Your social media audience is gold — a treasure chest of prospects and customers ready to learn more about your brand and why it matters. And the best part? You don’t have to pretend to be something you’re not. By showing up authentically and with intention, you can nurture your audience and create meaningful, lasting customer relationships.
But here’s the deal with social media…
You have to play by its rules. You have to understand what kind of content audiences expect and how to position yourself as a trustworthy, reputable brand. Learning how to make the most of your social channels is pivotal to maximizing your social media audience.
Luckily for you, we’ve dug up the insights you need to show up authentically so you can maximize your audience over the long haul. Let’s take a look at six actionable tips you can start implementing right away.
Maintain a consistent brand identity
Becoming a memorable brand starts by permeating your brand’s identity into the minds of your audience. And what’s a great way to do that? Start with the aesthetics. Having well-designed social media posts with a consistent look and feel helps your brand appear polished, professional, and best of all, consistent.
Part of mastering great design? Choosing a color palette that embodies your brand’s culture and mission. You can also take a look at a color wheel online or get inspiration from popular influencers in your niche.
Here are some other ways to create a consistent brand identity:
- Consider having themed posting days. Think “Mindset Mondays” or “Q&A Fridays.”
- Integrate your brand’s personality and unique voice into every post.
- Plan your content 30 to 90 days out to establish a consistent look and feel.
- Respond to comments, ask questions, and engage with your audience every day. Be sure to reply to every user.
- Use custom branding when creating your social profiles. For instance, use custom-branded images as your highlight covers on Instagram.
- Choose consistent content types. For instance, short videos, still images, infographics, Story posts, carousel images, and text-based images.
- Choose a topic strategy and rotate your content themes each week. Think behind-the-scenes, value-driven, about the brand, specific offers, encouragement, and humor, for example.
- Choose and rotate between visual content themes. For instance, coffee, green plants, desk, behind-the-scenes, real client interactions, and selfies.
When it comes to branding, the most important thing you can do is be authentic. You want to establish a consistent brand identity, but that doesn’t mean you have to think of all the same things for every post, or that every single post has to follow the same format.
Feel free to post anything that best tells your story. Just be sure to use your custom branding on everything you do so people can recognize it and know it’s coming from you.
Create ad campaigns with care
Did you know that 71% of consumers don’t trust social media ads? Ouch. That’s a lot of money down the drain for ads that don’t work. The solution?
Create your ad campaigns with care. Don’t be in a rush to push a particular product or promotion. Take a few days to strategize what kind of language your audience would respond to best.
If you want to run traditional social media ads, consider conducting A/B testing first so you can see which ad details your audience is drawn to most.
But there’s another method you can use that’s becoming increasingly popular in the social media world: Bite-sized videos. Yes, we’re looking at you, Instagram Reels, and TikTok videos.
Hopping on the bite-sized video trend is an effective way to:
- capitalize on growing trends that produce high engagement;
- promote post virality and interest;
- reach newer and wider audiences;
- save money on costly social media ads;
- build up your own content inventory;
- establish yourself as a reputable brand;
- captivate your audience’s attention;
- save time creating and setting up lengthy ad campaigns.
But there’s a caveat here. Just because you’re taking advantage of a hot trend doesn’t mean you can afford to post lackluster videos. To really connect with your audience, spend time carefully writing out your video copy, researching trending music, and planning your transitions, visual elements, and calls to action (CTAs).
If you’re struggling to produce video copy that converts, consider outsourcing to a content-writing service or hiring a video creator for support. No shame in leaving it up to the experts!
Bring your audience in on the experience
Spending time with your audience is just as important as spending time with a friend — a top pillar in establishing deep and meaningful relationships.
When you bring your audience in on the experience, you begin forming lasting bonds and connections with them. Additionally, the rest of your audience starts to trust you more as they notice increasingly more brand promoters and customers singing your praises.
For instance, Tailor Brands teamed up with one of its customers to share how its services helped them set up a new marketing business. Instagram now has a great feature where you can repost content from another user’s page onto your own if they give you publishing rights.
The following video is featured on both Tailor Brands’ page and the original creator’s page — a double whammy as far as brand exposure goes, are we right?
Here’s another example. If you’re interested in bringing your audience on camera more, look no further than Jasmine Star.
Not only does Jasmine answer their most burning business questions, but she also goes the extra mile by workshopping solutions to their business challenges. Genius!
Give away loads of free value
When it comes to maximizing your social media audience, look no further than valuable social media content.
We’re talking a lot of value. Tons of it. And free, at that.
