I will die on this hill: every single business needs a social presence, no matter what industry you’re in or product you sell. Having a robust and consistent social presence is necessary for not only brand visibility, but for building with your consumers.
Establishing a relevant and engaging social presence requires a deep understanding of who your customer is and how they like to be reached, while also tailoring your efforts to the nuances of each social channel. It’s definitely hard work, but it’s worth the effort when the result is a community of devoted and engaged fans that are eager to consume your content, share it with their friends, and sing your brand’s praises on and offline.
1. Know Your Audience
Understanding your audience is the first and most important step when building out your social media strategy. You likely have created brand personas when defining your brand’s overall marketing strategy, and these personas will be a great starting point for tailoring who your online social audiences will be and how they like to be reached.
Review your brand and describe the typical customer:
- Who are they?
- What stage of life are they in?
- What kind of job do they have?
- How do they spend their free time?
- What are their main pain points?
Once you have identified a few of your key buyer personas, do some research on what social platforms that persona uses and what kind of brands they are following. This will help you understand what kind of content that audience is actively engaged with.
Did you know? You can use your personas to build your perfect audiences in the Iterable app using User Segmentation.
A Generational Divide
One major factor when it comes to identifying digital preferences and typical behavior of your target audiences is understanding the differences in generational social media behavior. According to research conducted by ComScore, Baby Boomers are most active on Facebook, while Gen Z favors video content on YouTube and TikTok. Millennials and Gen X spend the majority of their time on the same platforms: YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
These nuances are key when developing your content strategy. Each platform has specific dimensions, format, and content preferences that are important to keep in mind when sharing content.
2. Know Your Platforms
Once you understand who you are talking to on social media, the next step is understanding the best way to communicate your message.
Facebook started out with status updates and has shifted to more of a photo and video focus, with the capability to share direct links within captions. Additionally, Facebook has tools like business pages, stories, Reels, Facebook Live, offers, events, and community groups to help build an online community and manage offline event logistics.
Did you know? Iterable has an integration with Facebook that allows you to export static and dynamic lists from Iterable and create custom audiences in Facebook Ads Manager. Learn more on how to connect your brand’s page here.
While Facebook and Instagram both sit under the Meta umbrella, Instagram’s engagement rates are four times higher than Facebook, with a focus on photo and video content. Instagram has tools like stories, Instagram live, Reels, broadcast channels, simple direct messaging, and highlights to make connecting with your audience in real-time a breeze.
TikTok
TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform that focuses on short form video content, paired with trend-driven sounds from both native users and recording artists. The “For You Page” (FYP) algorithm of TikTok leads to increased opportunity for virality and allows any user, regardless of current audience size, to have their content served to a massive audience.
TikTok has tools like in-app editing, filters, templates, TikTok live, and a robust music library to allow brands to lean into their experimental content creation side.
LinkedIn is the online hub for career building and professional development. Content like industry articles, awards, job postings, education tips, and user case studies are a great fit for the audience on LinkedIn, and B2B companies tend to find that their target audience is very active on this platform. LinkedIn has tools like robust business pages, job boards, article publishing, and LinkedIn live to help connect users with businesses.
Threads/X
X and Threads are primarily text focused platforms that serve as a news source for many of their users. Both Threads and X are great for short updates, polls, breaking news, and photo and video content sharing from brands and users alike. Threads and X have tools like trend tracking, direct messaging, live streaming, and polls to help connect audiences with the content and information they want to see.
After reviewing the type of content that is best suited for each platform, review your buyer personas and business goals. What platforms are your audience already engaged with and how can you provide value with your content on those platforms?
3. Create a Social Strategy
You’ve established the platforms that make sense for your brand, and now it’s time to build out exactly what kind of content you want to share with your audiences.
All social media content should serve the purpose of one or more of the four E’s:
- Educate: Providing educational content to your audience will always be a high-value content strategy. Share best practices on how to use your product, new innovations in your industry, or solutions to common pain points that will be helpful and informative to your audience.
- Engage: Engaging posts help to connect your audience with the brand in a relatable and fun way, while continuing to build a community around your brand. Engaging posts can be anything from polls or quizzes to holiday digital bingo cards.
- Empower: Empowering posts drive your audience to take action and are coupled with strong CTAs. Examples of empowering posts can include registration links to webinars, updates about an upcoming event, or resources for continued professional development.
- Entertain: Entertaining posts are a necessary and often overlooked aspect of a brand’s social strategy. Humor, relatability, and fun are essential to an engaging and long-lasting social presence, so lean in to trend-driven memes and poke fun and the common pitfalls of your industry.
While you may feel inclined to ask which “E” is best for each platform, the four E’s are great for any platform, so I would hesitate to assign a “best platform” for each.
4. Be Responsive
Once you hit “post,” you might think you are finished with your social media duties. But, one of the most important aspects of a social media presence is timely social response. Inevitably, your audience members are going to turn to your social media channels as the first line of customer service, sending inquiries about shipping or services to your social media inbox or comments section.
There are two types of social response: reactive and proactive.
- Reactive: Reactive engagement is what we think of when we imagine basic social response. Engaging with your audience through responding to comments, direct messages, tagged content, reposts, and mentions all falls into this category and is an extremely important form of digital customer engagement and service.
- Proactive: Proactive engagement is when your brand makes the first move and comments or shares content from other creators or brands in the space that have a similar following and audience. This is a great strategy for first interactions with influencers you would like to work with down the line, as it sparks a relationship between your brand and the influencer in a casual way.
It is extremely important to foster these relationships across all of your social media channels as it’s one of the first places your customers will go to connect with your brand. Make sure that you’re replying to all questions in your inbox and are engaging with users in the comments of your posts to build community and demonstrate that you are available to help with any issues your customers are having throughout their lifecycle.
Don’t Be Scared to Be Social
While the social landscape might feel vast and daunting, it is imperative that all businesses show up consistently on the social platforms that make sense for their audiences and their business needs. Having an updated social presence will not only build trust in the legitimacy of your brand, but will also offer a space for easy updates, education, and entertainment for your key audience. So grab your tripod and ring light, it’s time to bring out your inner digital star.
Need inspiration? Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, X, Threads, and Facebook.