You can be on Entrepreneur’s cover!

How to Get People to Listen to You on Social Media Tips for cutting through the noise on social media to make your voice known.

By Rachel Krasnow

entrepreneur daily

This story originally appeared on PR Daily

Shutterstock

Time magazine recently announced the "Four More Years" tweet sent from @BarackObama's Twitter account, which included a picture of the president and first lady sharing a heartfelt embrace, as the most popular tweet of all time. The tweet went viral with hundreds of thousands of retweets and favorites, just 12 hours after Obama was re-elected as president.

The previous owner of this top-tweet title was Justin Bieber.

With such excessive jabber in cyber space these days, how can anybody get heard?

It's unlikely your social media posts will enjoy the level of popularity as these public figures, but you certainly don't need to be a White House resident or have a trendy chili-bowl haircut to make your voice known. It just takes a few key strategies to put your company out there.

Make it count.
Whether it's a 140-character tweet or a blog post, be clever with your words. Consumers don't have the time or attention span to read through several paragraphs. Make your posts short, sweet, and to the point.

Don't overdo it.
On social media, there is such a thing as over-doing it. Feel free to share pictures of company events, post about new product launches, and share any upcoming news, but don't clog your audiences' feeds with unnecessary information. Consumers will start ignoring you if they feel bombarded with information, and you might end up losing advocates.

Listen to your audience.
Have you ever been on a bad date in which the person wouldn't stop talking about himself or herself? It's a huge turnoff. The same "it's not all about me" etiquette applies to social media interactions.

A key part of business-to-business and business-to-consumer communication is two-way engagement. If somebody asks you a question or tweets at you on a social media channel, respond in a timely manner. If something negative or inaccurate is posted, apologize, offer a solution, or clarify the discrepancy. Listening pays off, and you might end up actually learning something.

Analyze your results.
There is a plethora of social media analysis software out there--programs that analyze sentiment, activity, top influencers, engagement patterns, and more, so you can watch your progress and learn what it takes to get the better results in the future. By observing what works and what doesn't work over time, you can make your outreach better suited for your audience.

Patience, especially in the case of social media, is a virtue. Growing a following takes time, and you need to build trust and nurture relationships that you want to keep.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Leadership

What We Have to Gain By Talking About Grief and Loss At Work

I lost my husband to cancer during Covid — here's how it changed how I lead at work.

Money & Finance

5 Simple Wealth-Building Tips For This Generation's Forward-Thinkers

Explore practical finance tips for young professionals striving to overcome economic challenges.

Fundraising

Avoid These 9 Pitch Deck Mistakes When Asking Others For Money

Crafting an efficient pitch deck requires serious effort, but at least it's not wandering in the dark since certain rules are shaped by decades of relationships between startups and investors.

Business News

Mark Zuckerberg Says This CEO Is the 'Taylor Swift' of Tech

Meta's CEO posed with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Instagram Wednesday.

Growing a Business

To Achieve Sustainable Success, You Need to Stop Focusing on Disruption. Here's Why — and What You Must Focus on Instead.

Instead of zeroing in solely on disruptive innovation, embrace a pragmatic approach to innovation, recognizing and leveraging the potential within ongoing industry shifts.

Real Estate

3 Emerging Trends Shaping the Future of Real Estate

These three innovations are reshaping the real estate industry — discover tips for effectively covering these trends.