Ten Social Media Best Practices Your Brand Should Do

Problem: As brand’s social media landscape grows, the audience changes. Size, demographics, interests, etc.; it is hard to “keep up” under a lot of pressure. As a result, the way brands utilize social media has to change as well.

Here are TEN best social media practices you should do.

1. Build your brand personality

   Successful brands on social media are not reluctant to show their personality. It is important for the audience to be aware of the fact that there are REAL people behind the brand’s social media. Finding a voice for the brand requires a lot of research based on what gets the most positive response from your target audience and what specific topics they are most interested in. When you find the voice of your brand, make sure to keep the voice consist by actively replying to comments, using relevant captions, and pictures or videos aligned with your brand identity and voice.

2. Pay attention to numbers that count

   Review number of likes, shares, comments, followers, views, etc. regularly to get a better idea of what specific content or post draws audience to your page. Start creating social media posts based on this data. If your Instastories get 2-3x as many views as your Instagram posts, share important information here and possibly on a post. Curate the content by channel based on the metrics you have available. If you’re a business, be sure you’re using an Instagram Business profile (which provides great analytics about each post, your audience….)

3. Interact with your audience

   Once you have created a social media platform for your brand to reach your target audience, make sure you are interacting with them as much as possible. More and more people are joining social media on a daily basis, which means a higher opportunity for growth of your brand’s social media and reach. Interact with your audience by creating captions with questions to start a conversation or provide interesting information.

4. Make sure to tag other brands and influencers in your posts

   Tagging other brands, influencers and business partners is the easiest way to get more exposure to your post and create a community with other like minded brands. Tagging brands, products, and influencers will give your brand a chance to capture their audience as well and for them to re share. On the flip side, be sure to engage if others tag you or mention you. Always use the golden rule, treat others on social media as you’d want to be treated (like your communities posts, comment, engage….)

5. Encourage your audience engagement

   Create a platform where your audience can share their ideas or submit their content to be featured on the brand’s social media page. This is an easy way to not only raise the overall engagement, but also to grow royal audience to your brand. Say something like tag #XXXRestaurant to be featured on our Instagram page. This gets the other user to consent to let you re share their content and helps you build more unique, community curated content.

6. Do your research

   Be aware of WHO your competitors are. Through in-depth competitor analysis, your brand can make smarter decisions based on given data. By increasing the understanding of your industry and market that your brand belongs to and paying attention to competitors’ content this will provide an opportunity for your brand to grow while staying aware of what your competitors are doing.

7. Advertise wisely (i.e. Facebook & Instagram Ads)

   Before you put on an advertisement on your social media platform, think about WHY you are sharing this. Being intentional and strategic will help you spend your advertising budget more efficiently to reach the best audience possible. Evaluate how your past ads/advertisements performed ensuring you’re investing in channels that work for your brand and reach your target customer/audience.

8. Geo tag on Instagram

   This is a fun tip for smaller, local, brick-and-mortar stores to grow and gain more followers. Creating a geotag for your brand shows that you are part of the local community and it gives customers a chance to show their support. Both you and your customers can post using this geotag.

9. Don’t be afraid to go live

   Ever since instagram introduced live video feature, it has became the most instant and direct way for brands to communicate with the audience. Unlike polished, edited videos, live videos provide fresh, natural, and real behind-the-scenes content to the audience.

10. Create compelling stories

    This is a great new way for your brand to gain more followers and increase your engagement. People are getting tired of receiving promo links and emails from other brands. Try sharing interesting, touching and genuine stories to create discussion-based platform (such as get to know our Chef, or daily special from today’s menu). It can be short and sweet just genuine, fresh content. Not only will these stories generate a great amount of engagement, they will also create an opportunity for your brand to show that you care and let your followers get to know you more personally.