4 Effective Strategies For Promoting Yourself On Social

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Getting yourself engaged on social is an entirely different beast than using personal accounts. While the basic functions and principles feel the same, treating this as a legitimate marketing channel will take some work on branding and persistence. And if you’ve been looking to step your game up, there are a few key considerations you should consider. Check them out below:

Align Your Brand And Aesthetic

If you’re going to be reaching out on social, then one of the first things you need to take care of is your brand and aesthetic. Essentially this involves looking at your current assets including your logo, color scheme, and type kits and speculating how others perceive them. While to some this might sound like overkill, it’s what most people would see as their first impression of what your company stands for, which is why it’s imperative to get right on social. Because if you’re going to have followers, you have to create something worth following.

The most significant part of branding is the ability to step outside of it and objectively ask what it stands for. Granted, this is why many people put their branding efforts in the hands of a consultant or agency, as there’s a blend of both science and storytelling. For example, as noted by CrowdSpring, color increases brand recognition by 80 percent, which is important to note not only for your initial branding but the color schemes you choose for your social posts as well. Make a concerted effort for this to be a foundational element of your branding, as it’s going to be a part of your image that you can use for years to come (both on and off social).

Know Your Audience

Once you’ve established who you are, the next step is learning who you’re going to contact. Chances are, you most likely have a general idea as to who your audience is as they’re probably your peers or people in a community with which you’re familiar. However, true social media marketing requires much more than guesswork, which means you need to be hitting honing in on some research strategies ASAP.

With research, the name of the game is formulating both demographics (i.e., looking at customers from a broad scope) versus customer profiles (i.e., honing in on specific lifestyle choices). For example, as noted by Hootsuite, 88 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds are on social media; if you’re going to be targeting a younger demographic, then that’s a no-brainer. However, it’s diving in further to say what consumer patterns they have and what platforms make the most sense. Part of this will happen naturally over time as follower start to discover you, but it’s never a bad idea to see if any markets exist beyond your initial perception.

Take Advantage Of The Tools

A significant part of your social media strategy will be how you utilize the tools for social such as hashtags, geotags, and even polls. These will not only help track engagement but additionally give you the opportunity to start building a community around a central theme or idea based on your brand. Because as noted by Sprout Social, 7 out of 10 hashtags on Instagram are branded, which goes to show how often companies try to use strategies for likes to increase their fanbase. If you haven’t been using any of these items, then there’s no better time to start than now.

In analyzing your campaigns, try to run a few tests on the different lengths and context of each that shed insight into what was successful and what was not. For example, if I had a hashtag that I was using only for a week versus three weeks on a product launch, as well as what type of ROI I saw from it. Pulling in a mix of techniques and running through them will be your best route, as this is one item with your social media marketing that can help you grow tremendously long-term.

Keep Your Outreach Consistent

Finally, as you’re looking to promote more on social, keeping up with the consistency is going to be a crucial aspect to your success. In fact, as noted by Zimmer Communications, consistent presentation of a brand increases revenue on average by 23 percent, which is a pretty staggering figure when you consider how much more that could mean to your business. Create a calendar of when and what you’re trying to post, as well as keeping metrics for success. Who knows? With the right audience built over time, one of your posts might go viral.

What are some strategies you’ve found to be effective on social media? Comment with your answers below!