All businesses, small businesses and large corporations, want to engage with their target audience on a personal level. By listening to what your target audience is asking for, you can use social media as a key part of your digital marketing strategy to point in the right direction such as your website or blog.

Before you start engaging your followers, you will need to find out which social media channel(s) is best for reaching your target audience?

Do you use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, WeChat or a combination of the two? Here are some generalizations to keep in mind, but the use of social platforms is highly dependent on your audience.

Twitter is great for short messages, general reach, and impressions. Facebook allows for longer posts and reaches, and its main users are between the ages of 20 and 65. Pinterest is most beneficial for imagery, so if you’re in the art or fashion industry, that’s the way to go. LinkedIn is heavily used by B2B business professionals, so that’s the place to be if you’re selling B2B products or services. WeChat is great if your audience is mainly from Asia, specifically China.

Once you’ve determined which social outlets to utilize, here are 5 additional tips to keep in mind with your social media marketing posts:

1. Spend Your Time Wisely

Social media marketing can be a time-consuming effort. Use social media tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer to tie all of your accounts together and schedule posts during your downtime so you don’t have to constantly post throughout your workday. Also, don’t forget to account for the time zone difference. If you post something at 9AM EST, it’s likely that most of your audience in Asia will be in bed, missing out on your marketing message.

Determine the best time for your audience to engage based on how they are interacting with your previous posts to find the best time slot for each day. Then ulitize the auto post scheduler tool to automate your post flow process.

2. Create Unique Content

What sets you apart from the competition? Show your uniqueness by linking to blog posts and articles highlighting achievements, news and other benefits. Using these elements is a cornerstone of a successful social media marketing strategy.

Research trending hash tags on social media, share pictures and host caption contests. Ask questions that only experts in your field can answer. If you want to provide unique content that your followers can interact with and share, think of content outside the box.

3. Be Genuine to Your Followers

Don’t always be pushing for sales on social media, sure that might be the end goal but don’t over do it. Use it as a chance to get to know your followers.

Build and maintain mutually beneficial relationships with your audience and influencers. It’s these influencers who can make a significant impact on your social media marketing success. A single retweet or like from a key influencer can put your content in front of hundreds or even thousands of people!

4. Stay Active and Engage

Inactive social outlets are a bad look for small businesses, plain and simple. Rather than letting your social channels gather cobwebs, you need to stay active day after day with fresh content.

The toughest of any project is the starting point, and this is even more apparent when dealing with social media marketing.

Have you ever started a new semester only to find you know no one in the class? This is how social media marketing can feel when you are at the start when you have little to no followers. No one likes that feeling, but it’s where we all start. That’s why you have to follow people and engage them.

Help your followers find what they’re looking for online. Answer their questions and stay engaged with them online. Take a few minutes every day to comment on key influencers profiles and share your honest opinions and expertise. If you do this genuinely with consistency, you’ll start getting people’s attention and build a network quickly.

5. Quality Over Quantity

The sheer number of social media marketing options for small businesses might seem overwhelming, but you don’t have to do them all. Creating quality content across a few key critical channels is more important than being on every individual channel.

Above all, make sure your posts on social media are worthwhile. If all you do is advertise and sell, people will have some incentive to follow you. Remember, social marketing is about building relationships.

Be human. Stay true to your followers. Post fresh content. This is important, and you can’t fake it.

You can’t do everything, and you don’t even have to try. Reach out to your audience and do your due diligence and research to see where your target audience gathers at. Focus on using one or two social channels really well, at least initially. Once you’ve got those mastered, you can build from your experience and expand your efforts.

I hope the above tips will help you boost your digital presence. With a strategic approach and some prior organisation, you have the opportunity to significantly boost sales and grow your brand. If you need help implementing any of the above suggestions, please contact me! You know I am always happy to help.