Building Your Brand - Maximize Your Social Media Impact

Last Updated 12th February 2020 5 years ago 12,698 readers Business Tips & Tricks

Brands today should know that being on social media is not a choice; it’s a necessity if you want to build your brand.

The question is,

How do you create and maximize a thriving social media presence?

Posting randomly throughout the day and mentioning others is not going to cut it, either.

You need to think strategically to increase and manage your social media presence for your business. Do you want to elevate your brand and build it at the same time? It is time to think of a social media strategy.

Let’s follow these social media principles to maximize your social impact and build your social media presence:

1. Create SMART goals.

If you are familiar with marketing, you understand that SMART goals mean having Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based goals. If you are not familiar, here’s a rundown of how to set SMART goals for your social media presence:

Though SMART goals have been around for ages, you can set these goals for building the social media presence of your business. Many marketers choose SMART goals such as, “increasing engagement rate on Facebook by 30% by the end of the quarter.”

The specific part is the channel you will measure your success on Facebook. The measurable part is the 30% goal in engagement. It is achievable because we did not make our goal astronomical such as, “Growing engagement by 150% in a week.”

The goal is relevant because, in this case, you are growing your share of voice of your brand, making your brand relevant. Finally, the goal is time-bound within the first quarter.
Your social media impact has a purpose with SMART goals. You can stay on-brand and not find your efforts meaningless.

You are sticking to the intent of growing your brand’s social media presence.

2. Get to know your audience.

Building your brand on any platform takes detailed research so that you know your target audience. You need to narrow down who your audience is early, so you know how to form your content on social media.

You are figuring out who your target audience makes it easier to determine where to focus your efforts. For instance, some brands may find Instagram a better platform for their audience than
LinkedIn. Finding your target audience is going to help you form a social media posting schedule.

Having your audience drilled down will help you determine what types of content your audience will respond best to, and help you find your brand voice when writing the content.
A target audience also established who you are as a brand as you fill out the information on your social media pages.

3. Build a social media presence that is human.

Posting links without any opinion or creativity makes your social look like it’s made by a robot.

You want to breathe personality into the social media presence for your business.

Personalizing social media posts is important because the audience feels more welcome to engage with your social media.

Plus, no one wants to talk to a robot, which often feels one-sided. Being human should be an expectation you set for building out your brand.
Build meaningful relationships over social.

4. Media.

It is easy to tell when a brand has hundreds of thousands of followers and no one engaging with the content on social media.

What the average consumer will jump to is that the followers have been bought. Buying vanity followers is no way to build a trustworthy brand. Most consumers would rather interact with a brand of 50 followers, rather than 500,000 fake followers.

The point of social media is to be social. So, build those relationships on your social media. Real relationships via social media results in a robust social media presence.

Connecting with your audience on social media can come from several avenues.

Being sure you @ mention those referenced in the content you post on social media helps grow a connection.
Remember to check your notifications regularly, and if someone asks a question, answer them promptly.

You could also retweet and start conversations out of the post you just shared or retweeted.

5. Optimize for engagement.

Optimizing your social media profiles and content does not take much time or effort. To get your voice heard, you want to include proper links to your website, relevant hashtags that are onbrand, and any other important business information straight on your social media profiles.

Customers will flock to your page to they can mention you and engage with your brand. Not only will they engage with your brand, but you will build brand authority while building your social media presence.

6. Actively post.

No one wants to discover a social media page that has not had any updates in months or even years. That’s why you have to keep active on social media. You can also repurpose content that has already been posted yet is still relevant.

Being active is not just posting updates, either. Always respond promptly to questions on your pages.

7. Stay on top of trends.

Brands like Wendy’s have built a prominent social media presence by staying on top of trends. If there is a relevant trending topic, why not post a relevant meme with the trending hashtag? It can be as simple as that to build your social presence for your business.

8. Plan your content out.

Having a plan with your social media content will take your brand from zero to sixty quickly. Create a content calendar that will keep you on pace so you can post frequently. Have hashtags and a posting schedule with times ready to go so you can stay on track.

9. Create meaningful content.

Sharing the same thing as every other social media account is not going to help your brand build-up or stay relevant. You want to shine on and be unique through social media. Build your brand’s value by creating content that no one else has on their social feeds. Having exclusive content will set you apart from your competitors.

10. Have visual content.

Audiences everywhere respond well to pretty pictures and imagery with bite-size and consumable content. Create visual content that means something to your brand. You will have content you can share and re-purpose without having to start all over again. Many brands use gifts and info-graphics as a way to get their visuals across to their audiences.

Having visuals will set you apart from the other brands without visual content of their own.