Probably the most important goal of marketers is to be seen and trusted by audiences. Also, most marketers today will admit that a large portion of their audiences is on social media. While building trust isn’t easy, here are some simple social media best practices for marketers to get the most out of their efforts and campaigns.
If you don’t optimize your social media strategy, you will see that your success in the space will be limited. It should not shock anyone that an Ascend2 study found that 47% of computerized advertisers feel that web-based media is the hardest kind of promoting to get moving, which could be the reason you’re here. But it is important to know that 43% also believe that social networks are the ones that offer the most benefits.
Social Media Best Practices
No one said that it was easy to be successful on each of the networks. It takes a lot of commitment, strategy, and planning to get social media audiences to trust your brand.
That’s why we present the five most essential best practices in social networks to get your brand closer to its reward:
1. Define your networks or topics
Each network offers unique channels to your audience. The way you use and configure your social media themes gives your viewers information about what they can expect on your channels. For example, some of the most popular businesses on social media have a specific topic or notoriety on their channels.
Target highlights its vivid, summery colors on Instagram, but this doesn’t mean that every channel has to be the same. It’s the opposite. Most businesses prefer to use Twitter as a social media customer service tool, while Instagram relies more on creative techniques to general audiences.
Brands do things on social media
If you have no idea what kind of topics we are talking about, that’s fine. This is a list of some of our favorite brands that have clearly defined their themes on social media channels:
- Casper: Casper uses Twitter effectively to tweet funny and comical messages that revolve around one main idea: sleep. The mattress company excels at getting attention by being a source of humor for its fans, clients, and potential customers on Twitter.
- AskPlaystation: Another Twitter expert is Sony’s Playstation. The company uses multiple Twitter accounts to cover different needs. In any case, its client care channel, AskPlaystation, removes the clamor from advancements and gives clients an immediate course to investigating network vacation, and updates.
- Airbnb: This exclusive vacation rental brand uses Instagram to visually highlight its most extravagant rentals around the world. Each listing is available and registered on a special landing page, which you can access by clicking from the Airbnb profile.
- Microsoft: The giant computer uses Facebook successfully to promote internal and external blogs on its page. However, they also use Facebook to promote Microsoft-related news and other industry events.
Types of content topics
So now you know which brands get it right, but how can your organization fit in without copying their theme entirely? Luckily, there are many types of content to help you boost your visibility and get your audience engaged at the same time.
Here are some of our favorite content topics that marketers can use within their social media channels:
User-generated content
Encourage users to upload their content to publish it on your Instagram account. Urban Outfitters typically uses Instagram to promote various levels of user-generated content. This helps increase trust in your community and shows that there is a person behind the username.
Fun and light content
Brands like Casper, Denny’s, and Hamburger Helper rely on being the comedians in the Twitter crowd. Just look at what Wendy’s is doing with his fans’ request for a full year for free chicken nuggets. However, this theme has many drawbacks, so be careful.
Questions that drive participation
What’s one of the best ways to get a response from your audience? Make questions! It’s easy and simple to do, whether you’re on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or even Instagram. Just remember to be present and ask thoughtful questions that spur engagement.
Behind the scenes content
Instagram is perfect for brands to take their users behind the scenes of their company. Instagram Stories are the ideal tool to show your audience a more pure and authentic look in real-time of what makes your business unique.
Highly visual images or videos
How do some Instagram accounts to have hundreds of thousands of followers without selling anything? It’s more likely because your content is highly visual and engaging. On the off chance that you don’t have a masterful eye for Instagram, discover somebody who does.
Products with a special light
Most people know the name of your company, but do they know what you do? Use unique shots of your products or customer testimonials to show your brand in another way. GetStat, an analytical search tool, uses GIFs and industry statistics to highlight unique results to its users.
2. Consistency is essential for the voice of your brand
Defining the personality of your social networks is not something out of the ordinary, but you must do it consistently. Maintaining your brand’s voice helps increase engagement, trust, and reliability. If you are not consistent, you leave a very large margin of error in the communication between your brand and your customers.
An Oracle report found that 43% of social media users only engage with brands to get a direct answer to a question or problem. This means that many times people will approach your brand to answer a question or question. The key is to be consistent with the message and voice of your brand.
Why are users so cautious about your brand? It is since many people have felt cheated or scammed by the information on social media channels. Contently found that approximately 66% of Internet users have felt misled by a brand due to sponsored content, video, or social media post.
You lose the trust of your audience when you change the voice of your brand and the first thing you will notice will be in the number of your followers. Our Sprout Social Index for Q3 2016 found that 41% of social media users have unfollowed a brand because the brand posted irrelevant information. This means that you should diversify your content without being too promotional.
