In today’s business world, it’s virtually impossible to be successful without the now vital tools that social media have become. These tools of communication reach both consumers and fellow businesses, which can make or break a company. There are several factors to consider if you want to maximize the impact of your social media presence. It starts with picking the right platform.
DECIDE WHICH PLATFORMS ARE RIGHT FOR YOU
The reality is you can’t be awesome on every single form of social media. However, you can be awesome on a select few. Picking the right platform can have a huge impact on reflecting your brand to your target audience. Industry and demographics are the main factors to consider in these decisions. Will you benefit from visually driven platforms like Instagram that have a younger audience? If an older audience is your demographic but you want to keep the visuals strong, Pinterest might be a better option. Discovering these variables will help you make the right decision.
PROMOTE YOUR SOCIAL ACCOUNTS
This might seem obvious, but promoting your social media handles at every available opportunity is how you begin to grow your followers. Your company’s handle should be on your website, your Facebook, your business cards, and mentioned at any event you attend. Networking events, like Kansas City’s Coffee and Design, are perfect ways to meet people in your industry. You’ll begin making connections that will carry over to your social media. Finding industry leaders in your area and engaging with them on their social accounts can make all the difference in having your followers associate you with your industry. It’s impossible to have a solid presence if you’re not giving people the opportunity to see what you’re saying.
PRODUCE UNIQUE, ORIGINAL CONTENT
As great as retweeting, sharing, and pinning can be, producing your own content that is easily associated with your brand is how you make your company stand out from the competition. An efficient way to do this is to start out creating your own hashtag. At MAKE, we have a list of hashtags that we like to use to show what our brand means to us, such as #MAKEmemories or #WoofWednesday. These can be serious or silly, as long as they’re unique. Visual content always boosts engagement, so creating your own photos, videos, or designs is always a good step in having your own voice.
USE ANALYTICS TOOLS TO TRACK PERFORMANCE
One of the most important parts of maximizing your social media presence aside from actually producing content is tracking the performance of the posts you’re creating. Tools such as Google Analytics is one of the staples at MAKE in evaluating the success of our posts. It can analyze how many website visitors came to your site through your social media accounts among other metrics. Another great tool to use is HootSuite. HootSuite can be used for more than scheduling your posts across several platforms, but it can also send you reports on the most popular links, the number of clicks a day, and a number of other types of information. Tools like these are invaluable in finding the perfect social media strategy that works for your company.
These steps can lead to a better defined and more successful social media presence that engages far more followers. Once you find your voice and begin to see the patterns in your followers’ engagement, social media can become an even more powerful tool for communication than ever before.
