Growing Your Social Media Audience

 

What is social media presence?

The social media presence of a brand is the visibility of the brand on social media platforms and the connection the brand has with its audience. A strong social media presence builds trust with the audience and allows the brand to develop a stronger relationship with its customers.

Brands don’t have just one metric that corresponds to their social media presence. Instead, a strong social media presence can lead to a high engagement rate, more brand awareness, and a positive perception of the brand.

“You can be visible all day on social media, but if no one’s engaging with you, then you’re not really present.” Krystal Wu, who manages social media communities at HubSpot, has said that it is possible to be visible online all day without actually being present. If people are not interacting with you, then you are not really there, she explains.

“A social media channel has no presence if there is no audience who values it. Use social media to listen, monitor, and analyze your audience behavior,” said Wu. “That information will allow you to gain consumer feedback, improve new or existing relationships, and expand your brand’s social presence.”

Being visible does not necessarily mean being successful.

Importance of social media presence

If you want to have a successful social media presence, you need to create content that is tailored to the interests and needs of your target audience.

Earn your audience’s trust to build a strong relationship with them.

It’s important to have a strong social media presence so you can better understand your audience.

“While there are a ton of growth ‘hacks’ to boost a brand’s social presence, I think the greatest value goes back to knowing your audience,” said Ariel Boswell, social media analyst at HubSpot. “The ability to know your audience so deeply to where you understand what captivates their attention and pair that with content that provides value at that moment is a recipe for success.”

Being connected with your community on a deeper level will help you understand their needs better so that you can serve them better with your product or service.

How does social media benefit your business?

There are many advantages to using social media for business. Here are eight benefits that social media provides: -Increased brand recognition and awareness -More opportunities to convert -Higher web traffic -Improved search engine rankings -Increased brand loyalty -Better customer insights -Improved lead generation -Increased sales

• Brand awareness: Billions of people worldwide use social media every day, and it makes sense to put your business where the customers are. For example, according to Facebook, about 60% of Instagram users find new products using the platform. Social media is an invaluable tool for building a brand and boosting brand awareness.
• Brand personality: It’s becoming more crucial than ever for businesses to have a distinct voice and engage with customers on a human level. Social media provides an easy avenue for creating a visual brand, allowing you to develop an identity and a voice to showcase your brand values and engage with followers. 
• Thought leadership: Social media allows businesses to become thought leaders and stand out from their competitors, establishing themselves as industry leaders through engaging and relevant content. You can do this by sharing creative content on Instagram, writing thoughtful blog posts for LinkedIn, or showing a fresh perspective in tweets.
• Increased website traffic: If your followers like your social media content, they become interested in you and will go to your business website to learn more about your company. This means higher website traffic and potentially more sales for you.
• Reputation management: Reputation is everything, and social media gives you the perfect opportunity to communicate with customers and solve issues quickly. You can even create a unique hashtag your followers can use if they have a question or complaint to ensure the right people see it. You can also use social media to highlight positive reviews or comments.
• Analytics and insights: Most social media platforms have analytics tools, allowing you to monitor follower counts, engagement rates, and click-through rates. These numbers can help you determine the kinds of content your followers respond to best and tweak your marketing strategy accordingly.
• Targeted advertisements: It’s easy to create ads on social platforms, and the benefit is that you can specifically target them to suit your audience. Research has shown that users respond better when ads are tailored to them, which often increases engagement.
• Competitor analysis: Aside from engaging with customers, social media helps you monitor your competitors. Follow your competitors and note what works well for them and what doesn’t. Work those insights into your social media marketing strategy. 

How to increase social media presence

1. Engage your audience.

If you want to stay close to your consumers, social media is a good way to do it. You can find out how they feel about your products or services and learn new things by looking at their responses to your posts.

Make it easy for your followers to connect with your brand by inviting them to participate in discussions in the comment section, answering fun “This or That” quizzes, creating polls, answering Q&As and doing live videos.

Engaging in activities that give you insight into your audience’s preferences can help you create marketing campaigns that are more likely to be successful.

2. Manage your community.

Not having a community manager for your social media accounts is like constantly driving a car that’s running out of gas—you won’t get very far.

According to Wu, community management is essential for a brand’s growth, image, and social success.

“Being proactive by reaching out to other brands, fans, customers and followers in similar industries really helps build that community around your brand,” said Wu. “People start to recognize the name, the types of conversations that brand is having and its level of knowledge in that specific market.”

Brands that want to be successful on social media need to be proactive and engage their audiences in conversations.

It’s like going to a party. You arrived, but now you’ll have to talk to some people and start making friends.

“Without doing these proactive pushes, just putting a brand on social and not tying in the community efforts won’t get it very far,” Wu added. “Community management is the center of the customer journey, like the flywheel model, crafting the relationship between the brand and customer.”

3. Stay active and be consistent.

A brand never wants to be forgotten or have people second guess if they exist or not.

Being active and posting consistently on social media platforms is crucial for brands because if a brand is out of sight, it will be out of mind for consumers.

Many brands start out posting frequently on social media, but then post less and less over time, until they are only posting occasionally.

