Maximise your Social Media Influence
Photo by Keren Levand on Unsplash
Social media is an inexpensive and powerful marketing tool for your business or your personal brand. Used correctly, it can be used to reflect who we are, what we do and what we believe in. Here are the do’s and don’ts of social media marketing:
Don’t: overdo it. Keep your status updates between 3 and 5 posts at any given time. The fewer the number of posts, the more effective your updates are. Give people smaller bites to chew on. One such mistake is posting about 8 different motivational quotes, in 8 different updates at the same time. It can make it hard for people to reflect on what you’re trying to communicate to them. Remember, they have another 15 contacts posting motivational quotes that inspired them too.
Do: be tactical. Post slowly at different times throughout the day. A WhatsApp status update has a very short lifespan. In your contact’s feed, it’s going to quickly be buried deep underneath other recent posts. To keep your contacts focused on you, make the first post at your chosen time, then make the other subsequent posts throughout the day. It will keep you at the top of their recent updates.
Don’t: build your content on shared posts alone. It’s a little shocking how very few Facebook users share original content. They have, on their timeline, mostly shared posts which don’t say much about who they are. Worse, they’re unaligned; a makeup artist’s post, followed by a contractor’s, then a DJ’s, and the list goes on and on. It can be confusing for your customer or an established brand trying to sponsor you.
Do: use your personal account for a more effective reach. A Facebook page with its professional marketing tools — an option to boost a post; analytics — is quite groundbreaking. However, until you’re well-versed in their algorithm, use your personal account. You’ll realise that your posts go to people who are actually willing to do more than just like and share. It is also a lot simpler, especially for a starting brand.
Don’t: underestimate the power of a hashtag. This little tool will have you reaching people you didn’t even think you could reach. It is such a confidence booster to see a brand that you respect like your story after tagging them.
Do: use flat lays and lifestyle photos. Product photos here should be fun and relatable. Traditional, plain background product photography should be reserved for your website. There’s a reason why influencer marketing is so effective; we can relate better to the person wearing, say a hat than we would to the hat on its own.
Depending on how you handle it, your activity on social can be quite powerful. If you want to be taken seriously as a business or as an influencer, then make it a priority to get it right. Still, social media is supposed to be fun so, take everything with a grain of salt and only use these tools to make subtle changes to your platforms to improve your influence.
