live’ are great ways to engage with your audience especially at events such as the kbb show. It involves your audience, and they can embark on the same journey as you without physically being there.
Setting up polls and questions on your stories will get your audience thinking and therefore interacting.
Why not piggy-back on what’s trending – as long as it fits in with your business campaigns, then it’s definitely something you should be doing.
Lastly, there is no harm in recycling previous content. As long as it’s still valid, by all means, share it again!
Tip: Get yourself a content calendar to help you keep up with the frequent posting. Facebook for Business has one already built-in for your Facebook and Instagram business accounts. It also allows you to bulk schedule saving endless amounts of time. Also think about having certain events listed in your calendar like Earth Day. This leaves great opportunity to write a blog centred around how sustainable your business is and what actions you are looking to take in the future to become more environmentally friendly.
6. Follow new people
Every new follow is now another person/company who knows you exist. Follow new people everyday, and who knows they may just return the favour. Those who follow you back not only help to build your audience, but this action also confirms that they are the correct audience type.
7. Create blogs and share them
Think about the types of things your typical customers would like to read about.
Let’s say you sell ‘The tap that does it all’. Maybe a write up on ‘how to maintain your hot tap so it reaches its life expectancy’ will go down well, or even three tasty sparkling drink recipes.
Creating a blog that interests your audience will result in more engagement. Those who read your blog posts may share them with their followers, which will help spread your message far and wide and bring new visitors to your website who may not have known you existed before.
8. Videos
In this digital world, videos continue to be the most effective type of content and therefore get far more engagement than just words or images. Maybe it’s because we find them more interesting and easier to digest?
Panicking? No need! You don’t need to be a whiz in some complicated video editing tool. Try out something like TikTok or the Instagram feature called Reels.
Again, these don’t have to be complicated. Why not try putting together an Insta Reel of the kitchen design process. Start with a mood board full of ideas, through to the design process using CAD, show off some of those amazing ArtiCAD HD renders and then end it with the real-life kitchen in your client’s home. You’ll be amazed at how much engagement this minute long video will get you.
9. Find out what’s working & carry on building
Use the many available analytic tools to investigate what’s working and what isn’t. Tools such as Zoho Social or Hootsuite will give you great insight, down to every last post and share. Facebook for Business has a great section which will let you dive into every aspect of how well your account is performing.
You should monitor this daily, consider A/B testing on different aspects such as imagery and headings then tweak as you go to make sure your efforts are set to achieve your goals and objectives.
10. Lastly, stay active!
By having a content calendar, piggy-backing on trends and recycling previous content, you will save endless amounts of time and you will feel more inclined to stay active on the channels you wish to be present on. It’s so important to stay active, as inconsistency can stick with a company especially as social media can be the first step in a customer’s journey with you. Keep up with the commenting, liking and sharing. Post content regularly, interact with others and you should see your social presence evolve.
Sources: sproutsocial.com, digitalandsocialmediaacademy.com, digitalmarkteinginstitute.com and hubspot.com