Giving away loads of free value helps you:
- position yourself as an industry expert;
- nudge leads closer to conversion;
- give your audience a sneak peek into what it’s like to work with you;
- track what kind of content and solutions your audience finds most valuable;
- build trust with new and established audience members.
To discover what kind of content your audience finds valuable, spend time uncovering their core needs, problems, and content preferences. Then, tailor your content accordingly.
For instance, you might find that your audience eats up your email marketing tips when given in Story format. Or you might find that your audience can’t get enough of your budget travel tips when presented as image carousels.
Whatever the case may be, give them what they want.
You can also link to more in-depth content on your blog or give away content downloads. Consider taking advantage of massive listicles, ultimate guides, and thought leadership articles to really amp up the value.
Take this massive listicle written by Gaming Gorilla on the top 50 GameCube Games of all time, for example:
In this example, Gaming Gorilla capitalizes on a topic its audience adores: GameCube Games. Gaming Gorilla doesn’t list one, two, 10, or even 20 games. It goes the extra mile by listing 50 games its audience can enjoy. See what we mean by giving away loads of free value?
So, think about it. What kind of tremendous value can you shower your audience with?
Meet your audience where they are
Just like you wouldn’t fish in an empty pond, you shouldn’t choose social media channels that are misaligned with your brand’s target audience.
In other words, choose your social media channels wisely.
That’s why it’s essential to discover:
- which channels your audience frequents most and why;
- what kind of content they’re consuming on each channel and why;
- what kind of content they’re engaging with on each channel and why;
- what brands and influencers they’re following and why;
- what they expect from a brand before they hit the follow button;
- how old your average audience members are (refer to your buyer personas).
Take MOS, a fintech turned bank, as an example. One of its main products is a student debit card. So naturally, MOS created an entire set of explainer videos giving young adults tips on banking and how to spend money wisely.
Can you guess which platform it chose to do this on? TikTok — the channel Gen Zers can’t get enough of, of course.
But here’s the deal with meeting your audience where they are…
You need to make sure the content you create feels native to each platform you choose. Social media users expect content that looks and feels natural — and you can’t do that by forcing a square peg into a round hole.
So, how do you create native content for each channel without burning out your content team? Business strategist Jasmine Star recommends creating one piece of content and then tailoring it for each social platform you’ve chosen.
Run contests and giveaways
Need a way to generate a slew of highly qualified leads as social media followers? Look no further than contests and giveaways. Contests and giveaways boost virality by capitalizing on something audiences can’t resist — prizes, gifts, and experiences they’re eager to win.
The key to running a successful contest or giveaway? Make sure it makes sense for both your brand and your audience. For instance, if you sell project management services to construction companies, it probably wouldn’t make sense to use a flatscreen TV as a giveaway prize. Giving away a free week’s worth of project management services, on the other hand, would be a huge value-add for your audience.
Take this giveaway example posted on chef Giada DeLaurentiis’ Instagram page:
In this example, Giada partnered with World Central Kitchen to generate charity proceeds and give her audience a chance to win a trip to Italy. Giada is an Italian chef and chose to lock arms with a food-based charity.
So, question…
Does this sound in alignment with Giada’s brand, giveaway partner, and audience? If you ask us, we can’t think of a better giveaway idea that embodies all three.
Are you eager to use this tip but feel stuck on giveaway ideas? Here’s a quick checklist you can run through to get the creative juices flowing:
- What industry are you in?
- What are your top offers/what do you sell?
- What prizes, gifts, and experiences are related to what you offer/sell?
- What prizes, gifts, and experiences would your audience love?
- What brands could you potentially partner with?
- What past giveaways and contests has your audience participated in?
- What are you willing to give away that won’t harm your business?
- When would you like to run the giveaway? Are there any major holidays around that time you can capitalize on?
Wrap up
Your social media audience is a goldmine of opportunity, ready for the taking. By showing up as your authentic self, delivering tremendous value, and crafting your posts with intention, you can nurture your audience and create meaningful relationships for years to come.
But remember, you have to play by the rules.
When it comes to social media, you have to understand:
- how to position yourself as a trustworthy, reputable brand;
- what kind of content your audience expects and finds valuable;
- what core needs and problems your audience has;
- what channels your audience frequents most.
Luckily for you, we’ve put together the exact tips you need to thrive on social media and maximize your audience long-term. For good measure, here’s a quick recap of the tips we shared today:
- Maintain a consistent brand identity.
- Create ad campaigns with care.
- Bring your audience in on the experience.
- Give away loads of free value.
- Meet your audience where they are.
- Run contests, competitions, and giveaways.
And that’s it for now! Are you ready to show up authentically and strategically on social media? We’d love to help. Check out our social media chatbot solutions, today.
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