Running a community on social networks has become a must for all businesses. You still have to know how to develop your popularity on the web. Whether you want to increase your followers or boost your sales, gaining visibility on social networks can be a great springboard.
Discover 9 essential steps to put in place in your digital strategy.
BUILD AN E-REPUTATION
To be visible, show yourself to the world. One of the solutions is to create your showcase site. This must include all the identification elements of your brand:
• the name of your company
• details of your product or service you’re offering
• your opening details
• the general conditions of sale and purchase
• your team members
All these elements will help to make you known and promote your offer. You can also start a professional blog. You will publish articles there related to your field of activity to share your knowledge and consolidate your expertise. You will thus increase over the months (and tickets) your legitimacy.
ADOPT A COHERENT STRATEGY
In terms of social networks, the offer is plethora: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Tiktok,… The temptation is therefore great, but reason and experience recommend focusing only on a few platforms (2 to 3). Anyway, 2 elements should guide your choice:
• Time: the more pages you create, the more work it generates in their daily management. You risk diluting your efforts by wanting to be everywhere. Decide on the number of platforms based on how much time you can spend on them.
• The type of your messages: if you have predominantly visual content (photo, catalog of images, visual description) you cannot do without Pinterest or Instagram, two social networks where the image is in the spotlight. The choice of a platform must therefore be consistent with your activity.
Once you have made your choice, define a publication strategy including the type of messages you want to promote, the frequency of publication, and the company’s resource persons.
CREATE YOUR FACEBOOK AND TWITTER PAGES
In the eyes of social media users, Twitter and Facebook are classics. This is the union minimum. You will be able to publish news there relaying the articles published on your blog, your promotional actions, or any other content which could interest your customers. To these two networks, you can add a third according to the criteria mentioned above.
CREATE CONTENT IN YOUR IMAGE
On the internet, content is king! Whatever the platform, you must publish not only quality content (that is to say that brings more to your audience) but especially information consistent with your activity. In addition, think about creating unity between all your social networks (same graphic charter, banners, slogan, etc.). This will bring consistency to your image.
9 tips for successful community management
1 CREATE QUALITY CONTENT
Bring added value to your content on your social networks. Content without a background will only be read infrequently. Also, don’t be too formal, as people take to social media for fun and relaxation. Do not hesitate to use humor without being heavy. Share content related to your business, such as influential bloggers, so don’t be too thin.
2 CREATE QUALITY IMAGES
The image catches the eye and this is often what the reader spots before deciding to read an article on their social networks. Take care to add good quality images that make the reader want to immerse themselves in your story, adding an image encourages Internet users to share but also to read your article. The purpose of the image is to catch the reader’s eye, not to distract it. So avoid posting photos of poor quality, it is better to refrain from illustration in this case.
3 BE CLOSE TO YOUR FANS
Publishing content on social networks is not just about disseminating information about your offer, beautiful photos, or selling points distilled over the posts. The proposed content must respond to a strategy tied and prepared upstream.
For each delivery, you must answer this question: how does your content contribute something to your community?
Above all, you need to know your audience inside out to meet their expectations. Communicating on your social networks allows you to get closer to your customers and prospects because your business, therefore, seems more accessible. Interactions make you more human than through the site or the phone. Remember that your work is good the opinions left on your networks by your Internet users will be too, otherwise if you have a negative comment do not despair! Rather, see it as an opportunity to demonstrate your professionalism and that you care about your clients’ claims. To create a dialogue, be responsive to comments, post regularly and your sympathy will continue to grow!
4 ENCOURAGE SHARING
Make sharing easier by offering wordings such as “Could a friend of yours be interested?” So share the good info in your publications. Every share is good for you, so don’t despair if you don’t have hundreds of shares. Sharing will allow you to increase your visibility and reach people you would not have thought of. Contests are also a good way to increase your visibility, indeed, a nice reward (related to your activity!) Will be likely to explode your engagement rate!
5 CHOOSE YOUR MOMENT
The publication schedule is very important. To find out when is the best time to post, test yourself and check your community’s connection hours. This data is important because the more your prospects see your posts the more they will remember you and the more visibility you will gain.
6 REFERENCE YOUR PRESENCE
Remember to highlight your presence on social networks by informing it on your site, blog, emails, via advertisements, or even on various social networks. By getting people to follow you on social networks, you will have more visibility and will surely gain new customers.
7 LIMIT YOUR PRESENCE
The solution is not to be present on every existing social network. You need to select the ones that will be most relevant to your business. In addition, if you are present on a lot of social networks it means that you will have to follow up behind. Then focus on one or more social networks that will prove to be the most profitable for your site.
8 FOCUS ON QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
Just because you have 1000 fans on a social network doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily become 1000 customers. Do not play in the race for “likes” or fans. To do this, pay attention to your types of publications and prioritize quality by publishing less often but interesting and qualitative content.
9. TRACK YOUR COMPETITION
Social networks are a great asset for monitoring the competition. View its offers, study its sales pitch, be aware of its novelties. You need to follow your competitors’ accounts to analyze them and stay competitive.
Take advantage of social networks to integrate discussion groups in your industry. Share your expertise; take part in discussions with members of the group. This is a good way to bring attention to your business and increase the number of organic followers.
Conclusion
According to the Harvard Business Review, 90% of business buyers rely on social media to form an opinion. This shows the importance of deploying an effective digital strategy to increase your visibility on the web. Even if social networks are essential, they require crazy and daily energy. This is why being accompanied and advised, especially when starting a business, can quickly turn out to be an essential help to free up time to concentrate on the essentials.
