Your business can’t succeed if you aren’t reaching your target audience, and social media marketing is one of the best ways to do that these days. Having more followers or likes on social media doesn’t mean your company will instantly see increased profits. However, it only means attracting more attention from the people you want to reach with your services and products.
Why Does Social Media Reach Matter?
2.6 billion people use social media every day and share billions of photos and stories. There’s also a good chance that your customers are part of that number—so you need to ensure your business participates in these networks. However, it can be tough for businesses new to social media to keep up with changing algorithms, hashtags, and more—but there are ways you can increase your reach.
Tips for Improving Social Media Reach
Here are some things you can do today. Use your networks effectively. Include relevant contacts from previous jobs, people from school or clubs, and former co-workers.
Be sure to tag them in your posts; when people visit their profiles, they’ll see your shared content. Actively listen to The best way to learn what types of content appeal to certain individuals is by keeping tabs on what others post. When you comment on a friend’s Instagram photo, don’t be afraid to ask for feedback.
1. Create the Content
With social media as widespread as it is, you’re guaranteed a wider reach than ever before. From Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to LinkedIn and Google+, there are many ways that your business can connect with customers. Remember: if you want people to follow you on social media, you need to get followers first! Whether it’s in text or image form, make sure your content is something that’ll generate buzz; if it doesn’t, someone will quickly say so (and not in a positive way). Getting more followers and likes on social media isn’t an exact science—but there are strategies out there that can help increase your reach.
2. Design Great Photos
If you want people to see your posts, you’ll need to use high-quality images. You don’t have to be a professional photographer or spend thousands of dollars on equipment—just make sure that what you upload is eye-catching and high resolution. If it takes more than 10 seconds for your page visitors’ screens to load, they’ll move on! And try not to overdo it with filters; while they can add a touch of personality, they can also take away from your visual impact. Some great tools: Canva and PicMonkey are free and easy-to-use software programs that make creating attractive social media graphics easy and fast.
3. Engage with Your Followers
Engagement doesn’t mean you have to respond to every tweet or like every photo on Instagram. But if you’re interacting with your followers, it can help increase your social media reach. If followers see that someone they follow is engaging with one of their posts, they might retweet, share, or even start following your profile. It’s also a good idea to find people doing similar things and engage with them!
Another way to increase your reach is by optimizing for hashtags relevant to your business or industry. Hashtags make tweets easier for others to search and use, but only if they’re used correctly.
4. Optimize the Social Media Accounts
Don’t just set up an account and expect people to find you—you need a strategy to help you build your following. Here are some ways to optimize your social media accounts: Use relevant hashtags. Hashtags connect you with other users on social media, allowing you to reach new potential followers and engage with those who already follow you. They’re also searchable, so they can be a good way of finding people interested in your niche or brand on different platforms. Pick some keywords related to your brand and use them as hashtags in all of your posts.
5. Do Guest Blogs on Relevant Sites
Guest blogging isn’t just for building links; it can also help build your social media reach. You can cross-promote your site by guest blogging on other sites and getting more people to come to it. Include a link back to your site’s guest post and tag your post with some popular keywords. You could even create an account on a social networking site like Twitter or Facebook and use that as a call-to-action at the end of your post.
6. Use Visuals with Text
Studies have shown that we process images faster than text, so it’s vital to provide a balance of both in your social media marketing efforts. Using visuals, especially photos, with your text can impact your posts and keep readers scrolling down your timeline. If you struggle to develop ideas for images for each post, try tapping into visual search apps like Pinterest or searching for relevant hashtags on Instagram. You’ll have plenty of material from which to pull inspiration.
7. Share More Video Content
It’s easy for someone to click away from your social media content after a couple of seconds, so you want to make sure you do everything possible to hold their attention. It may seem counterintuitive, but adding video is easy to do. Videos are less likely than photos or links to get skipped by viewers. And while social media networks encourage short posts—under 500 characters—most still allow longer videos (between 2 and 5 minutes) if they are well-produced and interesting. Just be attentive, not to post anything spammy or promotional! It will come back to haunt you when it comes time for people to decide whether or not they want to follow your page or your page’s content in general.
Conclusion
It takes a lot of time and effort to build a solid following on social media, but it becomes much easier and more effective once you get there.