How to Stand Out on Social Media: Five Tips That Won’t Break The Bank
Social platforms hold immense power, and can enable brands to reach massive audiences with very little financial investment. But doing so successfully isn’t as easy as it sounds. In order to create a buzz on social media, brands need to plan their strategies very carefully. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook are jam-packed with different brands all vying for the attention of users, so standing out from the crowd is no mean feat.
If you’re considering your social strategy and wondering how to get the best from different platforms, take note of these tips from our experts. Here are five ways to ensure that your brand get noticed, and your social content gets results.
Keep an eye on the competition
There’s nothing wrong with looking out for your top competitors and analysing what they’re currently doing on social media. Keep an eye on their social strategies and see which posts appear to be getting the best levels of engagement from their audiences. That way, you’ll get a good idea of the style of content that might appeal to your own target demographics, and the best time of day to put your content out there.
It’s also well worth taking a peek at what some of the top players are doing on platforms like Instagram. Browse stories that are creating a storm on the social network, and consider how you could use what you’ve learnt for your own company. Be creative, be imaginative and be original.
Engage with your audience
If you’re unsure of the best content to create for your audience, there’s one quick way to remedy the situation. Just ask them.
Audiences love interactivity from brands, and this interactivity can be doubly beneficial for companies too. Not only does it improve engagement levels and help to build trust with your fanbase, it also enables you to shape content plans around what your audience really wants.
Remove the element of doubt and find out what your target demographic would like to see from you. Create polls, ask questions, or publish stories in which the leaders of your company answer followers’ queries. Then it’s just a case of creating the requested content, and leaving the conversation open for further feedback that could prove invaluable in shaping subsequent campaigns.
Keep it visual
When you consider the fact that 65% of people are visual learners[1], and 90% percent of the information we absorb is visual[2], it’s easy to see why platforms like Instagram have shot to fame. Visual content is amongst the most engaging, and it’s proven to be far more influential that written content.
Did you know that when people hear information, they’re only likely to remember around 10% of that information after three days? However, if the same information is paired with an image, the amount of information retained after three days shoots up to 65%.[3] That’s why the content you share on your social channels has to be visual. Think infographics, videos and animated gifs.
Consider your tone of voice
Consistency is hugely important on social media, and when brands share content on several different platforms at one time, that consistency becomes even more significant. To guarantee that your brand has a clear personality and an immediately recognisable identity, you need to think about your tone of voice.
Before you begin crafting content, consider what your tone should be, and set standards that you can share amongst your whole team. Ensure that all content created for your chosen platforms follows these guidelines, and before long you’ll have a well known voice that followers start to notice.
Make your employees advocates
Word of mouth is an often underused resource for brands, as many simply don’t know how to access this phenomenally powerful resource. One such way is through employee advocacy programs. By getting your employees to spread the word of your company and engage their own friends and followers, you’ll be able to make use of a far more powerful way of sharing content.
Content that is shared by someone we know it seen as far more trustworthy than promotional content shared by brands, and it’s therefore much more effective. Studies have shown that employees are more than twice as trusted as a CEO, senior executive, or activist consumer.[4] And research by Cisco found that employees’ posts generate eight times more engagement than posts from their employers.[5]
—-
Standing out on social media can sometimes feel like an impossible task, but with these five tips you might soon find that your brand starts to attract attention. Plan your strategy carefully and ensure that your audience is never far from your mind. Before long you’ll see what social media can really do for your business, and you just might be surprised by the results.
[2] https://ernestoolivares.com/we-are-90-visuals-beings/
[3] https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Industry-Report-2018.pdf
[4] https://www.edelman.com/research/2016-edelman-trust-barometer
[5] https://blogs.cisco.com/socialmedia/employee-advocacy-marketing-engine-of-the-future
← Back to News