Every business knows that a strong presence on social media can be a powerful tool to enhance brand awareness, boost sales and improve overall business performance. What’s lesser known, however, is how to build and implement an effective social media strategy. This is especially true for a lot of small businesses or marketing teams with limited resources. That’s why we want to share with you an easy and practical way to boost your social media presence by using what we call, “The 4 Es of Social Media Strategy.”
Entertain
The first and most important goal of your social media strategy should be to make sure that a portion of the content you post is entertaining to your audience. For the most part, perhaps with the exception of LinkedIn, people go on social media for enjoyment. They spend hours scrolling through the posts because they are following people and brands that post things they are interested in. Let me assure you that if you are only posting content that promotes your business you are missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your following and your business.
So what exactly do entertaining social posts look like? Below are some examples:
- Memes & GIFs
- Posting funny or cute content related to your industry is a great way to get shares and gain followers.
- Posts featuring staff members or customers
- This also adds a touch of humanization to your page and can make followers feel more connected with your brand.
- Holiday Posts
- Think outside the box on this one. Try searching for random/weird holidays like National Science Fiction Day, which is January 2nd by the way. Bonus points if you can somehow spin the holiday to apply to your business.
- Historical Events
- These can range from commonly known to more obscure events.
Educate
Another great way to bolster your social media is to be a source of information for people to let them know that your business is an expert in the industry. For these types of posts, try to mix up the length and medium of the content. For example, mix in articles, videos, text-based images, etc. Here’s some more specific post types to help you out:
- News Articles and Blog Posts
- Share recent industry related news with a link to the article or blog.
- How-To Videos
- Video content typically performs very well across all social platforms.
- Tips & Tricks
- Short , easy to digest content that people can easily remember works great.
- FAQs
- You’re already answering these questions all the time anyway. Might as well put them to good use.
Engage
Interacting with your followers is perhaps the best way to convert them to customers if they aren’t already and build brand loyalty for current customers. Not only should your social media strategy include posts that encourage your followers to engage with you but you should also make sure you’re responding to anyone that comments on your posts. Of course we’ve got some ideas to help you out with getting engagement:
- AMA (Ask Me Anything)
- This is very popular, especially on Reddit, and can be particularly successful if you can get a senior level team member to participate.
- Questions & Surveys
- Not only is this a great way to get follower engagement but this can be a very effective tool for conducting market research.
- Tag a Friend
- This is one way to increase brand awareness on all channels and remember if you want your followers to take an action (like subscribing or liking content) make sure you ask them directly.
- Photo in the Comments
- What better way to interact with your followers than to have them post pictures they’ve taken.
Endorse
Technically this should probably be labeled “Promote,” but that doesn’t start with an “E” and “The 3 Es and a P of Social Media Strategy” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. That being said, this is the strategy that most businesses seem to have down. However, that doesn’t mean that this has to be boring. As a matter of fact, this can be a very powerful tool to gain followers and new customers. Take a look at some of the post types you can use to your advantage:
- Testimonials
- Don’t tell people how awesome you are, let someone else do it for you.
- Product Give Away
- Do you have some samples you can give away, or how about a free consultation? If not, offer some gift cards for coffee or something. Just make sure the prize matches the effort of what you are asking people to do.
- Exclusive Deals for Followers
- Why not reward the people who follow you? If you do this often enough word will start to get out and you’ll see a nice spike in followers and customers.
- Co-Marketing
- If you can find another business in the same general industry, team up to cross promote each other. This will put your business in front of their followers and visa versa. Just make sure you both have a similar number of followers so it’s fair to both parties.
Final Thoughts
With each of the 4 Es it is always better to post your own content, if you can. That being said, most people who run social media accounts for small businesses wear multiple hats and don’t always have the luxury of curating original content on a regular basis. To help with this, set up some Google Alerts to help you easily find interesting articles to share and don’t be afraid to repost from other people and businesses you follow.
Another thing to keep in mind is that consistency is the key to success with social media and marketing in general. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you will have time or remember to post everyday. Layout a social media calendar and stick to it. It also helps if you can schedule posts out in advance.
Finally, get creative and bring it all together. Believe it or not, building a social media following can actually be a lot of fun. Don’t think that you have to just stick to one type of post mentioned above either. You can hit multiple categories in a single post. For example, ask your followers to post pictures of their dogs on National Dog Day.
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