8 Tips to Grow Your Business Using Social Media Social media is essential in today's market, but to harness it effectively, you need to have a detailed plan.
By Timothy Sykes Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In today's market, harnessing the power of social media is a must if you want to grow your business and grow your brand. From my Instagram posts to my Twitter announcements, I have found that there is no end to the new opportunities that a carefully managed social media campaign can bring. With this in mind, any entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur who has yet to try out the power of social media needs to start working on creating a stronger online presence. It's something that I have seen bring great value to my own business and great value to others I have worked with in the market.
Through my experience, here are eight of the top tips that I have found can help any entrepreneur looking to expand their social media presence and their business.
1. Be consistent.
When it comes to your posts, your message and how frequently you use social media, keep consistency in mind. It is truly the key to success with any social media campaign. Make a plan for what you're going to post and how often you're going to post, and stick with it. This should ideally be a few times a day or a week, depending on your goals and your following. You can't go from posting once a month to five times a day and then back and expect to have an engaged following.
Related: 10 Laws of Social Media Marketing
2. Use all social networks.
You may have a social network that you prefer over others, but it doesn't mean that all of your followers feel that way. If you want to be successful with social media, then you need to post across all networks. This means having and maintaining an account with all of the big social media sites, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
3. Format content to optimize for each platform.
Maintaining accounts across all of the major social media platforms doesn't mean posting the same thing on four different sites every day. It means formatting content specifically meant for each platform. You need photos for Instagram, long posts for LinkedIn, videos and memes for Facebook and short and snappy announcements for Twitter. All of your posts should be different, even if they are delivering the same message.
4. Push on those networks that really work well.
There are some networks that are going to work better for you than others. When you find that network that really works for your specific type of business and your specific type of customer, then you need to really push on that network and take advantage of the opportunity.
Related: 7 Social Media Marketing Secrets No Marketer Wants to Admit
5. Make sure that your content aligns with your message.
When it comes to building a strong social media presence, getting likes and follows is great. However, it's about more than just the number of responses each of your posts get. You may be tempted to deliver a post that simply gets a lot of attention, but that will do nothing for your brand if you don't make sure that the content aligns with your message. Everything needs to fit within your brand identity and promote what it is that you're trying to say to the world.
6. Some important content won't be popular, but you still need to post it.
There are a few types of content that typically don't get a lot of likes and shares, including testimonials, charity posts, press features and important blog posts. These are really important pieces of content when it comes to establishing your validity in the market, yet they aren't the type of posts that typically get a lot of attention. Just because this type of content isn't getting likes or shares doesn't mean that you shouldn't be posting it. It may not be popular, but it helps build a foundation for your company.
7. Find a balance between popularity and business.
Your professional social media site is supposed to be about your business, though you still want to make sure that it's getting the attention you want it to get. Simply put, you want to be popular on social media. However, you need to find that balance between popularity and business. You need to have a little bit of both and mix the more fun side that wants popularity with the serious and informative side that boosts the reputation of your business.
Related: 5 Up-and-Coming Social Media Tools You Should Know About
8. Use social media to amplify all of your business and marketing efforts.
You're going to have business and marketing plans outside of your social media campaign. After all, a successful marketing plan is varied and robust. A solid social media plan only adds to your efforts and makes them more successful. It's an affordable, yet greatly under-utilized platform that can help with virtually every aspect of your marketing plan -- and something that you need to start using now.
