Actionable tips, community conversations, and marketing inspiration.

How to Build a Social Media Presence

Wilson Lau

Sr. SEO Marketing Manager @ AdRoll

Social media platforms can transform how you do your business. Before exploring tips on how to establish an active online presence, you need to pick a suitable platform. Your preferred online platform has to contain the right type of customers for your business. It also has to have the right features to help you get your message out there. When you've identified the ideal social media platform for you, the next thing to do is create an active presence that will let people know what your business is about.

7 Tips to Help You Build Social Media Presence

1. Outline your goals and objectives for building your social media page

This is the best way to start creating an active online presence. When growing your online presence, you must ensure that you do so within preset metrics and parameters. Don’t just look to build social media presence by haphazardly adding more followers to your business account. You need to identify and outline specific goals that will be used to measure how much progress you are making.

Make sure you know what you are going after. Are you looking to build several followers? Interested in building your online engagement? Do you want to convert more leads? Write down all your goals and break them down into smaller categories. Be familiar with how each platform works, including how leaders can reach you. Also, make sure that the platform's features comply with your objectives. Setting goals for yourself will also determine the type of content uploaded on your social media page.

2. Inform your customers and target audience about your social media page

A successful social media page has to start from somewhere. The reality is that it may be difficult to gain many followers from the onset, but you can ease yourself into the process by inviting some of your friends and customers to join your page. Some platforms let you instantly invite your friends to follow your page. However, you should also inform all your customers that you have recently created a social media page.

A good idea is to add your social media handles to marketing campaigns on printed materials or branded items. You may also link your social media pages to your website. And if you operate from a physical location, you can put up a “Follow Us” sign with your social media details. These actions will help you start your social media page with a reasonable number of people already familiar with your brand.

3. Optimize your profile

When most people are told to optimize their social media profiles, they consider it a lot of work. However, the entire process is not as difficult as it seems. Optimizing your social media profile means filling out all the essential information that will make your followers quickly identify your page.

A half-completed social media profile with a low-quality image will fail to attract the right type of attention. It's crucial that anyone who visits your social media page can view the information in it and quickly identify your services. A fully optimized profile will make visitors see that you are a professional brand fully aware of what they are doing.

4. Interact with others like a human

Many businesses are guilty of using bot-like responses and interactions on social media. While it’s a good idea to keep things formal and organized on your business page, you need to let your followers and prospects see that you are human too. They need to see your soft side and understand that you are affected by regular emotions. Therefore, you need to interact with everyone on your social media page regularly. Yes, your online relationship with followers has to be well established.

Respond to posts and direct messages from customers. When you come across posts made by your customers, you may also occasionally leave comments under them. The idea is to show your customers that you feel connected to them and are interested in other aspects of their life. If you maintain a strictly official personality on your social media page, you may lose leads and prospects. When they see that you are actively trying to connect with them, they will flock to your page to learn more about you. This would actively build social media presence for your brand.

5. Regularly upload your content

Don’t be the type of person that posts only one content on their social media page for a few months. You have to upload content on your page regularly. By offering regular updates, it’s easier to establish yourself as an authority in that niche and draw more attention to your page. When people navigate your social media page, they want to see new content that addresses their needs and demands.

Try to create attention-grabbing content that will keep the reader hooked and prevent them from scrolling past your page. Your followers will engage your content and develop a stronger relationship with you when you upload the right content. When creating content, try to experiment with different things, such as videos or high-quality photos. The best idea is to share your message in more than one way.

We all know that trends are now an important aspect of social media platforms. Therefore, try to incorporate those trending hashtags into your related posts. This would present you with a great opportunity to join a global conversation while showing off your brand to more followers. New followers and members of your target audience will find out about you and your services. It’s a proven way to get popular and draw the right attention to your social media profile.

7. Use social ads

Building social presence organically is a great way to start. It’s the most authentic way to establish a presence on social media. However, your organic social reach is limited by the number of people who already know you. On Facebook, organic posts only reach about 2% of followers. If you want to accelerate your progress in building a strong social presence, consider adding social ads. Incorporating both organic social and paid social in your social marketing strategy is crucial in building your social presence.  

Build a Social Media Presence Today

Businesses and individuals can now leverage the features of social media platforms to reach and engage with existing and future customers. Are you interested in building your social follower base? Get started today! While building a social media presence takes time and effort, you can get started by following the steps mentioned above.

For more advice and resources on building a social media strategy, check out our guides below!

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