Why should brands and businesses care about social media?
In most industries, social media managers are highly undervalued. There’s a deep-rooted stigma that social media is a non-essential role that requires little strategic and analytical thinking. But in fact, it requires creativity, copywriting, branding, understanding user experience and key metrics, for multiple platforms. Yes, you heard that right. Each platform requires its own attention when it comes to design and strategy.
While most businesses and brands understand that they need to be on social media, they don’t actually have the insight to care and time to dedicate to nurturing their business by using the tools.
Say you’re a new mental health provider wanting to build awareness of your practice in a specific target community. Sure, you’ve built connections within your industry, you’ve shared the good news on your personal social media channels, you’ve covered your bases when it comes to the initial marketing collaterals, but have you thought about how you’re going to build an audience and show up for them everyday day? Do you know how you’re going to communicate with them? Do you know what times they're most active? Do you know your objectives and how you plan to drive traffic to your website?
Social media marketing keeps your audience coming back day after day, but only for those who are dedicating careful thought and consistency.
After your initial customer/client/patient research, you can narrow in on the type of people that you want to speak to through your content. Once you’ve done some serious persona research, you should understand how to speak to that persona, what they want to see and what they’re most likely interested in. That “persona” will need to always be in mind during the content creating and copywriting phase.
Social media platforms, such as Instagram, have built-in tools that help you reach, engage and sell to the people that you’ve identified as your target audience.
Put aside hashtags, comments and shares…
Instagram unlocked a wormhole of creativity with its ‘reels’ creator that businesses and brands have tapped into to reach a higher volume of users through fun, entertaining videos. This feature has been so successful in reaching larger audiences that Facebook is launching “Facebook Reels” for creators to get discovered and connect with their audience.
Social media can be a key source for building connection and loyalty with your audience
Take a second to think about the brands and businesses that regularly show up on your social media feed. Why do you think that is? More than likely, you’re connecting with them and actively engaging with them.
What is it about the brand that connects you? It might be the tone of the brand, the voice, or the content that you relate to. If you want to make the most of your brand’s social media presence, it’s important to put some personality into it and connect with the people on the other side of the screen who make a difference in the success of your brand.
Your audience has endless options of brands to follow, but brand connection and loyalty will keep them by your side.
Here are some of the ways you can attain loyalty:
Acknowledging positive and negative feedback
Prompt responses and customer support
Rewarding those who continue to show up for you
Sharing user-generated content
When it comes to social media trends they pretty much change by the day. But staying up-to-date on trends keeps you at a steady advantage. For example, TikTok seems to blow every other platform out of the water when it comes to new trends. It can be overwhelming. But each time a new trend emerges, it gives brands the opportunity to experiment with the trend as it relates to their own brand and audience.
Not only do you want to appeal to your audience, but it’s always a good idea to strive to be a leader in your industry. Social media platforms like LinkedIn, give you a microscopic lens into what industry trends are popping up.
Some key insights:
What problems are customers seeing within your industry and can you can address them?
Who are the new industry movers and shakers? And how can you connect with them?
What are customers saying about your competitors? And how can you attract them?
Social media can help you find out what people are saying about your business and industry, giving you the chance to connect with them.
At the end of the day, think of social media as the storefront of your brand. Those who come across your profile might want to take a peek at what you have to offer. The bio and aesthetic are the storefront, your posts are “items” that you offer and engagements are your customers. Even if you aren’t a brick-and-mortar business, you can understand this analogy.