“Success doesn’t usually happen on your first, second or even third try. Social media is playing the long game and once brands realize that it doesn’t usually blow up overnight, that’s when consistency comes into play,” said Wu. “In social, you need to test, experiment, analyze, and even take risks to learn what strategy your brand should move forward with to connect and build an audience.”

If you’re struggling to come up with ideas or content, try posting less often and limiting the platforms you’re active on. Planning out your content a month in advance and having your creative assets ready can also help.

4. Understand that it’s a long game.

Many of the errors brands make on social media come from wanting to expand quickly.

If you’re looking to build a social following quickly, you might be tempted to try out some get-rich-quick schemes. However, these schemes are only superficial and won’t lead to any real results.

You may find that initially, working with others seems like it will help you to achieve your goals and connect with your target audience. However, you may eventually realize that this isn’t the case.

“Don’t take the ‘easy’ way out by paying for views and followers,” Wu said, “because you’ll eventually run into a wall where you have this audience but no engagement, no one converting or signing up for your content.”

The best way to create a sustainable presence is to grow organically. This way, you will get real data from your target audience, which will help you customize your approach to serve them better.

5. Stick to your brand voice and aesthetic.

Having a consistent brand means that your overall look, feel, and message are aligned with your mission and goals.

You should have the same brand identity across all marketing channels. This way, your audience won’t get confused about what your brand represents.

And that’s a wrap! Thus, be certain that your brand strategy is in harmony with your social media strategy.

6. Track your competitors.

Your competitors are like your neighbors. It’s okay to check up on them every once in a while and see what they’re up to.

“When I think of conducting a competitive analysis I go in with the expectation to be both challenged and inspired,” said Boswell. “The biggest thing you should look for when evaluating a competitor’s social media presence is how they are positioning themselves in the market and how shared or overlapped audiences are perceiving their efforts.”

Boswell emphasizes that while it’s good to be aware of your competitive landscape, you shouldn’t let it influence your entire social strategy. What works well for one brand may not be suitable for yours, so be selective about what ideas you’re adapting.

7. Leverage trends and buzzy content.

Trends make social media go round.

Every few weeks, there’s a new trend on platforms like Twitter and TikTok. Brands often ask themselves how they can make this their own.

joining in on popular trends can help increase brand awareness and generate sudden bursts of traffic. It allows you to be creative and join in on something you know your audience will love.

If you are unsure about something, always compare it to your brand strategy. Does it match your brand’s overall identity and message? If not, act like you are chaperoning a school dance and stay away from it.

8. Adjust your posts based on current events.

These days, consumers hold brands to a higher standard.

Companies are expected to take a more active role in social issues and be more forthcoming about their opinion. This approach should also be included in social media strategy during times of unrest, cultural events, and news.

Sometimes, all that is needed to show solidarity is to refrain from posting on social media for the day, or to pause paid social ads. In other cases, a statement may need to be released.

No matter what, you need to be able to change and work quickly to figure out how to move forward.

9. Invest in high-quality creative assets.

However, a lot of the traffic from social media is from people who are not yet customers. One of the main ways people discover brands is through social media. However, a lot of the traffic from social media is from people who are not yet customers.

If someone is interested in your Instagram post, they will likely visit your profile to learn more about you.

If you want to make a good impression on potential customers, you need to make sure your content is high-quality. This includes using high-quality images, copy that is free of grammar mistakes, and branded content.

Your social media profile is like a story, so make sure it’s the story you want to tell.

10. Treat each platform as its own.

Different platforms have different standards and what works on one, may not work on another.

Duplicating means to simply copy and paste the same message on multiple platforms at the same time. One thing you may be tempted to do with social media is to post the same content on multiple platforms at the same time.

The former updates the content to keep it relevant, while the latter just moves it to another platform without changing it.

When you make copies of your content, you might not appeal to your audience as much. They might like your videos on YouTube, but they might not like them as much on TikTok because the context is different.

When creating content for social media, be sure to tailor it to the specific platform you are using.

How to track social media ROI

When figuring out social media ROI for your business, you’ll need to take a few factors into account. This includes things like formulating and setting up goals, as well as tracking progress.

• Determine your immediate goals. Many organizations that have difficulty measuring social media ROI haven’t defined specific, tangible goals. The key to successfully measuring ROI is setting achievable business goals and building your strategy to accomplish them.
• Understand your long-term goals. Ensure you understand your ultimate goal – what all your smaller, more immediate goals will build to. This end-goal vision will unify your social media efforts. Your ultimate goal should align with your business’s branding and communications guidelines.
• Pinpoint metrics to track. Once you know your goals and how to achieve them, pinpoint the metrics you want to track, including engagement, audience, reach and sentiment. Understand how you’ll apply that information to your strategy.
• Ignore “vanity metrics.” You’ll track several metrics once your social media marketing campaign gets underway. Some of these metrics are called “vanity metrics” because they’re visible to the naked eye but don’t necessarily tell the whole story about a campaign’s success. Consider tracking more in-depth metrics, such as conversions from the traffic generated by a campaign, to tell the whole story and properly measure ROI. 
• Focus on quality, not quantity. Be thoughtful with your social media posts, providing carefully considered content. Your social media is there to serve your business and achieve a goal, not just to exist. Spend time considering your photos, captions, and hashtags appropriately for each platform. Publishing tools like Hootsuite or Later can help you set up and preview posts before they go live.