How To Grow Your Business On Social Media

Building a proper social media marketing strategy can change your business forever. So here are our recommendations and things to consider so you can grow your business on social media. 

When building a social media marketing strategy there are several critical components to consider so that your efforts are focused, effective, and aligned with your goals. First we always define clear objectives for our clients social media marketing strategies. Are you looking to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, generate leads, or boost sales? Now that your objectives are clear, identify your target audience by understanding their demographics, behaviors, and preferences. Next, choose the right platforms that align with where your audience spends their time and where your brand can make the most impact. Develop a content and brand strategy that speaks to your audiences’ interests, and provide value through engaging and relevant posts. Consistently analyze your posts performance with key metrics to refine your strategy which will help ensure continued growth. Stay flexible and adjust to trends and feedback so you can maximize the effectiveness of your social media marketing efforts.

• What Do You Want to Achieve?: Establish specific goals such as increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, boosting sales, growing your follower base, or improving customer engagement.

• Align with Business Goals: Ensure your social media objectives align with your broader business goals, whether it’s increasing revenue, launching a new product, or improving customer loyalty.

  
  

Knowing Your Audience Is Fundamental 

You shouldn’t try to sell water repellent to a fish. Identifying who you are speaking to will give you a lot of clarity on what to do and how to do it. Identify your audience by figuring out their demographics and psychographics. Then answer the following question: What does your audience relate to, and what are their needs, preferences, and lifestyle? Understanding these aspects will allow you to craft messages and offerings that truly resonate. Tailor your content, product, or service to address their pain points, desires, and values. By aligning with their worldview and providing solutions to their specific challenges, you will build stronger connections and ultimately drive more meaningful engagement.

• Demographics and Psychographics: Identify who you're speaking to (age, gender, interests, location, etc.) and understand their needs, behaviors, and preferences.

• Platform Preferences: Know which platforms your target audience uses frequently (e.g., Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook) and tailor your strategy for those channels.

  
  

Choosing The Right Platforms Can Boost Your Performance

Social media platforms are constantly evolving, so staying up to date with their current algorithms and features is essential. Make sure you know what works best for your audience's preferred platforms. 

On Instagram and TikTok, short-form video content can drive your brand's awareness and engagement, often reaching a wider audience through viral trends. Additionally, incorporating interactive elements like polls, challenges, or hashtags can further amplify your content’s reach. Understanding how each platform's algorithm prioritizes content, such as the importance of engagement and video completion rates, will help you tailor your strategy for maximum impact. 

On Facebook, long-form content like articles, live streams, and detailed posts continue to perform well, especially when shared in groups or boosted through targeted ads.

Twitter thrives on timely, concise updates, so leveraging trending hashtags and participating in real-time conversations can elevate your brand's visibility.Each platform offers unique strengths, and diversifying your content across them will ensure broader engagement.

• Platform Suitability: Select the platforms that best suit your business type and audience. Each platform has different strengths (e.g., Instagram for visual content, LinkedIn for professional networking, Twitter for real-time engagement).

• Channel Goals: Customize your content for each platform based on its unique features and audience. What works on Facebook might not work on Twitter or TikTok.

  
  

Consistency Is Your Content Strategy 

When developing content strategy, it's crucial to choose content types that resonate with your audience. In today's landscape, short-form videos are dominating and should be a central focus for brands aiming to grow and engage their audience. Equally important is maintaining a consistent posting schedule to stay visible. People have limited time to give their attention, so being present at the right moments is key - make it count! Consistency extends beyond posting frequency; maintaining a consistent tone is vital too. Every time your audience encounters your content, they should instantly recognize it as yours. This requires clarity around your brand's message, personality, and values. Stay authentic, stay recognizable, and ensure your content reflects who you are.

• Content Types: Decide on the type of content that resonates with your audience, such as images, videos, blog posts, infographics, polls, or user-generated content (UCG).

• Content Calendar: Create a content calendar to plan posts, ensure consistency, and align with key dates or events (e.g., product launches, holidays, special promotions).

• Brand Voice and Messaging: Maintain a consistent tone, language, and messaging that reflects your brand’s personality and values.

  
  

Brands Are Stories, Your Followers Are The Main Character

When producing social media content, build your brand by consistently telling a story. You are your brand's author and your customers are the main character. Now that you understand your customers, where does your brand fit in within your customers’ story. Imagine a runner looking for new shoes, they are more likely to follow and purchase from a brand that makes them feel like they are performing better because of their shoes. You can do this by producing lifestyle content with athletes they relate to due to the challenges they must overcome. You as the shoe company are the brand that helps them overcome these challenges. Being a storyteller will elevate your brand and will outperform any content that only shares new designs and asks viewers to complete a purchase. Storytelling is what will set you apart from the rest and will help you grow your business on social media.

• Tell a story: Build your brand by building lifestyle and moving content. Make your audience feel something.

