Social media is an area that many businesses are putting a lot of resources towards, and with great reason. According to Statista, 81% of Americans have at least one social profile. Science says that addiction to social media is a real problem. Whether we like it or not, we live in an era of constant connectedness with friends, family, frenemies and the brands we know and love. If your company isn’t on social media, we highly recommend that you start today.
As you look to grow (or even just start) your brand’s channels, we have a few tips on how to knock it out of the park.
- Be Retrospective and Competitive
If you have been running your brand’s page for a couple of months, you should have some valuable insights to look at. Social media is always changing, but it’s also important to look at what works for your brand and your audience. Listen to your fans and create content that reflects your brand’s message and your audience’s desires.
While you’re taking a look back at your own work, look at what your competitors and other brands in general are doing. I often get some of my most creative ideas by looking at brands that are the total opposite of the brand that I’m working on. Don’t think you can get inspiration for a gun brand from a makeup brand? I dare you to try it out.
2. Brainstorm
It doesn’t matter how you do this – type obsessively on shared Google Doc with your team, sketch ideas in a notebook, make a list on your phone, draw on a whiteboard, dance to a really awesome song. Whatever makes your brain whirl and spark, do it. Even if it’s not a fully flushed out idea, write it down. Someone else on your team could take those two words and help you flush it out into an award winning campaign.
If I ever get stuck trying to think of content ideas, I always go back to something my mentor told me my first week at Swarm, “Every post should either educate, inspire, entertain or inform the person who see’s it.”
As much as my parents believe that social media is a soul sucking invention created to make people not know how to make eye contact, social media is actually a great channel to improve people’s lives by allowing them to learn something new or get a laugh on a bad day. Always keep that in mind and it’ll lead to your content having a purpose.
3. Plan
Once you get over your post-brainstorm hangover, it’s time to put your ideas into action. This does not mean post all of your ideas willy-nilly all over the internet. Phenomenal social media needs a strategy. Posting, is just a tactic.
4. Listen and Evaluate
A lot of people think that marketing is all about talking and spreading your message. Great marketing, especially in social media, means that your brand is also a fantastic listener.
Social media keeps increasing its tools for brands to listen to their fans. Facebook lets users go beyond “liking” something, and choose between five different reactions. Tools like Netbase allow us to see how passionate fans are about a topic, or what kind of sentiment is being directed towards the brand at any given time. Take all of this data into account, and see how it lines up with your overall marketing goals. You might be surprised by what you learn.
