With 53% of the population using social media, it’s essential for organisations to set up an effective and interesting social media presence. This not only helps you keep your current customers engaged, but it also allows you to reach new customers across the globe who would not otherwise be aware of your brand.
The question is, how do you do this? Keep on reading to find out how to create an engaging and effective social media presence.
1. Choose your social media platforms
There are many different social media platforms to choose from, and it can be hard to know which will best suit your brand. Choosing the best social media platform for you all depends on the way you want to portray your brand, what demographic you would like to reach and the type of media you would like to put out there. For example, if your target audience is 16– 24-year-olds and your content is primarily video based, more visual platforms with a younger demographic such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube may be the best option for you. If you want to connect with other businesses and publish more informative, text-based content, a more professionally focused platform such as LinkedIn may be a more suitable option.
2. Creating content
This point is much easier said than done, but it is important to create posts that captivate and hold your audience’s attention. Achieve this by using a mixture of excellently written copy paired with engaging visual media such as images, videos, gifs, infographics, and logos. There is plenty of easy-to-use software out there that can help you to create great visual components. Some good examples are Canva, Crello, Vyond and Snappa.
In order to keep people interested, it’s also important to keep your posts relevant and interactive. Keep your finger on the pulse and create posts that relate to current events or trends. Don’t be afraid to ask your audience questions and encourage them to tag their friends or share your posts. The more engagement you get, the more your online presence will grow!
3. Engage with your audience
Once your content is out there, you should begin to receive some comments, likes and shares. In order to keep this momentum going, it’s important to respond to and like any comments you may get, as this will encourage more people to do the same! Another good way to engage with your audience and get more exposure is by running interactive activities such as competitions, giveaways, and puzzles. Anything that gets people talking about your post and sharing it with their network is great for increasing your outreach and building your brand.
4. Be consistent!
Consistency is key in all aspects of building your social media presence. For example, it’s important to be consistent with your posts. Creating a posting schedule and queuing posts ahead of time can help with this. It’s also important to be consistent with branding across your social media platforms, website, physical locations, and any promotional literature you may have. This helps to create a cohesive image of your brand and makes it easier for your customers to recognise and find you on social media.
5. Call to action
Once people are engaged with your posts, it’s important to include something that guides them further towards your products or services in some way. This could be a statement that encourages your audience to visit your website accompanied by a link, or instructions to contact your organisation for more details. This will help to drive your sales and increase traffic to your website.
6. Share, share, share!
Once your content is out there, it’s important to distribute it to reach a wider audience. This could be through paid promotion features on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram that boost your post to reach more users. Alternatively, this could be through organic methods such as sharing your posts in Facebook groups.
We hope that this blog post has given you a good idea of how to start building your social media presence. If you want to learn more about building a successful social media presence and go into more detail about a specific social media platform, take a look at our wide range of social media courses here!
How to Create an Engaging Social Media Presence
