Staying fresh on social media can be challenging.
It’s all about posting high-quality content and engaging your audience consistently, but if you stick to the same old approach, your social media presence can easily become stale.
But overhauling your strategy doesn’t mean that you have to keep chasing the latest trends and trying to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes all it takes is changing your perspective and implementing a couple of overlooked tactics.
In this post, we’ll share eight tried-and-true tips you can use to revamp your social media efforts and revive your online presence.
Stimulate and Nurture Conversations
A couple of years ago, the 80/20 rule was the golden standard of successful social media marketing. According to this best practice, 80% of your social media content should educate your audience and revolve around their interests, while only 20% should promote your brand.
Source: Hootsuite
However, sticking to this rule no longer suffices.
Posting educational and entertaining content on social media is a surefire way to capture your audience’s attention and keep them coming back.
But if all you do is post something and leave the conversation, then you can’t expect your followers to be particularly engaged. By doing so, you’re dominating the narrative and treating them as passive recipients of your message, when you should instead be encouraging them to chime in and have their say.
Brands that stimulate conversations with their customers on social media are perceived as more human. This allows them to connect on a more personal level and foster meaningful relationships with their audience.
So, how to get your customers to talk to you on social media?
It’s easy — post content that prompts people to join a discussion or ask a question in the post caption, especially something about their habits or personal preferences.
This way, you’ll not only boost engagement but also get an opportunity to learn more about your audience.
January uses this approach on their Instagram and asks followers to share their sweet and savory combo breakfast ideas. It’s a simple tactic but goes a long way toward sparking conversations and engaging customers. Plus, it saves a lot of time, as such a post can be whipped up quickly.
Source: Instagram
Give Your Followers a Voice
We’ve already established that social media marketing isn’t a one-way street and that you need to include your audience in conversations. There is no better way to do this than leveraging user-generated content (UGC.)
While enlisting the help of celebrities and influencers to promote your brand by creating sponsored posts is a great way to expand your reach and gain traction, organically generated content will add another layer of trust and authenticity to your brand.
When customers create content where they show how they enjoy using your products or services without getting paid, it serves as powerful social proof for your brand. At the same time, customers featured on your brand’s social media channels will receive a mention and get noticed, thus being able to grow their own following. So, it’s a win-win situation for both sides.
Finally, UGC is an effective way to fill your social media calendar without worrying about how to come up with innovative ideas that could potentially go viral.
Here are some tips for making the most of UGC:
- Always ask for permission before you share customers’ content on your channels and credit them properly.
- Remember that those photos and videos aren’t created by professionals, so don’t expect super high-quality visuals. Besides, UGC isn’t supposed to look staged and glossy.
- Tell your followers what kind of content you want them to create and share with you since 50% of people would like to know that. This way, you’ll ensure that brand advocacy is spot on.
- Create a branded hashtag to increase visibility.
Apple’s #shotoniphone Instagram campaign has resulted in more than 27 million posts so far. It’s a clever way to promote the iPhone, as the photos snapped using the device’s superior camera speak for themselves. Customers, on the other hand, get to showcase their photography skills and portfolio, so the campaign is beneficial for both parties.
Source: Instagram
Give Your Brand a Relatable, Human Face
A popular, frequently cited quote reads, “People do business with people, not brands.”
And it perfectly sums up why you should do your best to give your brand a human face. Customers don’t want to interact with cold, faceless corporations that obviously automate their processes and use chatbots to communicate with their audience.
So, if you want to engage your followers, show them the people behind the brand.
Social media is an excellent vehicle for taking your audience behind the scenes of your business.
Here’s how you can do this:
- Introduce your team members to make your business more relatable and approachable. Shine a spotlight on new hires, announce the employee of the month, or highlight their latest accomplishments.
- Show the office where the magic happens by offering a glimpse into your creative process and work environment.
- Showcase your brand values and company culture by presenting your employees’ daily routines and causes your brand supports. Demonstrating your commitment to inclusion and diversity in your workplace will bring you closer to a broader audience.
- Build excitement by giving a sneak peek at your new product or feature.
This Instagram post by Starbucks tells an inspirational story about how one of their baristas learned American Sign Language and Tactile Sign Language to be able to communicate with one of her regular customers who happens to be deafblind. By sharing such content, the brand wants to emphasize that they not only champion exceptional customer service but also respect and appreciate differences.
