Social media has transformed from being where you poke your friends or make some funny posts into a key platform used by brands to catalyze their growth. It was predicted that the number of social media users would increase to 3 billion by 2022. If employed appropriately, social media can improve brand awareness and increase conversions, all of which translate into improved revenue.
However, the challenge lies in getting your target audience and getting them with relevant posts. Remember, this is coming at a time when people’s attention is most divided. Nevertheless, relax! You don’t have to bang your head against the wall. The following tips will help you stay on target and still be engaging when posting on social media.
Hear your audience out
If you listen to the radio, you will discover that it is a form of monologue – only the person on air talks; your voice or response does not count. When you create social media content, you must put your ears to the ground to know what they are saying. Do not be afraid to ask your audience what they want. This could be through a simple opinion poll or ask through a question on your page.
By so doing, you will come to understand their needs, desires, and fears – these are the reasons why they engage with you. Usually, they also tend to talk about your competitors as well as popular topics. Socialbakers’ listening and intelligence tools, for instance, can help you get necessary details about what people are saying on social media platforms. You may also have to visit your competitors’ pages to follow the conversations there.
Identify the forms of post that suits them
Usually, you may not be able to get a copy that resonates with all your audience. However, you will only have to adopt a copy that engages a significant portion of your audience. You may have to create a few target audience profiles, probably two or three. Identify their peculiarities and the content that will be suitable for them.
How do you then know the tone and style of writing to adopt so that the desired response will be elicited among your audience? Have you tried checking out their word choices? How do they sound in their expressions? Once you can attribute a certain tone to each category, you can employ the right content to build rapport and trust between them and your brand. The goal is to have your posts establish an emotional connection with them.
Post and share high-quality content
Now that you’ve identified the topic areas that appeal to your target market, you can now make high-quality and engaging content. Usually, almost every audience tends to like posts that are laced with humor. You may have to integrate little humor in every post you make on your social media pages. However, never lose sight of your brand goal.
Your content is expected to provide answers to your audience’s questions and solutions to their problems. This is a good way to drive engagement with them as well as earn their trust. People are quick to share content that strikes an emotional chord in them with other people, including their family members and friends. This helps to expand your brand’s reach.
You can engage your audience right from the beginning of your post. A common way of doing this is by asking rapport-building questions. Examples of such questions include the following: Are you tired of getting stuck in the process of writing a piece of content? What is your biggest challenge when it comes to social media usage?
Know the right time to post
It is not enough to know what to post; knowing the right time to post is of greater importance. There is great controversy around the right time to post, considering the fact that social media has users from different parts of the world, all with different time zones. There is always a way around it. The best way to discover this is by keeping track of the days when your posts get the most engagement.
The Insight tab on Instagram, for instance, provides you with information about your followers’ most active days and time of day. Use this metric in making a post. With just a few trials, you will be able to make the necessary adjustments.
Create a content schedule
Of course, it is not expected that you must post on your social media platforms or pages every day. However, it is important that you are aware of the need to post regularly to stay relevant, as social media algorithms favor this. With this in mind, you may have to create a content schedule to let people know when to check out your page to get fed with their desired content.
Sometimes, people do not have the patience to keep on guessing what they should expect from you and when they should expect it. To avoid this, you can state in your bio what purpose each piece of content you post on your page will serve.
Interact with your audience and personalize messages
It is frustrating to seek answers or make inquiries on a brand’s social media page and not get a response. People do not want to associate with robots; they seek humans. To show your brand’s human aspect, you must reply to your audience’s comments and engage with them as much as possible. Simple interactions can make people more appreciative of your brand.
In your responses, you may have to personalize some messages. For instance, in the case of a follower (named Jack, for instance) that expresses, in the comment section, his satisfaction with a brand’s product, such a brand’s response could be personalized thus: “Thanks for your comment, Jack! We will keep on meeting your needs as they concern our brand’s goals and services.” Starbucks is a brand that adopts this strategy. This has made it succeed in establishing a strong emotional connection with its followers.
Create a conversation
It is very easy to create a conversation on social media pages. A simple question about customers’ personal experiences with your goods or services can elicit responses that can ignite customer feedback and spark discussion among your followers. For instance, in 2017, Domino’s Pizza created a discussion around the ban of pineapple. This was in response to a news article by The Telegraph, titled ‘Pineapple banned from Reading and Leeds music festival.
As people tapped into the discussion, they were able to generate engagement for the brand even with pizza lovers and a wider audience, including festival-goers and The Telegraph readers.
Use images
People easily get bored reading a long post of texts only. A good way to inspire a certain emotion in your audience is through visual representation. Try to remember while you were in the elementary stage of education, how much do you like books with pictures? If you like it really much, can you relate with the attraction that pictures or images command?
Usually, through color combination, images may be used to represent your mood, decision, and how you want your product or service to be perceived. Always ensure that the color combination you use expresses your brand identity. As people read your posts consistently, they tend to come to terms with a particular emotion that always follows posts from your brand.
Try out videos
Videos have been an effective tool to increase engagement. Their use is often preceded by the knowledge of what appeals to an audience visually. Usually, when your followers read any of your posts that have a video, they tend to feel more inclined to stop and watch it. This increases the time they spend on your post. Phone technology, through smartphones, has disrupted the way people watch videos. People now watch most videos on their smartphones.
Apart from informing and educating, videos should tell a story that to which the viewers can relate. Not only that, but they should also provoke certain reactions in them. Be honest with yourself: How would you prefer learning about a brand: through a long text or a short video? The latter tends to be your preferred option. To this end, engulf your audience in your brand’s vision, mission, and values.
Conclusion
The reality is that every industry is saturated with several brands that want to get their names imprinted in diverse customers and clients’ hearts. With customers becoming more informed and exposed than ever, they are beginning to only associate with brands they can trust. One of the proven ways to establish this trust is through social media platforms. Rather than make your social media page toxic, make sure it always tempts your audience to visit it as well as express their views. Let them be able to make it their home.
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