How To Succeed On Social Media: Too Many Brands Are Wasting Their Time

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Many businesses are using social media as a marketing channel, but the vast majority are doing this without a clear strategy of what they want to achieve, and how they’re going to achieve it. They post content without purpose, and unfortunately, many social media managers are doing the same.
 
However, not all business accounts on social media are guilty of this – there are some brilliant brands out there who are setting standards that we should all aspire to. 
 
The big issue
 
The biggest problem for brands on social media is that they don’t really know what their objective is. If questioned, “What are you ultimately hoping to achieve by using Instagram for your brand?”, you might get some muddled answers about building followers or ‘getting the brand out there’. 
 
Until you are really clear about what your business objective is, you shouldn’t be investing into these channels. 
 
How do you make an effective social media plan?
 
First, you need a top-level objective, for example: “To build a commercially valuable network of potential clients and top talent”.
 
The next step is to identify some key strategies that can be utilised to achieve it In this instance, one strategy might be: 
 
  • To put an outreach program into place to identify key target accounts and open lines of communication / engage with them. 
 
And alongside this:
 
  • To focus social content on highlighting that we are a great place to work with, or for! 
 
Once we’ve settled on strategies that support the top-level objective, we can get down to the tactical level, which drives the effectiveness of those strategies:
 
  • What time should we post?
  • What method of engagement is proving to be post successful? Email / DM / commenting?
  • Which content types are performing the best?
  • Is the tone of voice resonating with our target audience?
Making content that pops
 
Now we have a plan. The next thing to focus on is executing it correctly. Failure to do so will make achieving our top level objective very difficult.
 
The challenge is that there is a LOT of content out there, and anything mediocre will just get lost in the noise. For our content to really resonate with the target audience, it needs to be all of these things:
 
  • Original
  • Unexpected
  • Relevant
 
For example, a post in December of our team smiling and wearing Christmas jumpers might be relevant, but it definitely isn’t original or unexpected.
 
You need to mix it up if you want to surprise and engage your audience. For example, a photo of a huge corporate team all wearing Christmas jumpers, with one person dressed as (Where’s) Wally – or Waldo if you’re in the States – hiding somewhere in the image is likely to hit more of those markers, if presented as a challenge to the viewer. 
 
This example is more original, would likely be unexpected (depending on the brand that posts this), and has relevance through its link to Christmas, so would likely perform much better than the usual generic Christmas jumper photo that brands share each year. 
 
Obviously creativity is key here, as the best brands continually think of new ways to incorporate an extra dimension into what they post.
 
Don’t forget to be human
 
Finally, a point on being relatable. Social media is first and foremost a social space, so a post that feels rigid and formal in its tone will not do well. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, people want to interact with other people, and being personable in your content and overall brand presence is a great way to do this. Try and to keep away from polished stock photography, and instead show the misbehaving office dog who has just run off with your water bottle. Remember, people buy from people.
 
If you can do all of these things, while making sure that each post aligns with what you are trying to achieve with your strategies and top-level objective, then keep working at your social presence consistently, and success will come!
 
Stuck in a social media rut and need some help? We have a dedicated social media team here at Morpho who would be more than happy to get stuck in. Drop us a message to get started.