Social Media Marketing for Business Growth
Image via Lisa Says Gah
① Post consistently
Make a schedule and stick to it. Not only does this build trust with your audience because they know they will see your content on certain days. When you are inconsistent, your content will suffer and you will have a very low engagement rate when it comes to your posts because Instagram prioritizes people who post regularly. Instagram likes it when you post on certain days and times because that is what it expects from your account. Once you build up a consistent schedule, Instagram will start to reward you and push your content out more to the algorithm. The more specific your posting schedule is, the better.
Posting consistently does not mean:
posting every day for a week and then posting one picture the following week
posting Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday and then the following week posting Monday and Thursday
posting at 10am on Wednesday and then posting at 2:45 the following Wednesday
Posting consistently means:
having a posting schedule and sticking with it
posting a static feed post Mondays and Fridays at 1pm and posting a carousel post on Wednesdays at 1pm EVERY WEEK
② Post high quality content
Take a look at your BIG competitors. They wouldn’t dare post a low quality, low effort graphic, or a badly lit photo. They know the value of social media so they put effort into every post, so you need to bring in that SAME effort in order to be in the same playing as them.
Your posts will tell your audience everything they need to know about your business. Think of your profile as your home or portfolio. It’s sometimes the first impression someone has of your brand! Make it worth it.
Find inspiration everywhere. Look at what your competitors are posting and see what is working for them. Why is it working for them? What’s not working? Make your posts unique and original! Have fun with it and get creative.
Content creation is an actual skill and job, so consider hiring someone who has the talent for it if you are struggling. You don’t want your business’ online presence to suffer because you’re not a graphic designer. And truthfully, you need to be posting content that stands out so it can have a lasting impression on its audience. Outsourcing tasks you’re not good at or have the time for is the greatest investment you can do for your company.
③ Be patient and have fun
We hate to break it to you but you’re not going to see results overnight and all that worrying about your followers and engagement rate will seriously get you nowhere. Your follower count is simply just a vanity metric. Social media is supposed to be FUN! Stop overcomplicating it. Instead, aim to provide value to your audience.
INSPIRE, ENTERTAIN, AND EDUCUATE
Social media is not the end all be all of your marketing and it is not the place for selling 24/7. Instead, it’s where you build and connect with your audience. Social media is for building strong relationships with your audience.
Once you shift your goals to providing value, you will start to see the results you want. Genuinely give your audience what they want and they’ll have a reason to stay loyal to your brand/business.
Start using social media as a place for your market research instead of making sells and inevitably more sales will start to roll around because you understand your audience on a whole different level.
Give them a reason to stay whether that’s by inspiring, entertaining, or educating.
