You’ve got the perfect photo. You’ve proofread and polished your caption with more fervor than an appraiser at a high-end jewelry company. But even now, with your mouse hovering over the “publish” button, you can tell. You can feel in your gut that this social media post isn’t going to do much better than any of the previous ones.
Is there anything you can do to ramp up your social media reach in a big way? What are all these thriving social media-driven brands doing differently? Or is all the chatter about marketing through social media just hype?
Whether you’re frustrated and struggling to gain traction, or you’ve had a fantastic social media debut and you want more advice on keeping the momentum going, we can help. Here’s a list of 10 social media growth hacks that you can use to crush your marketing goals.
Sound good? Keep reading.
1. Create a Posting Schedule
According to YouGov, 50 percent of New Year’s resolutions are about getting more exercise. But even though many people may start the year off with dreams of being fitter, slimming down, and focusing more on their health, it’s not unusual for people to fall off the wagon as the months go by.
To make matters worse, however, fitness is something that needs to be maintained over time. You can’t expect to have the Hulk’s physique without putting work in at the gym. And believe it or not, social media marketing has more in common with building a gym habit than you might think.
From Twitter to Facebook, social media posts aren’t exactly known for having a long shelf life if they don’t go viral. And what that means for you and your marketing team is that getting results from social media often boils down to simply spending more time on platforms.
Most people can’t gain muscle if they aren’t regularly lifting weights. And there’s a similar dynamic at play when it comes to your social media. When you post consistently and frequently, you can build a surprising amount of momentum through social media.
2. Be Social
Have you ever met someone who seemed like they were talking at you rather than to you?
While most of us wouldn’t dream of showing up to a Christmas party and talking over Grandma the whole time, many brands make the mistake of treating their social media posts as if they’re company press releases. They’re just posting into the void without taking the time to engage with followers or readers.
For these reasons and more, it pays to spend some time socializing with your target demographic.
So if you’re a brand that sells athleticwear, you may want to find some hashtags that are frequented by people who love sports. Spend some time liking posts. Answer people when they engage with what you have to say.
Not only will you have more fun while on social media, but it gives you more opportunities to put your brand in front of people who would have bought your stuff years ago if they’d known you existed back then.
3. Partner With Influencers
It’s been said that as many as 50 percent of users have gone to websites or bought products that they initially saw on Instagram. What drew their attention and convinced them to give the site a try? In most cases, influencer posts.
And to be clear, influencers don’t necessarily operate in a strictly offline context.
Air Jordans are some of the most iconic shoes of all time. And in the meantime, Steph Curry has been putting the Curry Brand on the map since 2013. Although we don’t often think of basketball players as influencers in the same way that we see social media stars, both Nike and Under Armour are basically launching large-scale influencer marketing campaigns to sell shoes.
For many businesses, trust and brand awareness are difficult things to establish. If you’re looking to build momentum fast, influencer partnerships could be the shortcut that you didn’t know you needed.
4. Share Top-Tier Content
Imagine for a minute that you’re a total bookworm. Your Kindle is always full. You’re always hanging out on GoodReads. And “Let me stop by the bookstore.” is your way of saying, “I won’t be home until after 7.”.
One day, you find someone on YouTube or Instagram who reviews books in your genre of choice. Score! And let’s say that you start off watching every video and liking nearly every post. How long would you follow those social media accounts if they were routinely recommending books with spelling errors, grammatical issues, and plot holes galore?
Of course, nobody wins them all. And sometimes people make mistakes. But when every other book is a dud and you’ve got a “Reasons Why This Book is Terrible” bingo card, chances are that you’ll gradually start to ignore that person before eventually unfollowing them.
While they say that sharing and reposting content is a great way to curate your feed, you don’t want your followers to feel like they can’t trust your social media accounts to show them things that they want to see. The content on your social media is a reflection of you and your brand. That’s why it pays to make sure that you’re bringing your A-game when it comes to the content you share and post.
5. Have an Aesthetic
In 2013, Business Insider India observed that many people found Beyonce more recognizable with her signature blonde hair than they did when she wore a different hair color. And if Queen B, one of the most famous singers on the planet, can’t switch up her aesthetic without causing people to blink, there’s no way that a business can get away with using inconsistent visual cues.
When people scroll through their feeds and they spot a black background with a white swoosh in the middle, they don’t even need to read the text to know that Nike is behind it. Similarly, nobody can hear that Windows startup theme without immediately associating the sound with Microsoft.
