More than half of the world’s total population now uses social media.
According to a new report, 3.96 billion people use social media today, which accounts for roughly 51 percent of the global population.
Are you reaching out to your potential customers with engaging social media content?
Our attention spans are shorter than ever before. We view, we click, we swipe. And if we don’t get something that holds our attention, we move on.
For this reason, it benefits you as a business owner to think about your content creation seriously. How will your audience view what you create? Will it hold their attention?
And more importantly, where will you start?
Who are you trying to reach?
The trouble with most business social media accounts is they lack purpose. They send out a hodgepodge of data, hoping it attracts “someone.”
But you need more purpose than that.
Just like you spend time building a prosperous SEO strategy for your website content, it’s equally important to consider the look and feel of your social media content as well. Merely setting up a profile and start posting won’t allow you to reach deep into the social media algorithms that exist on each social media account.
The top social media accounts include:
- Youtube
- Tiktok
- Snapchat
Of course, political and business-related decisions can change that on a dime. But if you want to reach out to a broad potential audience, it’s going to be on one of these platforms.
Each platform has a different demographic, and other ways to communicate with your users. That’s why it’s important to focus on which you prefer to use, then understand who your audience is and what they do on that platform, giving them exactly what they expect.
You should consistently be reviewing viewer behavior. You can do this by finding your competition on the social media platform, and see how they’re engaging. Then as you find your own path and start adding content, how is your audience reacting? Use analytical tools to find your best stuff.
Views are important. But engagement is even better. How many likes are you getting? Are you responding to questions and comments?
Do you even have a plan in place to handle interaction? If not, it’s time to do it.
Dig Deeper
How You Can Help A Writer Write Better Copy For Your Site
Are You Getting Your Local Content Right?
Make your business stand out
We once had a customer come in who wanted it all. Starting from scratch, they had a website designed and a social media platform set up on every major account.
But upon further analysis, they handled their online presence in a very shallow way. Their simple website lacked depth and content. They hadn’t posted a blog post in months. And each of their social media accounts had less than a dozen posts. It was apparent they didn’t know what to say, and lacked any plan for follow-through.
Can you relate?
Taking a step back allows you to build something your customers can grab onto.
Start with your website. You should be creating content regularly. This is your content, you own it. It resides on your web presence.
From there, you can use that to feed into social media accounts – accounts that are “free” and can change their policies and practices overnight.
We recommend starting with one or two accounts at most. Build up your strategy and learn the platform well. And as you start building your online presence and gaining a larger audience, you can move easier into other accounts.
Remember, brand authenticity is the key to finding success online. As people move from one platform to another, they should be able to recognize what you offer. Every account, every piece of content, is an extension of what you already do well. This is about establishing your brand’s voice, and setting the stage for what you have to offer.
Creating the right content
You can’t create content for one channel and expect it to do well across all platforms. It needs to be tweaked and molded for what the audience wants.
One of the best places to start is with a keyword search. You can find out what people type into Google, and start crafting your content based on the results.
This is a great way to start blogging, creating posts based on what people are searching for. From there, you can break it down further and create content that will do well on each platform.
Instead of just writing about it, maybe record a video to share on Youtube. Or create an infographic that is shareable on Twitter. Photos are important on a site like Pinterest. Or give Instagram a try by using a video – their latest Reels platform is giving Tiktok a run for its money.
This is where creativity rules. Know your first try at each platform isn’t going to be perfect. This is about trying and trying again, learning as you grow.
What’s more, learn all you can about the media tools you choose to use. If you don’t choose to take the project on, hire an expert who will. That should be a part of your online strategy, determining what platforms to use, creating the best content possible, and adding it to the platform in a way that helps you grow your followers.
Paying attention to what you post
Of course, there isn’t a magic checklist that can help you create a viral post. It’s something you have to keep doing, and eventually, something will hit and take a life of its own.
But even that isn’t the end-all. It too, will eventually fade from view. That’s the very nature of social media.
That means developing your own brand strategy will help you market using social media now, and for as long as you are in business. Think of social media as just another channel to reach your customers with. And you have to do it again and again. And again.
Be true to your brand. Write from the heart. (Or find someone who can write with your voice in mind.)
Use photos, and whenever possible, use your own. Stock photos will only go so far. If you have a visual business, and photos matter, consider taking your own. Why? Original photos get more traction. And it can help you promote your brand.
And as you find content that works, don’t be afraid to use it again. You can recycle it through at different times. Add new summaries. Use a different photograph. Add a chart or infographic.
There are many ways to repurpose your content, all of it helping you to reach out to those who truly want to do business with you.
Does all of this sound good to you? Give us a call today, and let’s explore what social media can do for you.
