The game of social media has changed and it keeps changing. If you want to see results from an online presence then you have work to do. You’ll need a structure.
You probably trying to figure out how to make your online presence yield the expected results either as a business owner or a personal brand and you don’t want to do it amiss. I will share with you tips that will help you position yourself better online.
1. Know Your Why
The first place to start is identifying your why. This is crucial because it will give you clarity and help identify the right direction to follow and the right place to pour your energy so that you’re not only shooting the right shot but you’re also getting the right result. Knowing your why will also help you stay on track and put it up as a reminder on days when you feel overwhelmed and distracted.
To identify your why, you might need to sit down and think about what you want to achieve online. Do you want to build an online community, increase sales, and increase followers?
The key to building a sufficient and sustainable social media presence is first by carving out your 'why'. Your 'why' is a cogent definer and will play a huge impact as you continue to emerge.
Your purpose and motive play a huge determinant in your approach to social media. See it this way, before we build houses, we envision them before conceptualising them in architectural diagrams right? There is first a purpose and the purpose goes a long way to aid the architect in coming up with a design. After the design is made, there are further plans put in place to bring it to life.
In the same way, it's reasonable to craft a significant 'why' for your existence on social media. Ergo, this 'why' will then determine how you show up on social media. For example, a UI/UX designer who wants to build a reputable presence in the tech space would show up differently from a content creator who is interested in leveraging him/her storytelling skills to attract an audience and influencer roles.
2. Create a Content Calendar or post schedule
A Content Calendar helps you to track what you’re putting out there. It makes your content creation easier, consistent and to simple to monitor the output and content type. This involves planning which could be done on a sheet of paper or even on google sheets. You stick with what works or meet your need. This way you have clear and organized content for your channel.
Apart from the fact that you get to plan, it helps you stay CONSISTENT. Gaining social media presence has it that you show up continually and strategically.
You want to do that well.
If you find it difficult to make one, getting a social media manager is a great option.
3. Build a Relationship with your Audience
Social media is an interactive platform, and behind the screen are real people with real needs, emotions, aspirations, etc. For this reason, you’ve to treat them as humans by building a relationship through interaction. Your online presence is dependent on how well you relate with your audience. Engaging with your audience will increase your visibility, they might share your content or even mention you or your business on other platforms.
This extends to earning your audience's trust through value creation that can help them solve their problem. You know what their problem is when you listen to them in the comment section or the number of views for your videos and provide the solution they seek. They will naturally follow you.
This is very crucial if you want to build a lasting presence on social media.
4. Consistency
Consistency here does not mean every day but decide how often you want to post and try to stick to it. This does not mean that posting every day is a bad idea but for a start, you don’t need to pressure yourself. Take baby steps and grow from there. It could be weekly, monthly, or thrice a month or what works for you.
And just with everything in life, consistency is the bedrock for results. Don’t post randomly but post consistently and this will tell your audience that you are here to stay. And they will always look out for your content.
5. Put the word out
You need to let people know about your online channels so they can follow and create a link to share on other platforms to increase your followership. You need to grow your followership to have a better presence. Do not hesitate to share your content because you don’t know how far, it may go.
Social media has the attention of a vast majority. If you're going to build a significant reputation and gain ground rapidly, you have to build your presence online. Whether you are a personal or corporate brand whose objective is to gain awareness, a quantifiable following and growth in your industry, social media is an indispensable tool. It should be harnessed and leveraged to help achieve your goals.
Over 3.6 billion people globally are active users of Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter and Co. This data is a non-negotiable basis to leverage the media whether you are a career professional, a personal brand, an enterprise or a corporate brand.
Top Businesses, Organisations, Governments and international bodies are making the best use of social media to achieve their overall goals and objectives. If they identify the good in social media usage and are making use of it as one of their foremost marketing, public relations, sales and branding strategy, what's stopping you?
What does it mean to build your presence on social media? Got an idea? I bet you already do. It's definitely okay to say anyone who uses social media for whatsoever reason has a presence. Whether you use it for leisure, career or business, whatever your motive is - you have a social media presence.
However, the clause is that many are not aware of the intriguing benefits associated with social media usage. Also, they do not have SMART goals to optimise the many benefits that come with building a social media presence.
To have a social media presence means you can be seen and located online. As compared to social media, there are limits to what the traditional means of branding can do. Social media positions you in a broader scheme of things and can perform wonders if used adeptly.
You need an established social media presence not just for random and unaimed uses but for more founded purposes.
As a small business owner who is looking to grow a profitable business and at the same time, engage existing consumers, reach prospective clients and manage your overall audience, you should approach social media like a pro.
As a career professional who is looking to explore your industry, sourcing for new and relevant information needed to thrive in your chosen field, transition to a new industry, connect, meet and collaborate with peers in related fields, leave an indelible mark on your field, gathering information on relevant opportunities to scale in your career, your approach to social media should be unique.