Source: Instagram
Menlo Coaching lists all their employees in the People section of their LinkedIn page and makes sure their profiles on this network are professional-looking and well-populated. Since the brand offers MBA admissions consulting services, it’s crucial that their and their employees’ online presence exudes authority and expertise.
Source: LinkedIn
Provide Social Proof
Social proof is the bread and butter of every successful social media strategy.
With an increasing number of people using social media as a search engine, you’d better include this type of content on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms, if you want to build trust and generate fear of missing out.
Given that almost two-thirds of customers have already shopped directly on social media, it’s obvious that social proof can significantly influence their purchasing behavior.
Here’s how you can use social proof to revamp your social media presence and boost conversions.
Facebook recommendations and reviews
What used to be the Facebook rating is now automatically calculated based on how many users recommend or don’t recommend your Page, past ratings, and user reviews.
People who visit your Page on Facebook will see the overall rating and the number of user reviews. The fact that 48% of consumers use this social media network to check reviews illustrates how important it is to implement this social proof tactic.
To get more Facebook reviews, hopefully positive, make sure to create a visible CTA that will invite users to tell whether they recommend your business or not. It’s also important to respond to comments, even if they’re negative.
Bang & Olufsen implemented recommendations and reviews on their Facebook page so that potential customers can see what others think of their products.
Source: Facebook
Share customer testimonials
Social media is a perfect outlet for sharing customer testimonials, either in the form of short quotes or videos.
Seeing how others benefited from your product or service, potential customers will be more likely to convert. It’s much more powerful when existing customers praise your company than when you blow your own horn in promotional content.
For an added layer of credibility and authenticity, make sure to include customers’ names, headshots, and, if applicable, their position and company.
Airbnb used a video testimonial by two superhosts on their YouTube channel to encourage people to list their properties on the platform. They shared their success story and highlighted that even though they had no entrepreneurial or hospitality background, using Airbnb allowed them to start and grow their business.
Source: YouTube
Embrace TikTok
TikTok was the fastest-growing social media platform in 2021 and became the sixth most-used network in July 2022.
With 1 billion active monthly users, TikTok is definitely a tremendously powerful tool that can help you breathe new life into your social media presence. Many brands still struggle to find their footing on this platform for sharing entertaining and funny short videos, mainly because of its novel and fast-paced nature.
But jumping on the TikTok bandwagon doesn’t have to be that complicated. Let’s discuss a couple of ways you can try it out.
- Understand the platform’s target audience — Gen Zers. TikTok is mostly used by a younger audience, which means that your content has to be authentic, entertaining, and fun. Otherwise, it will fall flat.
- Don’t rehash already existing content or be a copycat. You will get busted, and your reputation will go down the drain. Only fresh, genuine content cuts it.
- Learn how to use sounds, filters, and various effects that the platform offers. Audio plays an important role on TikTok, meaning that by using trending sounds or audio clips, you’ll make your content more discoverable. Effects such as lipsyncing make videos more engaging.
- Respond to comments and feedback from your followers, just like you do on any other channel.
- Avoid being overly promotional. Remember that TikTok users are young folks who are looking for entertainment, so keep your content light and fun.
ATH does a great job of projecting an image of a brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Their TikTok profile contains not only great educational videos on how to perform certain exercises correctly but also relatable content whose main purpose is to make their followers laugh. Such an approach allows them to stay in touch with the trendy and picky Gen Z.
Source: TikTok
Provide Social Support
Surveys say that one in three customers will leave the brand they like after just a single bad experience. Similarly, 92% of people would do the same after two to three underwhelming interactions.
As you can see, the stakes are high, so providing exceptional customer experience should be at the top of your priority list.
This means using every available channel to respond to their questions or help them solve a potential issue they might have with your product or service. Rather than calling or emailing, It’s much more convenient for people to reach out for assistance on the platforms they’re already using, which means social media.
Apart from accommodating their preferences, you should be aware that not being responsive on social media or ignoring your customers’ feedback will bring you a lot of bad PR.
