Must-Have Skills to Grow Your Social Media

Setting up social media accounts for your business is essential, but ensuring them grow exponentially is definitely a game-changer for the long run. Either you run a conventional brick-and-mortar store or an online-based business, there is no turning back from digital marketing these days. As more users demand to know better about a brand’s value before making a purchase decision, ensuring your brand’s social media persona stands out among competitors is a non-negotiable price to pay. 

Why Does It Matter?

Let’s look at some supporting statistics on why social media matters. Social media is a busy, crowded platform where most people gather nowadays. Good thing is, you do not have to be an expert to attract users. You may still bring in some new customers to your business venture with some simple skills that are applicable. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent survey, there are 3.78 billion social media users internationally who spend an average of 2.5 hours each day on multiple networks. Additionally, 84% of these users are between the ages of 18 and 29, which is considered a top spending age group. However, simply posting on your feed is not enough to make users stay, especially with every platform’s algorithm favoring and pushing paid content and advertising. Therefore, in order to establish a successful social media plan, you need to have one that answers your needs.

Here are some of the must-have skills to grow your social media:

Planning in Hand

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Do you have enough plans in hand for your brand’s social media? Planning is an important skill you need to master to ensure your social media marketing strategy will not be a mess. 

First of all, you have to plan your brand’s voice and image, so your message will be conveyed seamlessly to the target audience. Different messages will resonate with different individuals, it is therefore vital to consider who your target market is and share their views. Once you have decided how you would like your business to be perceived, you can start the content development process. For example, you may want to come off as a little bit laid-back in generating captions if your business is aimed for young people. On the other hand, you may not want to add too many meme-ish jokes if most of your customers are older. 

Knowing Your Audience

Defining your target audience helps you stay focused on who your business should reach and what they demand. Once you have figured out who your target audience is, it’s essential to define in which social media platform they’re most present. For example, you can expect a lot of Gen Z on TikTok and Millennials on Twitter. These two generations have something in common, in which they also use Instagram as one of their main social media accounts. Meanwhile, older generations typically use Facebook more when it comes to social media. You can read more about finding your target audience here. 

Consistency 

Imagine making one great content and posting it to all of your brand’s social media only to never see other contents coming after it; your brand may reach its peak exposure, but then most likely be forgotten. This is why you need to have consistency in mind when it comes to both creating and posting content. Producing quality content is one thing, but constantly putting effort into creating equally high quality content is a challenge in your journey to grow your brand’s social media. 

One way to prevent the risk of stagnation while maintaining consistency is to take social media management seriously. This begins with setting targets on how many contents to post every week and what types of content will be published, be it articles, infographics, short videos, etc. Being consistent also requires collaboration with your business’ creative division, from marketing team, graphic designer, copywriter, to social media strategist. Social media strategists cannot post anything without graphic designers supplying content. Graphic designers may not know what content to create with no insights from the marketing team and copywriters. In the end, having a collaborative team will make it easier to be consistent in maintaining your brand’s social media.

Cross-Platform Promotion

If you believe you can discover a credible partner who will not jeopardize your business, you should learn how to do cross-platform promotion. This is when you approach a reputable business partner with prominent social media accounts to collaborate with you on a cross-promotional engagement. All you need to do is contact your proposed business partner, discuss arrangements, and then associate your social media managers to create and share content. They will promote brand awareness and encourage their followers to visit your website or social media account, and you will do the same for them. You can do it over and over with more than one business partner. Cross promotion works well on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. When people share your content, it improves your reach and maybe even increases user engagement.

Engage Like Real People Do

In 2022, the battle to win loyal customers heats up. If you want your social media to be useful and functional, answer questions. However, if you want your social media to be both functional and engaging, you need to start humanizing it a bit. For example, if you go to Twitter and search some of the world’s most popular brands like Wendy’s or Burger King, you will find a lot of tweets that look like they are tweeted from personal accounts. If you think those rather ‘impersonal’ tweets are unprofessional and immature, maybe you need to think again. 

Dry, awkward tone often posed in an organization’s social account is a thing of the past. Consumers today love a touch of humor when brands are interacting with them; it makes your social media persona less of a robot and more of a real human talking to inform something or answer concerns. Whether your business is established or a new one trying to pave your way, it is important to engage with your audience as if you are human talking to your friends. 

Make Use of Paid Ads

All social media networks rely on advertising for profit and no user dares to complain when they see ads in ‘free’ social media they access every day. Nevertheless, if you want to maximize your brand’s visibility and remain ahead of the competitors, you must have a social media advertising strategy in place. Be it Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, YouTube ads, or something else, knowing which platform that can reach your intended audience is the very first step. As an example, you can use A/B testing to improve your advertising by experimenting with alternative content, creatives, audiences, and CTAs. You also need to anticipate for mistakes you may bump into in strategizing your ads by reading this.

No matter how new your business is, there is always a chance for your social media to grow fast and reach more prospective customers with some of these must-have skills and techniques. If you are still unsure on which strategy to employ to best grow your social media, do not hesitate to reach out to us so we can help you find a way!