Celebrity or top brand posts, tweets and videos hog all the limelight in the digital space. Be it an Obama hugging Michel picture or tweet, or a Gangnam style video. So what will it take for the rest of the world, for you and me, to get noticed on social media? How should our posts be? What should we be talking about? Who do we want to connect with? How do we keep our connections alive and interesting? How do we create brand advocates? How do we build a formidable presence on social media?
A few effective ideas on how to excel at social media presence for you and your business highlights a few do’s and don’ts to help you get the maximum return on time invested on social media as a business and marketing strategy.
Words count – We’re living in a highly impatient world, with a few seconds of attention span from our audience. You want to make sure every second counts and is well invested when the reader is on your facebook page or reading your tweets. Keep the word count low by using short phrases to be effective and get to the point directly.
Listening – As in a face to face conversation, listening in the digital space is also a much revered virtue. It’s not about blowing your trumpet all the time about new launches, events at the company, pictures of new products etc. It is also about listening to feedback, both positive and negative and responding to them in a timely manner. People love to be heard and replying to them shows that you care enough about what they share.
Relevance – Just because you have over 5000 page likes on facebook and over a 1000 followers on twitter, doesn’t mean you lambast your audience with irrelevant content. Remember, you have put in huge efforts to reach this level, you don’t want to get suicidal by posting long and boring articles that hold neither the readers’ interest nor is relevant to them. Do this for some time and watch the fan following slide down, with people unliking your page or blocking your posts. It’s all about organically growing your followers on social media with quality and knowledgeable content.
Schedule – Do you have a plan for social media? When will you post next? What will it be about? Most of the entrepreneurs have a random sense of posting or tweeting. Plan and schedule your posts at least a fortnight in advance by researching on topics you plan to write about and keep the content ready and relevant.
Analyze – Over a period of time, you’ve followed the above tips carefully and grown your digital presence effectively. It’s time to analyze what’s working for you and what’s not. Get smart and look up analytic tools (available in plenty) to see what your audience likes about what you do. Do more of the things that are working for you and make yourself of service to your God – your target audience. A happy fan will advocate you on his social media links and bring back more followers to your page and posts. It will also help you plan your future strategies to increase your followers and build a strong and loyal database of target audience.
Make social media presence an important part of your marketing and client building activity today and watch the results show in the next few months. Social media helps you with digital visibility and brings customers to you, rather than you going in search of them. It’s all about pull marketing and not so much about push marketing that works today!
