How to add value to your social media presence?

It is a universal truth that with time, everything changes. With the advent of modern technologies and the Internet, doing business is not the same anymore. Not even a few decades back businesses became bigger simply on the word of mouth and newspaper advertisements. Then came the insurgence of television and along with that came heavy telemarketing. And as changes and developments are inevitable, this is the era of the Internet, of social media presence and of digital marketing.

Popular research shows that 80% of the audience in the form of prospective clientele and customers get influenced by social media posts.

If we think about social media from a business’ point of view, it makes complete sense to mobilize resources for brand promotion here. The reason is simple, the internet has no boundaries. The internet and popular social media websites and applications have bought the entire world into one tiny space – your phone.

Even more interesting is, in the beginning, there were only computers and laptops with internet connectivity. Now we have the internet everywhere to connect our mobiles, laptops to even TVs. From our laptops to phones or to even our tablets we are practically surrounded by the Internet and social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. This is the prime reason why adding value to what you post on social media is such a game-changer.

Let us now look at every process and step required to add value to your digital marketing or brand promotion on social media platforms –

• Target Audience 

The first thing you need to do is to figure out your niche. Once you understand what your product or line of services truly stands for, you will realise to whom you cater the most. Once you understand which age demographic you cater to find out the social media apps they are more likely to use.

Once you do that, try and create your brand reputation on that social media website or application. You should also understand that your promotional style will largely vary depending upon the type of social media app or website you are using to promote your business.

A short crisp video on your Instagram handle will work more than on LinkedIn. Whereas longer posts with photos are going to work more on Facebook rather than on Instagram. LinkedIn works better with posts which have infographics in them much unlike audiences on Facebook and Instagram.

• Rules of Algorithm

Let’s just put it this way, that every social media has their own ways of showing ‘content’ as per what they think will be more relevant to you. Why is that? The app or the website understands through AI learning processes about the kind of content we usually like to see or choose to see more often over other types of content. Once the AI learns our likes and dislikes, it chooses what we get to see on a daily basis.

Example: Facebook, for instance, we will notice that we see posts from only a handful of people amongst the hundreds of friends we have in our accounts.

Social media apps, in general, are not so transparent about their algorithm changes for various reasons. This is why you need to conduct research and analyze algorithms when you choose to create content for various social media handles.

• Variance in Content

As we discussed earlier, your content across platforms cannot be universal. You cannot afford to create one single post and share it across multiple platforms expecting similar results. You should conduct polls on Facebook to know the latest trends and nurture the feedback you receive. You may choose to announce a giveaway contest on Instagram because it is more likely to work on that app.

Try to strike a balance between the type of content you usually share and the type of content you never share. Once you reach the intersection, share these varieties of contents over appropriate apps and websites for great traction. 

You can also look out for people within your company who can help you in effectively managing content on social media. Do not forget that almost anyone, starting from the CEO of a company to a college student has some value to add in various social media platforms.

You can conduct polls and interactive competitions within your network to fish out brilliant and innovative digital marketing ideas and award the best of the ideas. Promote the competition online for better engagement ratio in the future.

• Understand your competitors

Your competitors should actually be the greatest inspiration even if you one day lead in your industry. There is always something to learn from everyone around us, especially the ones with similar interests. Learn from the mistakes they make and make sure you do not commit them.

Try to learn from the digital marketing tactics that your competitors are applying instead of thinking, what you are doing is the best for yourself. If you see your competitors holding live Instagram sessions maybe you should do them too!

• Engagements

Engaging with people and your audiences, in general, is the best way forward for anyone who wishes to add value to their social media presence. Try to answer queries put forward by your audience by messaging them.

In order to boost your social media presence, it is very important that you engage in conversations on chat boxes of your Facebook and Instagram handles. Try to make your viewers/audiences feel more comfortable around your social media handles. You can also give it a personal touch by calling them by their first names.

If somebody points out a flaw in your product or your services on the comment section anywhere across all your social media platforms, solve that issue first. Once you are done solving the issue simply ask them to reply to their comment thread that the issue has been officially resolved. This builds trust in your customer servicing.

If someone retweets your posts, take some time to appreciate them on their accounts and share their feedback on your Instagram story for effective cross-platform leverages. Occasional follow backs on some selected accounts on Instagram also builds community trust and spreads love across continents.

• Understanding trends

Not all trends are meant for your company to comment on or partake in them. If you are a tech company, participating in “plant 1000 trees” campaigns will effectively boost your social media value and presence.

The choice of trends in which you partake should be such that it adds value and meaning to your company. Always keep in mind that the trends in which you choose to participate should not in any way look like another strategy to earn profits. The trends of minimizing use of plastic is another brilliant and eco-friendly way to build brand trust and acceptability.

Conclusion

In order to succeed in your entrepreneurial journey, all you need to do is to have a bright idea. You are required to wrap it in a gift box, then show it to the world using social media. People WILL buy your product or services, provided you play your cards right.

Promoting your business on social media is not that difficult. However, this is where it gets a little tricky though. You need to be aware of what you are trying to sell and to whom. Once you figure these two fundamental questions the rest of it will fall into its place one after the other.

For abundant caution, every step taken by you, trying to add value to your social media presence is important and needs to be dealt with by precautions. Remember to remain humble about your growth. Always aim to stay rooted and focused.