Social media has huge potential for branding and marketing. Many people use social media daily for various purposes. Facebook alone has over one billion registered users and this is ripe market to promote your brand.Social media optimization can also create more traffic movement to your website and increase your rankings on search engines. Having the right strategies in place is very important to the process. The following are some of the tactics you can use.
1) Social media monitoring
In order to understand the needs of social media users and respond to them accordingly, it is advisable to monitor social media pages. You should find out what people are talking about, what they are interested in and what social media users do not like in order to tweak the content on your posts for better feedback. There are various monitoring tools available online that you can use to listen to social media. Listening is the key to learning and once you learn, it becomes extremely easy to action this knowledge to promote your brand.
2) Make your social media posts stand out
In order to get more attention from social media users, you need to make sure each of your posts is a hit. You can get more attention and exposure on your social media posts using images, videos, gifs and hashtags. Make sure the posts are short and concise to make sure everybody reads your posts and gets the message. You have probably come across the “too long, didn’t read” meme doing rounds on social media showing that internet users really don’t have the attention span for very long posts.
3) Build a detailed profile
Social media profiles are crucial to branding. Most social media encourage creating a bio, putting up a profile picture and a cover or background picture. Ensure that the pictures you use to create your profile are a true and interested representation of your brand. Make sure you use your logo, and in your bio, include contact information as well. Using the company logo creates a lasting impression on the mind of your potential customer. Some social media users may not navigate to your website therefore including contact information in your social media bio makes it easy for them to contact you through email or a phone call.
4) Build your social media networks
Do not wait for the people to come to you; you need to connect with as many people as possible on social media. It is also important to make a strong connection. Only a fraction of social media users meet your demographic characteristics and these are the individuals you need to connect with. You can use the hashtags on social media pages to find individuals with shared interests and connect with them. You can also include call to action buttons in your social media pages encouraging people to like and share your posts or visit your website to learn more.
5) Connect with social media users
Building a network is one thing while connecting with users is another. People value brands that give their customers attention and value customer input. Therefore, you should not simply share posts on social media and wait for the traffic to start rolling in. You should respond to comments and feedback in the social media posts. Feel free to share positive feedback that you receive because testimonials from satisfied customers do have an impact in increasing the popularity of your brand. You should also thank individual customers who comment or give criticism through social media pages.
6) Choose the right social network for your brand
Social networks have different characteristics, some are more business oriented (LinkedIn), some encourage craft (Pinterest, Instagram), some generate discussions (Twitter), while some are all about building social life and social networks (Facebook). Therefore, your approach towards these different social networks should be customized. Make sure you choose the social network that best supports your brand image and use it accordingly. Facebook has a heterogeneous base and that is why it is considered the best social network for promoting any brand.
7) Create valuable and share worthy content
You can only strengthen your brand reputation when you create quality useful content that your social media networks will be willing to share. You need to be sure of how your audience will respond to the content, and this takes us back to the first point of social media monitoring. You can use interesting content such as memes, tutorial videos, instructional pictures and short stories or descriptions to share more about your brand.
8) Use existing influences
If you are introducing a new brand into the market, it becomes extremely difficult to be noticed, as you would like, even when you have killer social media marketing strategies. It may take the input of influencers to get people talking about your product. You can contact social media influencers for reviews and mentions in order to get the attention you need. Choose niche specific influencers to ensure that your brand is being voiced to the right people.
9) Social campaigns
You can also use social campaigns to promote your brand. Use valuable incentives that will encourage social media users to participate in the campaigns. You can create contests for the most number of likes, shares or the best picture showing the customer using your brand. The rewarded customers will automatically be converted into social media brand ambassadors for your products and services.
10) Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization makes up brand promotion across different platforms on the internet and not just social media. Search engines today incorporate social medial signals to ranking websites in search results. Search engines will use Facebook likes and retweets to rank pages on internet searches. Social media profiles are also ranked among search results and your social media profile may appear before your website in a Google search. Therefore, you should ensure your social media pages are always up to date with a lot of buzz around them. Social media platforms are also search engines in a way. People will use the search boxes on social media pages to find information about specific keywords. Therefore, you should ensure that you optimize the content on your social media pages with high conversion keywords.
