How to take your social media up a gear

While social media is undoubtedly a valuable channel for nurturing leads, and since the acceleration of social commerce a channel for making direct sales, the most successful brands are those which focus on building relationships with their audience, rather than consistently pushing sales messages. 

It’s well known that consumers place great store in online reviews. You can harness some of this trust and introduce social proof to your feed by harnessing user-generated content. If a client tags or mentions you, get in to the habit of resharing to your own channels. In addition to cultivating trust and emitting social proof signals, the use of user-generated content also alleviates some of the pressure of content creation. 

There is nothing at all wrong with sticking to the same tried and true platforms if they work for you but, to kick your social media presence up a notch, it can pay to experiment with new platforms too. TikTok for example exploded in 2020 making it well worth a look. New platforms emerge all the time and while they won’t always be a good fit for your brand or demographic, cultivating a presence on emerging networks that could work for you can amplify your reach and help you get in front of new audiences. 

Live streaming and going live is a fairly recent phenomenon and something that again peaked last year during the first wave of the pandemic. Now, it’s a much-consumed medium for social media users and, for some brands, an excellent way of increasing reach and engagement. If you haven’t yet tried live streams, plan out a few dates to dip your toe in the water. Don’t forget to promote them heavily beforehand. If you’re unsure as to what your live might look like, start researching what others in your space are doing and doing well for inspiration.