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Social Media Basics Learn to Market Your Brand, Build Relationships with Audience
Social Media Basics Learn to Market Your Brand, Build Relationships with Your Audience
BY KELLY GAGGIN, PH.D.
Social media is here to stay when it comes to marketing brands and even more so as a tool for building relationships with audiences. It’s important for organizations to have a presence in the digital space and to have that presence on the platforms that reach their audiences. There are so many options to communicate digitally it can be overwhelming — even for the experts! There are videos and photos and text and what the heck are these “stories,” and so many questions to be answered: Should I share other people’s content or does it have to be my own? How often do I post? What tone do I use when posting? The following breaks down the basics of social media to help take away some of the apprehension and ensure that your organization has a solid presence to create awareness, engagement and, of course, sales.
WHY SOCIAL?
Social media has become a necessity because it is low cost and offers few barriers to entry while providing high returns for your brand through the ability to communicate in an authentic fashion that is engaging and a natural extension of your brand voice. In short, it builds relationships, and those relationships can lead to increased interest in your brand and sales or direct involvement.
WHICH PLATFORM IS RIGHT FOR ME?
This question is often posed by brands as new social platforms arrive on the scene. The answer really depends on the audience or customer base a brand is trying to reach. For example, if your audience is 65-plus, it’s unlikely they are spending time on TikTok and highly probable they are scrolling through Facebook, keeping up with the children and grandchildren.
That said, establishing your social presence on Facebook and Instagram, two of the most popular platforms, is an ideal starting point that provides a broad range of demographics and ample opportunity to develop your brand voice in the digital space.
GETTING STARTED
1. Register for the platforms. Be sure to use your brand name and be consistent across platforms. This will help your audience fi nd you and build your brand. Be sure to sign up for the platform’s business profi le options, as doing so provides more tools to help with online business strategy and often includes platform analytics. 2. Add social media share tools and your accounts to your brand’s website. Doing this helps your audience share your content and fi nd you in the social sphere. 3. Find your digital voice! One of the greatest lessons of social media is that people engage with people, so the tone of your social media text and multimedia should refl ect your brand. Whether your brand is buttoned-up and precise, or it’s about fun and even a bit witty, be sure that the content you are posting refl ects that. You may even want to develop personality for your social media — “Susie or Sammy Social” can be the voice of your brand and help you remember that your audience is interacting with the human behind the scenes and not a robot. 4. Tell your story through varied content. Just because you are an expert doesn’t mean everyone is. Show them what they want to know. Use a mix of text and multimedia to engage your audience and to ensure you are leveraging the algorithms that decide who sees your posts. Photos,
GIFs, videos and linked content are important ways to get in front of your audience. These same things are also a great tool to help your audience get to know you. Own a dairy farm? Believe it or not people want to meet your cows and understand the life of a dairy farmer! Post a video of
Bessie getting a bath or being milked. It’s moments like these that draw people in. You humanize your brand and educate people with your posts, which translates to trust building, awareness and even sales. 5. Engage, engage, engage. Social media is not effective if the brand doesn’t engage: • Reply to comments and messages in a timely fashion. This may include customer service concerns, which should be transitioned to private conversations. • Encourage your audience to share photos of themselves interacting with your brand.
Fast Facts Break Out:
The most widely used platform with nearly 3 billion global users.
Great to reach age 18-plus, though focusing on age 25 to 54 is smart. Most people have a Facebook account, so this is an excellent one to cut your teeth on.
“About” information can be optimized for SEO to appear in searches.
Can post text, multimedia and share content through clickable links to increase engagement and vary content.
Allows the ability to create events and collect RSVPs.
Platform analytics are strong and help you better identify your audiences and the content they want to see.
Majority of users are age 18-25.
Visual content with minimal text shared in a caption format (e.g., photos/videos) are required.
Stories allow you to post videos that live on the platform for 24 hours.
Use highlights as an opportunity to keep stories about a certain topic together and viewable until you delete them.
Hashtags allow your posts to be seen by people interested in your focus such as #icecreamtime, #milk, #cheeseplatters or #cowsofi nstagram.
Platform analytics are strong and help you better identify your audiences and the content they want to see.
• Ask questions of your audience to encourage people to reply and engage. • Like and share pages of partners or other businesses.
You can also mention them in your posts by placing
“@” followed by their handle.
READY FOR THE NEXT STEPS?
As your social media savvy increases, you may want to kick it up a notch by using a social media management tool, such as Hootsuite, that allows you to schedule posts, monitor activity/analytics and engage. Social media platforms allow brands to advertise, leveraging “sponsored” content that is at the most basic a paid advertisement posted for a targeted audience. Another type of sponsored posting is “infl uencer marketing.” This is when a brand leverages a well-known “infl uencer” in its space to post on its behalf.
At the end of the day, a quick internet search for “getting started with social media” will provide thousands of resources. Some highly regarded websites include Hootsuite.com, Hubspot. com and Sprout.com. Hubspot even provides certifi cations and training at no cost! The most important takeaway from the social media revolution is that YES it can enhance your brand, and NO it doesn’t have to be diffi cult. Be authentic. Let the voice of your brand and your story shine through text and multimedia. Most importantly, engage your audiences by giving them the attention and content they are asking for!
Kelly Gaggin, Ph.D., is an assistant teaching professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