Utilize Twitter
Being geared toward fostering real-time conversations, Twitter is one of the best channels for offering effective, real-time customer support. People love it because they can use mentions when asking questions, thus making sure that the company will be notified. On the other hand, by monitoring mentions, brands can provide instant answers and feedback almost instantly. Finally, all this happens in a public place, which allows for transparency and credibility.
When someone tweets you to ask a technical or customer support question, don’t ever tell them to mail you or contact you through another channel. Each request for support is an incredibly valuable marketing opportunity. The more visibly you help a person on social media, the more you associate your brand with amazing customer service.
Zappos is well-known for its superb customer service, but they’re also susceptible to occasional faux pas. The company proactively uses Twitter to deliver first-class customer support. So, even when a customer complains, they proactively deal with the situation and turn a mistake into an opportunity to showcase that they’re really a “customer-obsessed” brand.
Source: Twitter
Be Bold About Presenting Your Product
Although we mentioned the 80/20 social media rule, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be bold about presenting your product or service.
Your customers follow you because they want to be notified about new products or features, so don’t hesitate to show what you’ve got.
Still, even when you’re showing off and illustrating how awesome your product is, take the “what’s in it for them” approach. In other words, make sure to focus on how it will benefit your customers. This will justify your promotional efforts and make them less salesy.
Create eye-catching visuals, such as photos and videos that will engage your audience and get them to scroll through your posts.
Thankbox offers us an excellent example on their Facebook Page. The brand fills their feed with announcements about what people can do with their service. For example, they showcase new backgrounds, effects, and features in their Facebook posts, and yet it doesn’t come across as overly promotional.
Source: Facebook
Consider the Less Obvious Platforms
It’s true that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the biggest and most popular social media platforms, but overlooking the less obvious platforms, such as Reddit or Pinterest, means leaving money on the table.
With 430 million monthly active users, Reddit isn’t exactly an uninfluential platform — quite the opposite, as it’s dubbed “the front page of the internet.”
However, it’s not your average social media network, since it’s structured as a topic-oriented discussion forum where users, also known as “Redditors,” share, talk about, and rate content. Topics are organized into different “subreddits.”
Reddit gives you access to a niche audience that’s very engaged, but to make the most of this platform, you should first build a high-quality feed by posting relevant and unique content that will add value to your target audience. At first, post somebody else’s content, and once you build authority and trust, you can start with your own content.
The platform’s Ask Me Anything (AMA) format is a great way to engage your audience.
The key is authenticity and fostering a sense of community. Pushing your agenda and promoting your products will hurt your “karma,” or reputation. In other words, it’s essential to try to genuinely help other users.
There are paid ads on Reddit, and they’re displayed as sponsored posts pinned at the top of the subreddit page. If you’ve already established yourself as a helpful contributor, the odds are that other users will pay attention and check out your ad.
Nordstrom takes Reddit marketing to a whole new level by creating a community dedicated, but not operated, by their brand. It’s a place where users can discuss new products, talk about customer experience, or ask customer support questions. That’s practically user-generated content, which adds another layer of credibility.
Source: Reddit
Consumers use Pinterest to make informed purchase decisions. This visually-oriented social media platform allows for visual search, which makes it a great tool both for people looking for a particular product and for marketers who can tap into its power.
Pinterest works best for the fashion, home decor, art, real estate, and food industries.
Besides creating your own boards and adding pins, that is, bookmarks with content linking back to your website, you can also use paid advertising.
To find success on this social media network, follow these tips:
- Produce creative, inspirational, and eye-catching pins and make them actionable. This means using high-quality vertical images, optimizing copy, adding links, and including your logo.
- Search for trending keywords and topics and implement them in your content titles and descriptions. This will improve your visibility and reach.
- Create aesthetically pleasing, fun content.
- Add the Pinterest button to your website.
Fenty Beauty leverages their Pinterest profile to share not only visually appealing photos and videos that promote their products but also helpful make-up guides and inspiration. Plus, the brand cross-promotes content between YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest for an even better reach and visibility.
Source: Pinterest
Wrapping Up
Revitalizing your social media presence can be a challenging task, but with the right strategies in place, it’s an attainable goal. The first step is understanding your audience and how a particular platform works. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new features and approaches and try out the latest trends. Consistency is key, and with a little bit of time and effort, you’ll be on the right track.