Your Social Media Presence

When it comes to business in this day and age, having a social media presence is a must-have! Social media presence refers to the visibility a brand has on social media platforms and the connection it builds with its community. The stronger your presence, the more trust you can build with your audience before developing a direct relationship beyond this marketing channel. There are 4.48 billion people currently using social media worldwide, up more than double from 2.07 billion in 2015. Plus, the social media growth rate since 2015 is an average of 12.5% year-over-year. However, growth is on the decline with 2019-2020 data revealing a 9.2% growth rate, but still an increase nevertheless. Basically, it would only benefit your business to be socially present. When it comes to building your business and brand on social media, here are a few things to consider:

Identify your audience.
Who are you targeting with your goods and services? No, it’s not “everyone”. Be specific, even if you have to create a marketing/buyer persona. This is going to be important information as you market your business and determine what social channels you need to use in the process. Many brands spin their wheels because they don’t post content that speaks to a defined audience. Spend some time looking at your audience personas, understanding what their challenges are and what brands they already love via social media.

Be authentic. 
The worst thing you can do on social media is to be fake. Potential customers can see right through it and it’s hard to keep up a facade that does not truly reflect who you truly are and what your brand stands for. You don’t want to come across as a faceless corporation with zero personality. In the modern age of transparency, people want to get to know your company on a more personal level. Try showing off the human side of your brand. Maybe you post behind the scenes photos or reels. Or maybe highlight some of your employees working hard to ensure customer satisfaction. This is the time to build a deeper connection with your audience.

Seek relationships, not just followers.
Social media is a great way to build relationships with your customers. If you frame it from that perspective, your social media experience can be fun and exciting. As they say, don’t leave the “social” out of your social media presence. The beauty of social is that you can form relationships in an instant with followers from just about anywhere. Use it to your advantage.

Focus more on helping rather than selling.
Although social selling is indeed on the rise, rarely should your social media presence be about the “hard sell.” Remember, you are building trust and relationships. When people trust you, they are more likely to purchase from you. Now, if you’re in ecommerce, it makes sense to push offers and deals to your followers. What’s more important, though, is answering the questions of followers whether through replies or content marketing.

Stay active and consistent. 
Inactive social feeds are a bad look for brands, plain and simple. Rather than let your Facebook or Instagram gather cobwebs, you need to “show up” day after day with fresh content. Here are a few things you can do to stay active and consistent. Incorporate social scheduling and automation to save you time and energy. Pick and prioritize your social networks based on the characteristics of your target audience. Find ways to repurpose content so you’re not always trying to reinvent the wheel. Finally, schedule time in your day or certain days of the week to schedule your content. Use an editorial calendar to assist you. This can make the process more simple.