best-social-media-practices

Chances are you cannot go one day without someone mentioning social media. It’s an ever-growing industry- 90.4% of Millennials, 77.5% of Generation X, and 48.2% of Baby Boomers are active social media users. With that popularity, it’s no wonder that businesses are joining the community. With so much action on these platforms, it can be taught to figure out how to push your posts through the noise. We have pulled together some of the best practices for social media to help your social strategy crate the best responses.

1. Set Realistic Goals

It can be easy to be overambitious with your social media- after all, there are people that make it look so easy. One of the most important practices is to make sure you are setting realistic goals. These need to be goals that will increase the overall goal of your business. Some sample goals would be to increase your brand awareness or create a loyal follower base.

2. Know Your Followers

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It’s a fine line between delivering content that fits your brand and content your followers like. One of the worst things to do on social media is assume who your followers are. You could be producing content thinking the majority of your follower base are between the ages of 23-30, when in reality your fan base may be people that are between 40-55. If your content is not compelling to the fan base you already have, you may start to lose them. Check the analytic reports on social media platforms or on your scheduling platform to learn more about your followers. It’s important to keep in mind the tone of your brand and growing your follower base beyond your current followers while creating your content. Check who you are currently reaching and make sure your brand’s message connects with them, while also reaching the base you want.

3. Establish Your Most Important Metrics

It’s easy to fall into the hype of social media’s gratification. Followers and likes are all great but that is not the most important metric. Just like any other business practice, find you want your social media to pay off. Focus on metrics that will add to the overall goal of the business such as engagement and clicks. You ultimately want a follower base that is going to actively engage with your posts.

4. Check Out Your Competition

You can learn a lot about your industry and the social media standards from what others are posting. Though it is incredibly important to be yourself and create your own content, seeing the industry standard for something like hashtags can help your posts grow.

5. Stay Hip

Remember that if someone chooses to follow you on social media, they are allowing you to show your business’s posts to them while they are scrolling these platforms. Make sure the posts are not just promoting a product of your business, but also building your brand. Make your brand something your followers want to engage with. Be sure your creative and captions are engaging and fit your audience. It’s also important to stay up with the trends. For example, videos are very popular right now on Instagram, as well as making all your photos have a similar filter theme. Another trend is user generated content. By sharing something that one of your followers shared with you, you are increasing your engagement as well as opening the door for people to want to share with you so their post gets shared. People like user generated content because it’s authentic and posted by other followers so they feel they can trust and relate.

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6. Be Social

This may seem obvious on social media, but it is something that is easy to overlook. If one of your followers leaves a comment or sends you a message it is a good idea to reply to them. This increases brand trust as well as makes people want to engage more. When you comment on something, it is nice to get a response. But if you comment on a business’s platform and get a response, it can be exciting! By engaging in comments and messages, you are setting a standard of a more social community on your platforms.

7. Reflect and Reassess

Just like any strategy, it is important to reevaluate every once and awhile. If you are practicing a strategy that is not working, you are wasting some of your time and potentially causing some of your followers to leave. Social media is ever changing, so chances are your strategy will change every so often. By being aware, you can gratify your followers.

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