6 Tips to Enhance Your Social Media Presence
June 01, 2016
Generating leads is the main reason for businesses to create and maintain a social media presence. It takes a strong presence and large following to see results from your social media marketing. The first thing to consider is how to generate a following, this will be an effective step in your online marketing. The wider your reach gets, the more leads you will be able to generate for your business. To help get you started, here are six tips to enhance your social media presence.
1. Know Your Audience It’s important to have a presence where your customers or potential customers are on social media. So take time to research your buyers and where they’re hanging out on social media. Some tips on how to locate your target audience:
- 1. Ask your customers
- 2. Look at where your competitors are
- 3. Take an anonymous survey
- 4. Find out where your industry is active
- 5. What age group are you targeting and where do they spend their time?
(Source) Try to focus on the platforms where your buyers are most likely to be, but don’t limit yourself to just one social media account. Everyone has a favorite social site, so creating profiles on different social networks will allow you to cast a wider net.
2. Interact Always interact with your followers by answering any questions or comments on your account. If someone mentions you in a post, be sure to follow up with a response. Customer service is key and people want to feel like they are connecting to a real person. Also be sure to like and share content that is relevant to your industry. This is a good way to find people that are interested in your line of business.
3. Share Valuable Content It’s important to have useful content that is worth reading and sharing. This is how you will establish a loyal following. Content should be valuable to your consumer while keeping them engaged. When it comes to promoting your products vs. general information about your industry and news, a good rule to follow is the 80/20 rule. This keeps your content in check with 80% of your posts being valuable content and 20% being used on self-promotion. But you still have to get people to click and read your content. Videos, images and visual content are a great way to lure in your followers. Researchers found that colored visuals increase people's willingness to read content by 80%. (Source)
4. Optimize Your Account Take time to make a list of keywords that relate to your business or industry. Keywords are terms that people would use to search for your business online. For example, CNN’s keywords might include: news, news online, breaking news, world news, weather, sports, etc. Using these keywords in posts and on your account will help generate traffic to your site. Hashtagging keywords in your posts can also help people find you.
5. Promote Everywhere Don’t make it hard for people to find you on social media. Promote your social presence everywhere. Your website, blogs, business cards, email signatures and any promotional materials you create. Make it easy for people to access your business online. Don’t forget to also provide a link to your website on your social media accounts. Now a customer has somewhere to go to learn more about your business, see how your customer support interacts with customers, and access customer reviews . 
6. Play Games Promote social media contests, ask trivia questions and offer prizes. People are more likely to get involved if there's something in it for them. A study byColumn Five Media reported that 70% of users said they used social media to participate in a contest or sweepstakes. Use contests and games to get people to like share, and follow your page. A great example of this was Audi's #WantAnR8 contest in 2012. Twitter called it the most successful campaign ever at the Cannes Lions 2012. Audi created a contest where users had to create and post a Tweet that used the hashtag #WantAnR8 and the user was entered to win an R8 for a day. This campaign helped Audi generate 15 percent more interaction than it's biggest competitor, Mercedes-Benz. 