MightyRecruiterSocial media was once only relevant to adolescents, but now, it is a staple of the professional world. Savvy business owners understand social media is an excellent way to define a brand and reach a broad customer base, but how do you crack the code? There a many sites and platforms and each has it’s own unique community. If you want to successfully create a business brand with social marketing, you’ll need to focus on your business, your audience and your content.
Create Content, Create Value
When you’re creating content, you’re not just writing blogs or infographic for people to look at. If you create content that is helpful and relevant to the reader, you build your brand into an authority in your industry or niche. When you add an article to your company blog, look at it as creating value for your business brand with social marketing.
Business Leaders Should Engage
Have you ever gone to a friend’s business to get a job done? Why? Even if your friend didn’t own or manage the enterprise, your trust of one individual led you to trust the entire enterprise. Your customers will follow the same line of logic, so when you post a blog or video, get involved with the process. Write the blog, get in front of the camera for a video or volunteer to be the brunt of a funny meme. Clients will begin to trust the leaders of your organization and are more likely to consider engaging with your products or services.
Vary Your Content to Stay Fresh
You may have started your social media strategy with a commitment to only doing blogs or video content and that’s a great way to begin cultivating your online presence. However, Internet users are as fickle as they are demanding. If you find your profiles and accounts are lagging despite posting regular content, try mixing it up. Have you noticed an abundance of 15-second videos lately? Have you noticed an increase in the use of memes shared? Stay aware of what kind of content is trending and see what works best among your audience.
Support a Good Cause
Right now, consumers want to know that you are using sustainable practices and the company as a whole has respectable ethical standards. If you work in home improvement, show how you’re dedicated to protecting the environment and supporting the green movement. Donate to local charities or host regular charitable events in your area. When you’re creating your business brand with social marketing, be sure to focus on the positive social impact you have in your community.
Handle Negativity Carefully
Even if your business excels at all aspects of customer service and product creation, you’ll still receive a negative review. Conversely, you may have overly heated exchanges between commenters. Don’t let this negativity go unchecked, but do be very careful when addressing the issue. For negative reviews, respond quickly with a polite request to work with the customer to help resolve the issue. If your audience has an inappropriate exchange in your community forums, delete comments and block users as necessary, but do not infringe on anyone’s right to have an opinion.
Differentiate Your Content Across Mediums
Let’s say you have a great blog with relevant content that helps your users maintain their cars. This month you’ll send out an email newsletter with similarly focused content. Do not repeat what you’ve said on your blog in the email or vice versa. Use you email to expand upon topics you’ve brought up in your blog. If you want readers to open you email, they have to believe they’ll find something new or unique in it. Of course, you should cross post your content, but your various accounts should look connected, not the same.
Stay the Course Until You Find Momentum
Cultivating an engaging and successful business brand with social marketing is a challenging task and in most cases it will take time. Until you find the momentum you are looking for, it is incredibly important to stay positive, motivated and focused on your social media goals. In the beginning, you’ll have to work harder for each follower. However as your online network continues to grow, so will your ability to reach a broad and attentive audience. If you want to create your business brand with social marketing, you should prepare for a long road full of ever changing trends. Just like the rest of your business, building an effective online presence will take the right combination of effort, time and strategy.