How to grow your brand’s social media presence

Nowadays, social media is considered a powerful marketing tool for brands to establish themselves and reach their consumer market. Successful brand accounts with a large social media presence have the potential to reach hundreds, or even thousands, of consumers with every post. 

However, establishing a large social media presence is not an easy task for many brands; attaining organic growth typically requires a lot of time, effort and strategy. 

Whether you’re brand new to the social media scene or you’re looking to grow your current following, here are 9 things that will help you achieve a larger and more engaged online audience:

1. Reflect on your target consumer demographic.

Who are they? What is their lifestyle? Habits and hobbies? Keep them in mind for all of the following actions. The more effort you put into creating content targeted towards this audience, the better chance you have of attracting this audience. 

Ask yourself: Why would my target consumer follow my brand account? What are they wanting to see?

2. Create a consistent branding theme.

You want your brand’s social media presence to reflect the brand itself, and a consistent branding theme across all platforms will make your brand appear more professional. 

– Create a simple profile photo with the brand logo, clearly visible and in the center. Consider keeping the same profile photo for all accounts across different platforms.

– Establish a set of colors, fonts and filters to use in all posts.

– Set a tone of voice and brand personality to use for all your captions, comments and messaging. Is your brand strictly professional and mature? Or is it more excitable, even sassy or humorous? Choose what best reflects your brand and stick to it. 

– Make a unique company hashtag. This could just be the name of your brand, or you could create a fun and unique phrase to use with every post – one that your audience will associate with your brand. 

3. Plan your content.

Once again, ask yourself what type of content your target consumer would like to see, as it relates to your product or service offerings. Consider what visuals, captions, articles or videos you can create and share that will most benefit your followers and distinguish you from competing brands.

4. Be frequent and consistent.

Social media algorithms are constantly changing and there’s no way to “hack the system,” but there is one fail-proof method to achieve success: post frequently and consistently. 

Create a schedule, whether you’re using a scheduling platform such as Hootsuite or marking it on a physical calendar. Try to post 3-5 times a week in order to remain top-of-mind with your followers. A quick google search can give you suggestions for when to post on what account, considering the most active days and times for each platform. 

5. Use hashtags.

Find a set of 10+ relevant hashtags for your brand to incorporate into each post to draw new audiences to your content. If you don’t want to include these in your captions, you can post it as a separate comment on the post. 

6. Try out influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing is an extremely effective way to promote your brand to large online audiences, leading to new followers. After all, word-of-mouth marketing is the most trusted form of marketing! Moreover, you can repost influencer marketing posts for additional, high-quality content that is likely to attract above-average impressions.

Learn more about the benefits of influencer endorsements here. 

7. Engage with your audience.

If your brand is on social media, you need to make sure you’re being social. Encourage your followers to comment on your posts with creative, call-to-action captions. Like and respond to your comments, tagged posts and direct messages. Your followers like to know they can interact with you, and it helps to develop a more loyal relationship with the brand. 

8. Host giveaways.

People love giveaways! You can prompt your audience to follow your account and tag a certain number of friends in the comments for a chance to win. 

9. Track your analytics.

With all the effort you’re putting into your social media accounts, it is important to know what is working and what isn’t working. Track your follower growth, impressions and post interactions every month. Reflect on the data to establish your next steps.

Keep in mind, with any good work, success requires time and patience. Utilizing these strategies, along with time and patience, will set you on the path for growing your brand’s social media presence. Good luck!