As a personal brand that seeks to create, and share relevant information, products and services that address consumer needs, share your lives and convert life lessons to helpful content for your audience, the way you show up on social media must be defined.
This applies to enterprises, companies, religious, non-religious Organizations and many others. It's expedient to identify your 'why' and approach social media to fulfil your objectives and purposes.
Mind you, building a unique and distinct social media presence is not a walk in the park as it may seem. It takes work - calculated and strategic work. Check out your favourite brands. Their feeds are alluring and fashioned to your taste. Their presence is not oblivious to the human eye, they seem to add to their followers steadily and hit their sales conversion goals. That wasn't achieved in a random way. It wasn't done in a day either.
Remember the heart of this process is in the word 'build'? Building anything occurs in stages and requires skill, strategy and perseverance. In the next few lines, you will learn 5 proven tips to establish your social media presence.
2. Select the right platforms and know them well
Once you have identified your 'why', the next step would be to select the most suitable social media network to fulfil your 'why'. There are a vast array of networks - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Quora, just to number a few.
It would be of the essence if you embark on a research and you can conduct this by providing answers to the following questions:
What value (s) do I want to offer?
How do I intend to present the offer (s)?
Who is my ideal audience?
Where do they spend their time?
Who are the actors offering related offers?
What platform are they harnessing the most?
These questions would assist you in making informed decisions about your choice of selection. Once you have made your choice, it's important that you become familiar with the platform i.e. properties and features in order to get the most out of it.
3. Develop a blueprint/strategy
The next step would be to create a feasible plan to get the best use out of social media. Once you have ascertained the right platform, studied the features of the social media network, studied your audience - it's time to derive a social media plan. A social media plan is an integration of the first two basic steps.A social media strategy constitutes a content calendar, engagement, and analytics strategy. Social media is a site for content and numerous kinds of information so it's necessary to devote your time to creating content peculiar to your niche, addresses and draws the attention of the audience to your page. Two, write down SMART plans - you need to think of ways to drive engagement on your feeds. To do this, you can take a glimpse at your favourite brands in similar fields and glean from their approach. You are not meant to replicate what they do and how they do things, you are going to build something better.
4. Develop an ACTIVE PRESENCE, Show up FREQUENTLY
Now the next thing which could be regarded as one of the most important is your ability to keep a steady and active presence. Would you fancy a building that is not cemented and painted? The foundations are laid, and the building is done but what is left is the final layering. Would you prefer it to be a finished building?
This stage gives a finishing touch and consummates the first 3 stages. When you show up frequently on social media, it proves your seriousness as a brand and audience are most likely to engage with serious brands. You will most likely grow and achieve your brand goals.
Showing up frequently also beautifies your feeds
5. Review and Restrategise
As you go about your business on social media, create time to review your activities once to twice a month. Developers in charge of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Co. are periodically building features to ensure that users optimise the platform for their goals. Use the features to make informed decisions about your approach on social media i.e. type of content, when to post, how to engage.
Don't hesitate to adjust and adapt because social media is constantly evolving. You should not be rigid in your approach so be comfortable letting go of what doesn't work and exercise what works.
A simple checklist to build your social media presence.
It is a common saying that the world is fast evolving and everyone is going digital. Of a truth, brands and businesses today are mostly surviving through networks on social media. With this fact right before our eyes, how possible is it to get leads, gigs, or make sales online when you're not even known on any social media?
Here are five tips to help you get to build visibility on social media;
1. Define Your Target Audience
If you have a service or product to put out or you have something you would love people to see and know, then you must come to terms that not everybody is, or will be your prospect. There's a need to know who you want to communicate to, and the specific set of people you want to focus on. Getting to know that will help you maximise all that you will do afterwards.
2. Don't be a Robot
This is one of the biggest mistakes some brand owners make that jeopardises their chances of being known or seen online. As a person, brand or business, there's a need to be human as people need to know the face behind the brand. You must understand that you're not just building followers, you're building a relationship network. Followers necessarily won't buy your products, but people who you have relationships with will most likely do.Engage other people's posts too.
3. Be Valuable
What happens when you've decided on who your target audience is? What do you feed them with? What will they engage?One big criterion to gaining social media presence is being valuable. Put out value.
Do you sell products? Post educative content. You're not just a service provider that wants to take people's money, make sure to feed them well. Let them know that you know what you're doing. It boosts engagements.
Answer questions you receive.
5. Set S.M.A.R.T Goals.
No one ever gets one social media in a day to get thousand of sales, gigs, or engagements. It takes a lot to get to that stage. A whole lot. You need to set specific, measurable, achievable, measurable, and time-bound goals. Don't be complacent, and get it that Rome was not built in a day.
And in all you do, remember to make use of hashtags. They go a long way.
Conclusion
There are many other tips can also help you build a better online presence but these above can give a good head start.
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