Building a large social media following and promoting a brand online has become one of the most common ways to reach customers. And rightly so. Just consider, for example, how companies can take advantage of their online pages to promote products or services.
When Nike posts a picture of their latest sneakers on the company’s official Instagram page with more than 86 million followers, for example, they are targeting individuals who are already interested in the brand. If they were not, these people would not be following them online.
Nike is putting the right product in front of what is most likely the right audience for practically no cost since the vast majority of online traffic for major brands is organic. For those unfamiliar, organic means that it was not paid for as the company generated it for free.
In order to get to this point, however, Dr. Jan McBarron believes that companies have to endure a long and tedious process of building their social media pages up. This is where all of the benefits that they will enjoy in the future will have to be earned. After all, increasing brand awareness through the spheres of contemporary marketing is quite difficult and mandates one to put in a great deal of work and creativity.
Therefore, what are some of the most important tips for effectively building a social media brand?
1. Be Unique and Creative
According to Dr. Jan McBarron, an award winning physician, social media influencer, and published author, one of the key concepts in increasing one’s online following boils down to their ability to bring something new to the market.
For example, if a company’s Facebook page is shaping up to be the exact copy of every other brand within their industry, the prospective followers are very likely to overlook it. The reason why is that there is no tangible reason for them to go out of their way and get accustomed to the new brand when it is similar to the existing ones.
So, the first thing that businesses have to take into consideration is that social media must be handled by someone who is very creative. That way, the originality and uniqueness will most likely give rise to new followers.
2. Understand Your Audience
In order to earn engaged followers, having well-planned posts is not enough. One must also be well aware of who they are trying to appeal to.
For instance, if a certain business is in the market of selling Dell computers, they would probably not want to target people who are loyal customers of Apple. The reason why is that making those individuals switch from their preferred brand will be incredibly difficult and pricey.
So, figuring out who the ideal customer is and knowing how to extrapolate and generalize that information to the broader audience base will help one reach their goals faster.
3. Post Frequently
Dr. Jan McBarron further reminds everybody that there is nothing as effective at killing a social media brand as low activity levels. The reason why is that people have grown to have very high expectations of those companies that they give their attention to. So, if someone follows a page that promotes products for weight-loss, per se, they will probably want to see something posted once or twice a day.
What does this mean for companies that decided to take their social media to the next level?
Well, depending on their size, it probably indicates that they will have to hire someone to oversee this project and delegate duties to others. For instance, having a social media coordinator or manager is a very common solution to this concern.
4. Engage the Audience
Alongside posting frequently, it is crucial to engage the audience beyond the actual post itself. In translation, asking for feedback and opinions, responding to comments, and getting in touch with buyers will have an enormous impact on how people view the brand.
When some company goes out of their way to get back to every single customer, the public opinion of them reflects the company seeming more approachable and welcoming.
5. Incentivize Sharing
Going from a few thousand followers to a few million could easily be just one viral campaign away. For those unfamiliar, a viral trend is what happens when innumerable amounts of people share a certain type of content and it snowballs into mind-boggling numbers.
One way to push for this outcome would be to incentivize every viewer to share. Although they will seldom do so on their own, organizing giveaways and other types of competition will make it much more appealing to them. Hence why it is not uncommon to see nearly every company that has a Facebook or Instagram page do an occasional product or service giveaway!