If you’ve got a brand and you want to amplify what you have to say a little more, it pays to have a bold aesthetic that you’re constantly making use of. The visual consistency is a quick and simple way to say, “Yes, it is us talking.” And it helps people remember you more when they see you popping up in their feeds.
6. Get Good at Recycling Content
In August 2020, TechRepublic reported that 75 percent of workers had experienced burnout within the previous month. And between workplace stress, family life, and just the daily grind in general, it’s not surprising that folks eventually reach a point where they start to feel a little drained.
With social media, it’s not uncommon for teams to hit the ground running. They post tweets like clockwork, they like comments on social media, and they’re quick to get in touch with current and future customers who have questions. But then, as the months go by and other work deadlines become more apparent, the team starts struggling to create posts and stay on brand.
One quick and easy tip that can help make your online marketing strategy more effective is to simply find all your best content and recycle it. Maybe that fetching Instagram post with all the likes could be turned into a tweet or a Pinterest post. Or perhaps that blog post that everyone said was really helpful could be broken down and turned into a series of LinkedIn posts.
Marketing sometimes involves creativity. But that doesn’t mean you have to reinvent the wheel every time you make a post.
7. Consider Paid Ad Campaigns
10 or 15 years ago, social media was like shooting fish in a barrel. If you weren’t landing in people’s feeds and generating free clicks with every post, chances are that your content was in need of a massive overhaul.
In 2021? That’s not necessarily the case. A lot of digital ink has been spilled about how businesses often have significantly less organic reach on Facebook or Instagram than they did before.
One way that you can give your posts a chance at gaining traction is by simply putting a budget behind some of your best content. Facebook has billions of users who are logging on and viewing content every month.
Sometimes the best way to get more traction out of your social media efforts is to simply pay for more exposure.
8. Watch Your Analytics
There’s a simple truth about marketing that people don’t always like to talk about:
You’ve never truly done. There are always results to review, problems to watch for, and posts and that need to be reviewed and added to the calendar.
Is your audience more likely to see your tweet if you post it at noon? Are you losing out on sales when you post Instagram posts without making Instagram stories?
Until the data comes in, nobody will have definitive answers to these questions. But if you make a point of tracking the results of your social media marketing efforts, you can give yourself the ability to make more data-driven decisions.
And in a world where so much of marketing involves making educated guesses, any analytics information that you can get a hold of is important.
9. Don’t Do Too Much
Posting on Facebook takes minutes. Tweeting takes seconds. And if you’re opening up a TikTok account or creating a new Twitter account for your business, the process is streamlined for you. This low barrier to entry makes it easy for brands to start getting greedy when it comes to their social media marketing efforts.
First, they post on Twitter. Then they’re off to Facebook. And then, after prospecting and doing the rounds on LinkedIn, they’re exploring the merits of creating new Snapchat accounts. You get the picture.
If you’re a brand and you’re committed to utilizing social media for your business, you’ll want to make a point of mastering different platforms before moving on to the next one. Don’t let Shiny New Object Syndrome distract you from what really matters:
Getting results.
10. Play Around With Different Post Concepts
Depending on the social media platform you’re on, chances are that every post type you can think of has been done before.
Quotes in place of selfies on Instagram? Followers have seen that. Pithy headline teasers? “You Won’t Believe What Happened Next” headlines have been seen so much that people have running jokes about clickbait headlines.
So what can a brand do to stand out more?
Consider getting creative with your formatting. Maybe those pithy quotes aren’t getting much traction on Twitter, but a gif or an additional hashtag might.
In addition, adding video to your Instagram posting schedule or putting more pop culture references into your tweets isn’t the only way to give your accounts a boost. The substance of your content can make a difference too.
Is there an issue that your followers have been dealing with lately? Maybe you should skip the tweet-style format and create infographics for Instagram or Pinterest. Is everyone using your products the wrong way? Use your Twitter account to set the record straight.
These small touches can make a major difference to businesses at the end of the day.
Use Our Tips to Ramp up Your Social Media
On paper, there’s a lot to like about building a brand through social media. Most social media platforms are free to join and free to post on. It gives your brand a chance to be more relational with people. And you don’t need a budget the size of the U.S. government’s to build some serious momentum.
All you need to succeed is a little bit of time, creativity, and know-how. And if you take the hacks we’ve just given you, there’s no reason why your brand can’t ramp up its social media efforts in record time.
Are you looking for more tips, tricks, and advice on making social media work for your business? We’ve got you covered! Check out our site to find out more ultra-actionable marketing content like this.