• Paint a picture: Telling a story will help your customers imagine themselves using your products and services. Your customer is the main character and you are the guide that helps them overcome their challenges. Make sure when you create content you don’t mix these roles.

Engagement Builds Community

Just like any community, engagement helps it grow and thrive. When joining a community, you want to feel welcomed like you're truly a part of something. One of the simplest ways to achieve this is by responding to comments and messages, which will foster relationships and build trust with your brand. When creating content, think about ways to encourage interactions within your community, such as using polls, questions, and calls to action. Additionally, find ways to motivate your audience to create user-generated content, which can amplify your reach and strengthen trust.

• Respond to Comments and Messages: Engage with followers by responding to their comments and messages to foster relationships and build trust.

• Encourage Interaction: Use polls, questions, and calls to action (CTA) to encourage user interaction and feedback.

• User-Generated Content: Encourage your followers to create content for you (e.g., tagging your product, sharing photos), which can amplify your reach and enhance trust.

  
  

Paid Advertising Can Benefit Your Business 

Paid ads are a game changer. But everyone hates bad ads so Trend recommends focusing on building excellent creative (Video). Viewers are engaged when you provide some kind of entertainment or value (information). Try to give more than you take and audiences will be more than willing to engage with your brands and complete purchases. Once the creative is excellent, we use platforms like Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, and Tiktok Ads to target the right customers based on demographics, locations, interests, and behaviors relevant to your business. With recent development in the advertising industry, we recommend running and letting the social platform’s AI run and test various audiences to discover who your best target is. This can have a higher initial cost but overtime will tailor an audience that more effectively converts sales, achieves higher reach, and saves your business money.

• Social Media Ads: Consider running paid social media campaigns to boost visibility, such as Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, or LinkedIn Sponsored Content.

• Targeting Options: Use advanced targeting features and AI to reach specific demographics, locations, interests, or behaviors relevant to your business.

• Budget Allocation: Set a budget for paid ads and determine how much you’re willing to spend on different types of campaigns.

Analytics and Metrics - Use Data To Your Advantage

Tracking your performance is a great way to understand what your content is actually doing. Monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) such as engagement rate, reach, click-through rate (CTR), follower growth, website traffic, and conversions will help you make educated decisions for future content so you can better achieve your goals and successfully grow. At Trend we know that this is fundamental for executing a great social media marketing strategy. Tracking these metrics has helped us grow accounts and sales by better understanding how our audience likes to engage and purchase our customers brands.

• Track Performance: Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) such as engagement rate, reach, click-through rate (CTR), follower growth, website traffic, and conversions.

• Adjust Based on Insights: Regularly review analytics to understand which content is performing well, and adjust your strategy accordingly.

• A/B Testing: Test different content formats, headlines, visuals, and call-to-actions to see what resonates most with your audience

  
  

Know Your Competition, Beat The Competition 

Social Media and business is truly a war for attention so knowing your competition is a great way to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Observe and list their strengths and weaknesses so you can build a plan to compete. Being different is the best way to stand out and dominate the competition. Many may believe in standards and fitting in, but in reality this does not grow businesses into the powerful brands people love; more than anything you’ll just become another sheep in a crowded herd. Don’t be afraid to try new things and make it obvious why you are different. By clearly stating your differences and how you can help with your audiences' pain points and interests you will build a loyal community.

• Analyze Competitors: Study your competitors' social media strategies to see what they are doing well (or not). Learn from their successes and avoid their mistakes.

• Differentiation: Identify how you can differentiate your brand on social media to stand out from the competition.

  
  

Influencers and Partner Collaborations - Their Fans Become Your Fans

When your brand partners with relevant influencers their fans become your fans. Think of one of your favorite youtubers and instagram influencers. All of a sudden they are hanging out with someone else you are following or promoting a brand you love. This form of collaboration helps build brand trust and influence. People buy from people they like so when you partner with relevant influencers you are more likely to grow your brand, increase engagement, and improve your sales.

• Identify Influencers: Partner with influencers or brand ambassadors who align with your values and can help increase your brand’s reach and credibility.

• Collaborate with Like-minded Brands: Team up with complementary brands for co-marketing campaigns or giveaways to broaden your audience.

  
  

Experiment and Evolve

Don’t be afraid to try new things! Following trends is a great way to grow but being a trendsetter is for true creators and risk takers. Take risks and don’t be afraid to put your own ideas into the world. By doing so you have already won! 

• Stay Up-to-Date with Trends: Social media is constantly evolving. Stay informed about new trends, tools, and features on each platform and adapt accordingly.

• Bring Your Ideas To Life: Be a Trendsetter and create, create, create! Original ideas stand out from the rest!

Grow With Trend

Trend Media is a social media marketing agency based in Austin, Texas with over 8 years of experience. Helping local Austin businesses grow such as Donn’s, Breakthrough GC, Apollo Construction, Homes Unlimited, etc. We hope you enjoyed this read and if you need any help with your social media marketing we are happy to help! Specializing in content creation, brand strategy, to website development, with Trend Media, the next trend is you!