In this day and age, social media is the undisputed ruler of the Internet. It is the great equaliser that allows anyone to talk about anything. The downside is that it can be difficult to make yourself heard over all the noise people generate. Despite this, it is still possible to use social media sites as a potent tool for marketing your business. Here are the things that you need to consider to get the most out of your online presence.
1.Develop a Brand Voice
Your business is not a nameless, faceless corporation. You simply don’t have the momentum of the giants out there like Tesco or Starbucks. However, you can use this fact to your advantage. When you know who your customers are, you can figure out how to talk to them. By tuning the language you use in your social media announcements to suit the right type of person, you are more likely to attract the customers that you want. The key factor is giving your brand voice some kind of personality. That allows you to build a rapport with your customers which will lead to a much more loyal and dedicated user base.
2. Get a Hobby
Getting your business a hobby may sound strange on the surface, but it is actually something most people do not even think about. The key lies in finding something your audience cares about that you can also talk about. Of course, you want your audience to care about whatever it is you are selling, and you do not want to be talking about the competition if you do not have to. By finding something that lies adjacent to what you are selling you can start to bond with your customers over shared interests. Then they will start to see you as more of a friend than a company.
3. Take Advantage of Regular Trends
A lot of industries feature regular trends that you can take advantage of. For example, small games studios can show off their stuff via #screentshotsaturday on Twitter. Prospective fans and customers will be keeping an eye on these weekly events and so being a part of it every week maximises your potential to become a known and recognised part of that corner of the Internet. There are some projects which have even run successful crowdfunding campaigns purely on the strength of these things.
4. Diversify Your Platforms
Given the sheer number of social media platforms, it can feel a bit overwhelming to keep up with them all. Sometimes it will seem like you are better off sticking to the big names like Facebook or Instagram and ignoring the new startups. After all, the new pretenders will eventually fade away and any effort put into them will be for nothing, right? Not exactly. Customers gained through new platforms, even the ones that do not last, are still customers and they will follow you back to the bigger sites should thing go pear-shaped for the newer ones. Also, do not forget the once even Facebook was a new and untested social media site that could have gone nowhere.
5. Take Advantage of Collating Tools
To go with the previous point, it is worth investing in a tool that lets you run all of your social media from a single place. Large companies have their own custom software, but there’s plenty out there to help those who do not have a dedicated IT department capable of creating such things. It is also much harder to forget a platform when they are all listed right in front of you.
6. Have Someone Work on Social Media Full Time
Social media is not just a case of tweeting or posting about something as soon as you release it. Building an online presence takes time and dedication. It requires someone who has the time and dedication to respond to mentions and participate in online conversations as they come in. The best kind of content manager will carry a smartphone on their person at all times and will be happy to respond on your behalf even outside of the usual office hours. After all, the Internet never truly sleeps and if you wait to take advantage of a particular trend it may already be over.
7. Social Media is Not a Digital Billboard
This means you have to do more with your accounts than create adverts. If you have a new product or service coming or want to have some kind of offer or sale, then, by all means, post about it all over all of your platforms. However, in between times you need to be having real conversations with people. Your company is more than a mindless thing extorting people to buy whatever it is you are selling. You have a personality and you need to form connections with people, that is how you create a loyal user base.
8. Be Careful With Memes
We have all seen the incredible power of Internet memes. When a company successfully harnesses the energy and momentum these things generate it creates a veritable storm of what is essentially free advertising. It is understandable that many others have looked at that and decided to try for a slice of the same success pie. The thing is that memes essentially have a language and a life of their own. Keeping on top of the current trends is a really a full-time job by itself. For every success story, there is a company which has badly miscalculated how to behave and has ended up with a large boycott of their products. Far more common are all those that invest time and energy but never get noticed, either because they are unlucky or by the time they are ready to take advantage of the newest thing the Internet has already moved on. This is not to say that it is not worth trying if an opportunity comes your way, just that it may not be worth explicitly trying to force the situation.
