Something I hear all too often is that businesses feel it’s too hard to use social media to grow. They feel the algorithm is changing too often and it’s hurting their business as well. They feel it’s turning into more of a “pay to play†system.
Well there is some truth to that but it’s not entirely “pay to play†and growing your business online and organically is still very much a possibility.
This week I want to chat about the ways you can grow brand online.
When it comes to social media, I have talked about this many times before. Social media is just that, platforms to be social on. If you break it down, all you’re doing is being social, networking and engaging with your audience.
As time goes on, people and businesses have become so fixated on the numbers and followers, they have gotten away from what really matters…engaging with your audience and building relationships.
Don’t get me wrong, I catch myself often looking at the numbers, looking to see how much I’ve grown over night and looking to see all the “likes†I got on my last post but from those new followers and all those “likesâ€, how many of those turned into leads that will make money for my business?
When you’re creating a strategy for each of your social media platforms you will want to niche down and make sure you’re focusing on your target market. If you’re a retail store here in Windsor that sells product X you don’t want to waste your time focusing on an audience that is looking for product Y.
To that you also don’t want to waste your efforts and market to a large global audience if you are a small business just focused on foot traffic in Windsor, ON for example.
More to that last point, if you are a retail outlet in say, Windsor, ON you could market to a slightly larger audience and see who in Ontario could benefit from your products. This way when people visit from out of town, they will know who you are and where you’re located.
Getting back now to being more social on social media, it’s all about the relationships you build with your audience. All too often, businesses and brands have great content and once they schedule it out, forget about it. Most will reply to the comments that are left on the post but leave it at that.
Replying to comments and engaging with your audience on a specific post is very important but there is more you can do if you really want to grow your business on any of the social media platforms. Take Instagram and the $1.80 Strategy made famous by Gary Vee.
This strategy was made for Instagram but the same concept can be used on other platforms.
When using the $1.80 strategy you’ll want to find the top 10 hashtags in your target market and leave your two cents on the top 9 posts doing this until you “spend $1.80†in comments.
When using this strategy you’ll want to make sure you’re posting at a time that your audience is online and then start to engage. This will get you even more eyes on your content and in turn help you get more engagement and will help you grow your account faster and organically.
As most of us schedule our content out weeks in advance, a good tip is to make sure you have a notification or a reminder on when your posts go out.
Want to know more about that strategy and how you can use it to grow your business online?
I put together a handful of Instagram Hacks as well as the full $1.80 strategy that was made famous by Gary Vee.
If you’re ready to take action and want to grow, just click below!