How to grow your social media channels
When it comes to social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, it’s not always easy knowing where to start. Here we bring you five top tips to increase your social media presence:
- Identify your audience’s needs and create valuable content- One of the most important things to do when using social media is to create relevant content regularly. Identify what it is your audience wants from you, and tailor your social media plan accordingly. You must ensure that your social media content is consistently posted and you can achieve this through scheduling. Software such as Hootsuite, provides you with the ability to pre-plan social media posts, scheduling them for a specific time and date in the future.
- Increase human interaction- Let your followers know it’s a person operating your social media accounts and not an automated computer system. By doing this, you can create relationships with your followers and they’ll be more inclined to interact if they feel they’ll get a personal response. You can still make use of social media scheduling software, such as Hootsuite, but ensure you’re regularly logging into your accounts to interact with your followers. Make sure you respond to posts from your followers if they engage with you. This way your followers will feel more connected with you and it will help you to retain them. They will also be more inclined to read your posts and visit your website.
- Hashtags and social media optimization- Hashtags are a great way to target your desired audience and they can really help to direct more users to your social media accounts and website. To get the most from hashtags, do your research first. Search what hashtags are trending and use them. If you use irrelevant hashtags without thought it can actually have a negative effect on your social media presence and might even lose you followers. Posts with irrelevant hashtags can sometimes be reported as spam if they don’t add any value to a user’s social media feed. In terms of social media optimization, make use of keywords that are relevant to your business. Google Analytics and Google AdWords are a great place to start for this.
- Engage with influencers- Engaging with sector specific experts such as journalists, magazine editors, bloggers and other influencers can be a great way to boost your followers. They tend to be thought leaders in the industry and their material is often worth sharing. Engage with them wherever possible, sharing your own content, but also liking and commenting on theirs to get more interaction.
- Find your niche- Don’t spread your time on social media outlets too thinly. Find out which channels are most effective for your organisation and stick with them. Start by focusing your efforts on one or two channels and begin by building these up. Once established, you could try adding a third, if relevant, but ensure your content from one platform to the next is delivered consistently and with quality in mind.
Here at Dragonfly PR we work with a number of business to business clients on improving their social media profiles and engagement, so get in touch if you need a hand! For more details visit www.dragonflypr.co.uk or call our team on 01709 300130 or email: hello@dragonflypr.co.uk.