“A third of millennials state that social media is indeed their preferred channel…”

With over 2 billion active social media users worldwide, establishing a strong social media presence will play a huge role in your online marketing success. More consumers today are following and engaging with their favorite brands on social media. In fact, a third of millennials state that social media is indeed their preferred channel for communicating with businesses (Source: Business2Community).

 

Therefore, bolstering your social media marketing habits is extremely important to appealing to your audience and yielding positive results from your strategy. From improved follower engagement, better lead conversions, to increased revenue, implementing best practices will help generate desired outcomes for your brand.

 

#1 Revolve Content around Target Audience

Your entire content strategy should align with your target audience and their pains, challenges, and interests. Each social media post that you publish should have a clear goal and speak to your intended audience to capture attention. The more you share content that educates, informs, and relates to their needs, the better responsiveness you’ll create from your posts.

Developing buyer personas is perhaps the best way to getting clear on your target audience and will serve as a guide in your content creation process.

#2 Maintain Consistent Postings

Having an active presence on social media means maintaining a consistent schedule where you post content regularly. Followers need to see you daily for your brand to remain “top of mind” and the go-to source for information. The good news is there are many social media management tools especially designed to plan, organize, and schedule your social posts to stay fresh in your strategy.

 

#3 Publish Variety of Content Types

A major benefit to social media marketing is that you can use a plethora of content types to get your audience involved in your posts. From videos to funny (where appropriate) GIFS, you can leverage multiple types of content to appeal to different audiences while giving followers a variety of ways to connect with your message.

Increase the habit of using various content types with the following ideas:

• Social videos generate 1200% more shares than text and images combined (Source: Hubspot) Upload videos organically to your social media sites to capitalize on this engagement
• Images ROCK on social media! Promote your blog posts, highlight an event at the office, or share behind-the-scenes footage using quality images
• Infographics are liked and shared on social media 3 times more than other any other type of content. Use these detailed visuals to share data so your audience can easily digest your content
• Interactive content is the wave of the future. Surveys, polls, and podcasts work well in getting followers interacting with your posts
• People spend 3 times longer watching a live video versus one that is prerecorded (Source: Social Media Today). Use tools like Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, and Periscope to deliver blog content or host live Q&A sessions to gain real-time feedback

#4 Post at the Best Times

Knowing when to share your social media content is just as important as publishing your posts regularly. You see, there are certain peak hours when your unique audience is most responsive to your content. Although studies reveal the best times to post for each social media platform, you’ll become much more effective when you know the optimal times for your followers.

Tools like Buffer and CoSchedule offer built-in analytics that shows the ideal times to share your content on various social platforms. You’ll know when your audience is most engaged so you can yield greater results from your postings.

 

#5 Don’t Forget to be social!

Remember, social comes before media…so interact, engage and have fun with your followers. Don’t just share your posts and walk away. It’s important that you respond to comments to reveal the human side to your brand. Also, personally inboxing fans to initiate conversation separates you from competitors, giving you the slight edge.

So like, share, and comment on their content! Be responsive and in tuned with your audience. You’ll be amazed at how these personal touches will accelerate your social media presence and online success.

#6 Test, Test, and Test Some More!

The key when implementing these and any other social media tactics is to discover what resonates with your target audience. You’ll want to test, collect data, analyze and modify so your strategy is producing results. Ask yourself, when is your audience most active online? What content pieces do they tend to engage with the most? Again, leveraging a social media management tool along with Google Analytics can help you determine this information. Knowing it will position you to give your audience more of what they want…and foster better marketing.

 

Conclusion

Implementing these social media habits will certainly bolster your brand’s presence on your networks and yield consistent returns in your business. The key is to remain consistent, find what is working best with your audience, and ramping up from there.

Much success!