Marcus RichardsIf you are building a brand, social media channels are a great way to establish your business, gain a following and increase awareness.
1. Find your niche
When you are creating a social media presence, it is important to specialise in a certain area, whether it’s beauty, finance, parenting or crafts. Whatever it is, determining your speciality can help you build your brand. While it can be tempting to focus on multiple areas of interest, finding a particular niche can help you target a specific audience and establish authority in that field.
When choosing your niche, it should be something that you are passionate about. Once you have chosen your speciality, you can begin creating content around that topic and tag other accounts relating to your topic of interest.
Once you have your niche clear, you can think about your brand identity and brand voice; how you will express your brand values in a way that is engaging and inspires followers to take action and buy your product or service.
2. Understand your audience
Knowing your audience and demographic can help you create more tailored content and connect better with your followers. Think about where your audience is located, what their age group is and what time they are typically online.
This can also help you think about working with influencers. Selecting an influencer who is followed by similar people to your brand can help you amplify your audience. When choosing an influencer, think about finding someone who is engaging, authentic and aligned with your brand.
Moreover, you may consider connecting with your audience through specific PR channels. For example, if your brand is a cybersecurity business, you may need to consider a PR company that specialises in cybersecurity to ensure you target people properly.
3. Connect in the right places
When building a social media brand, it is important to know which social media channel to use to maximise your success. Knowing your target market will help you make this decision. For example, if your brand is more visual, Instagram and TikTok may be preferable.
For each social media channel that you choose, you should have specific social media goals and objectives. Think about the type of audience you have on each channel and analyse the type of content you are posting. What is effective on one social media channel will not necessarily be effective on another.
Different audiences will engage with different platforms. For example, if your brand is business-to-business, Linkedin is probably your best bet. For business-to-consumer brands, you will probably want to consider Instagram, Facebook or even TikTok.
You may even be able to target people in specific local areas depending on the product or service you are selling. For example, if your brand and company helps people find venues to hire in London, you will likely need to target people in London looking to rent a hall or venue for a party or other event in one way, whilst targeting people outside of London very differently.
4. Keep up an active social media presence
One of the biggest challenges with social media is posting content consistently – especially if you have a multi-channel strategy. However, consistency is key and will keep you fresh in your followers’ minds.
When you post consistently and strategically, it can maximise your reach before you’ve even spent a penny on any ads. Spend time scheduling your content, taking any opportunity to share news or events to keep things topical. Keep up with current social media trends for new opportunities to connect with your audience.
5. Engage with your followers
It is all very well having a social media presence and posting regular content. But, in order to really resonate with your audience, you need to engage with your followers. Engaging with your audience adds a personal touch, helping to develop relationships with customers and build consumer trust.
Good ways to do this are to respond to comments and direct messages, create polls about certain topics and share user content.
It is also a way to get feedback in real time about what content is effective and what isn’t. This can help guide your future brand strategy.
