Branding is one of the most important aspects to building a business but is so often overlooked by most startups. Color, messaging, engagement with your audience, and the frequency of posting all have an impact on how your business will be seen by your target audience.
I have worked on marketing campaigns for start ups before where they focused on every little detail, even the color that the CEO wore in press conferences because they were that dedicated to the colors they had chosen to represent the business.
And I have worked for other start ups that didn’t have social media accounts for their business because they “didn’t believe in social media”…. In this day and age, you really NEED to have social media branding in place. It’s really not an option.
Social media is how many people have started to engage with each other and with the businesses they ultimately choose to purchase from. So if that is where your target audience is hanging out, that’s where you should interact with them!
Gaining Meaningful Engagement
- The biggest factor for me has always been CONSISTENCY of posting and engagement with your audience. If you post consistently for a month and then not at all for a month then you will lose a good portion of the audience you gained and worked so hard to build a relationship with.
- Next, is quality of your interaction with the followers that engage with you. Don’t just say “thanks for the comment,” ask them a question or provide feedback on what they said to keep the conversation going and THEN thank them for the comment.
- Go out and make friends. Find people in your niche that are also posting consistently and follow them. Leave meaningful comments or share their content with your followers. This starts to establish trust and helps get engagement for your niche so it’s a win-win situation!
Be Real!
No one wants to be sold ever by anyone. Everyone likes to feel like they are engaging with real people, not sales people. If you focus all of your effort on talking about your business, it is highly likely that people will get bored with your social media easily. Brand yourself! Be real and have an authentic voice. Become an influencer and show how passionate you are about what you are creating content around.
Ultimately, social media is the newest “word of mouth” advertising that is available and the engagement on social media seems to grow daily! Take a good, hard look at your current social media and evaluate whether or not this is working for your business or harming it. If it’s harming it, make a plan to change and start to implement it today!
Thanks for reading,
Social media is such an underutilized tool by so many businesses and many have no social media strategy whatsoever. It makes no sense to me! The world has changed and it is quickly becoming more and more virtually connected so why not go to where your audience hangs out?
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You have brought up such a great point! Social media is how many of us are interacting with each other nowadays and how many consumers are making their decisions to purchase and who to purchase from. If you are active on social media then you stand a good chance of getting in front of your target audience if that's where they hang out at.
Ivy
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Totally agree about being consistent. I'd say that applies here in Steemit and elsewhere in social media as well. Do you do much cross-pollination between the two?
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I am pretty active on social media, especially Twitter and Medium, because I would like to bring others into the Steemit community and what better way than to share on social media, right? Consistency really is important and something that I'm working on all the time. Do you share your work outside of Steemit? Thanks for a great comment!
Ivy
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Yes, I'm a Steemit newbie, so most of my social presence is Twitter, LI, and elsewhere. I've been trying to find and follow more interesting, smart people here in Steemit, and was happy to find you!
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Congratulations @ivyriane! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
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Congratulations @ivyriane! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
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I see you sign your name at the end of your posts and comments. Do you find this makes a difference?
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