Where to expose the voice of your brand
Knowing where you can highlight your brand’s voice is as important as maintaining it. Marketers should follow these best practices to maintain your brand’s voice. These are the areas where you must maintain consistency in social networks:
- Answers
- Call-to-action phrases
- Photo captions
- Social media bios
- Direct messages
- Graphics (Text on Images)
- Ads & promotions
- Hashtags
3. Leave terms like “Bae” & “on Fleek” for teens.
As we’ve already mentioned, there is a fine line between being a comic brand and an online offense. One way to avoid making the headlines on social media is to opt-out of the latest trends before doing your research.
Unless you manage the social networks of companies like MTV or Teen Vogue, your brand does not have to use fashionable jargon of internet terms. This makes you look like you are isolated and hurts participation.
Don’t you believe us? The same third-quarter Sprout index found that 38.5% of social media users felt that using jargon was the most annoying thing a brand could do. Besides, 29.8% commented that they would stop following a brand if it used some type of jargon on social networks.
Being an embarrassing brand on social media is not as difficult as you think. A similar file found that 72.3% of individuals have quit following a brand since they are humiliated. It’s anything but difficult to appear to be good old via online media, so consistently approach your crowd with deference.
What the use of jargon tells your customers
Whether it’s words like bae or on fleek, your brand will only hurt your audience’s engagement when you choose to use slang on social media. Here are some things that tell your audience when you’re using jargon:
- You don’t know your demographics. This ends up being unpleasant for many users. Most realize you are selling to them, so respect your audience and avoid gimmicks to reach them.
- You’re willing to risk funny content for cultural insensitivity. You may not realize that certain social media slang or memes are made for certain cultures. Abusing them for marketing purposes can turn your audience away right away.
- You are professing to be something you are definitely not. A recommended practice always in social networks is to be yourself. That means sticking to your brand values, knowing your primary audience, and avoiding quick marketing tactics that could alienate your current customers.
4. Investigate competitive analysis
Information from a competitor provides us with information to make smarter decisions and create better strategies. There is no need to do imitations; however, researching and studying competitive analysis can always keep you one step ahead.
Related post: How to build a commitment to Instagram in 2020?
What competitive analysis teaches you
Having the right tools makes all the difference. With Sprout Social, we offer analytics tools to study your competitor in-depth within your most essential networks. Competitive analysis is essential to know your sector, to know who is talking about you and who has the most participative audience.
How to know who controls the market with a specific Instagram hashtag? Use Sprout’s Instagram Competitor Report to stay informed and stay ahead of your competitors’ branded and non-commercial keywords. Tracking this information can give you information about your brand such as the following:
- Who is talking about you: Influencers, competitors, or industry leaders? Monitor your brand and the conversations that involve you on social networks.
- Latest news & sector: What is happening in your sector at the moment? Did they mention you? Are they your competitors?
- Content that drives engagement: Are there any trends in your competitor’s most successful content? Is there a topic that your sector does not have enough of in social networks?
- Shared Voice Leaders: Who leads the industry with the most shared voice among your competitors?
Statistics to track competitive analysis
Tracking the right metrics helps you measure and monitor the performance of your content so you can create better campaigns in the future. Here are some of the more essential stats that you can track through Sprout Social:
- Media submission: Total amount of content submitted.
- Most used hashtags: The hashtags that your brand has used the most.
- Likes: Total number of “likes” on all your content.
- Comments: Total number of comments on all your content.
- Participation by medium: Total number of participations on average per publication.
- Followers gained: Total number of new followers within a selected period.
- Followers growth: Total followers growth between a selected period.
- New users followed: Total number of new users that your brand has followed in a certain period.
5. Participate, interact & humanize
Last but not least, the most essential social media best practice is your willingness to participate. Nobody wants to talk to a robot or receive an automated message on social media. Participate with your audience, send real responses to interact, and humanize your brand.
Our Sprout Social Index for Q1 2017 found that 30% of millennials engage with brands on social media every month. The younger generations are becoming adept at reaching out directly through social media to connect with brands. And it’s up to you to make sure people get an answer.
If you don’t respond, you lose money. About 30% of social media users turn to a competitor if you ignore their message. You must know that because 34.5% of people believe that social networks are their main option in customer service communication.
That means you have to focus your attention on Facebook Tweets and messages to make sure your audience can interact and engage.
How to improve participation
Don’t you know how to use more effort in your strategy to achieve more participation in your social networks? Follow these five easy steps to improve interactions and humanize your brand:
- Step 1: Go beyond just answering what users ask in conversations.
- Step 2: Be entertained when participating, but not more than necessary.
- Step 3: Motivate your audience to speak up, participate, and converse.
- Step 4: Listen more to those who talk about you.
- Step 5: Offer well-documented information to your audience.
Make the first move
Each social network is unique, but there are ways to be successful in all of them. Following these social media best practices will not only get you started but will also get marketers to hone their work.