It is necessary for a brand to utilise the Social Media channels in best possible ways. So, here are some ways which will help you engage with your audience through different channels:
Facebook (FB) has the highest number of users, but, at the same time the engagement and reach keeps changing with the change in algorithms of Facebook. Brands should target the FB users, strategically.
Never bombard your FB wall with posts – 2-4 post in a day are a safe bet considering these points
- Highest engagement time – Keep an eye on the insights such as what time users are mostly engaged on the FB. Brands should choose the time slots best-suited for their product. For instance, morning posts can be a blend of reminders and information, while afternoon posts can be lighter and creative, and evening posts can be an update.
- Content – Social media is not only about sharing product information, it is also about engagement. Share the information and news about the product,, related industry news, and make the users laugh with some light content. The right content creates unity, ensures the brand is remembered, and also triggers emotional response from the users.
- Gratification – Running contests and gratifying users will built the trust and memorise the brand.
- Response time – It is important to respond to the users immediately on social media. This builds trust and loyalty among users.
Strategy for the brands using FB depends on what is it that the brand looking for – number of Likes, engagement rate, socially devoted brand (response rate). A regular competitor analysis is a must to improve the brand’s social presence.
The audience on Twitter is quite different from that on FB. Bloggers and influencers make a majority of the audience active on Twitter. So, it is very important your tweets give the right information to this audience. There are millions of users tweeting thousands of tweets every second. Thus, it is important to voice out and not get lost in those thousand tweets. To achieve this you need to:
- Decide your purpose – Is the company looking for branding, public relation (PR), or lead generation? Twitter users actively keep a tab of latest news, updates and information. Brand tweets should revolve around the product, related news, infographics, recent news, etc. Knowing there is a large number of bloggers and influencers on Twitter,brand should focus on sharing the company and brand information on this social media platform.
- Focus on your passion – It is easy to be overwhelmed by the number of tweets that are tweeted every sec. And a brand can easily go unnoticed in this noise. So, to ensure visibility, it is important to make limited tweets and target the right audience.
- Define your brand – When it’s Twitter, the focus is how you want the world to view your brand. Define your brand with your tweets –want to share general and funny tweets to represent the brand orr to stand out as a focused brand in its genre by sharing informative tweets with market numbers. Twitter is a powerful social media for creating a Brand/PR.
- Grab your brand name – A brand should pick the right name or word, which represents the brand vision well. Always use relevant hashtags (but not too many) within the tweets.
When beginning to market the brand, most of the marketing happens among family, friends or someone whom you follow. These people are called influencers. To reach to the target audience, a brand must connect with these influencers. Instagram is a photo and video sharing application, which can be used to connect the brand to increase brand visibility.
The aim here is to create images that tell brand story and also connect on a personal level with the users .The challenge that Instagram poses is the rate at which the followers base increases.
These are 5 things you should keep in mind when creating the Instagram account:
- Use business name as username – Always use the business name to create an account on Instagram. If the business name is not available, then pick a name, which is directly connected to the business.
- Connect your account with FB – Instagram is now owned by FB. Connect these two very powerful social media sites to boost your marketing efforts.
- Make an Instagram tab on your FB page – This tab will help in sharing the Instagram picture on your FB wall, for the FB fans to see.
- Hashtag your post – Hashtag is one of the factors that gets the posts a wider visibility on Instagram. It also lets users find the brand.
- Brand specific hashtags – Use the brand specific hashtag, to get more brand visibility
- Use trending hashtags – If you find trending hashtags, which gel with the brand, do use it. Post will be seen by thousands in an instant.
- Hashtag contest – Do run the hashtag contest, and let the followers upload the images with the promotional/brand hashtags. This will improve the brand hashtag visibility.
- Share your post and engage – Share your posts, but be creative. Do not promote the campaign or a product through Instagram. Be smart with the images and videos. They should be connected to the brand but also be interactive to attract the users. Use more real time pictures and videos.
Never forget your followers:
- Do like your followers’ posts
- Share your followers’ posts with related hashtags
- Appreciate the followers’ posts and share it on your FB and Twitter accounts.
Quora and Blogs
Quora – Quora is a powerful channel to take consumer and market opinion. Additionally, Quora lets you choose people who can see your questions or posts.
- You can target your questions to specific Quora users, asking them specifically to weigh in with an answer along with others in the community
- You can publish content on Quora, just like LinkedIn’s publishing platform
- You can search for specific questions or topics related to your business and follow these to receive notifications of new questions
In strategy for Quora, make sure the brand
- Find out the questions people are asking about your product/industry
- Answer questions about your products
- Learn from your customers, industry experts and other users about your product and market
- Re-answer your questions
- Start a Quora blog
- Give customer support, if need be
Blogs – Brands usually use blogs for link building, but, blog is one of the relevant sources to do PR /Branding. A Brand requires influencers to increase the followers for the blog. To achieve this, the brand could make the top blogger as the influencer. They are the ones who can help the brand to send the right message to the audience.
Things that can be achieved by brand blogs:
- Drive traffic
- Convert the traffic into leads
- Creates PR
- Build confidence among the customer as brand shares its expertise with the audience/customers.
Keep sharing company blogs and infographics on platforms such as LinkedIn and Quora.
