Know Your Audience

To grow a business on social media, it goes without saying that you need to know your audience. Who are you targeting? What position do they fulfil in the company? How would they benefit from your product or service? 

It’s all too easy to just start slinging up a load of posts with no real understanding of who is reading them in the hope that your target audience might see them. Then 6 months down the line, you’ve had no leads and the only people engaging with your content are your mum, your nan, and Susan next door.

Because you paid her.

To grow your business on social media, you have to truly understand who you are targeting and make a very deliberate effort to connect and engage with them. If you are on LinkedIn for example, this will come in the form of a follow or connection request, followed by a process of engaging on their content and adding value to their world. 

Connect with Similar Businesses

It may sound a little backwards, but to grow your business on social media, you need to bring similar businesses that are already active into your world. Yes, you can learn from what they are doing but the ultimate goal here is to put yourself in the middle of the conversations happening in your space. 

All too often we become obsessed with shutting our competition out, hiding what we are up to and distancing ourselves from the potential for collaboration or conflict. But when it comes to social media growth, this is where so many of the people you want to target are spending their time. 

Your target client list is more than likely already following and engaging with these brands. So throw your hat in the ring and get involved.

Share your own experiences in the comments and do your best to showcase your knowledge in a way that doesn’t directly sell your products on other people’s content. That’s a dick move.

Answer questions with your content

To grow your business on social media, you must first identify the key questions your target buyer is asking right now. Once you know that, you must then make a list of the questions they should be asking, but perhaps haven’t thought of in their business. This means you need to understand their business at a decent level.

Once you’ve listed these questions, start to build a list of content ideas based on situations you’ve experienced that answer these questions for your audience. For example:

“Is your team struggling to convert sales calls?

Here are 3 reasons why your social media presence might be the cause.”

We know all too well that our audience is always looking to increase the conversion rate from outbound sales efforts. We also know that a lack of social media presence can be a huge blocker for potential customers committing to a deal with a brand. Thus resulting in a poor conversion rate from sales calls.

How about another example:

“Is your partner sick of having their legs used as a radiator in bed?

Buck the trend of the latest divorce stats and get your hands (or feet) on these cosy and breathable night socks.”

I pulled this one from the personal experience archives as you can imagine.

If your target buyer feels like they are getting value from your content, they are likely to associate you as an expert in the space. This means when their time comes, you are often front of mind.

Set the Trends. Don’t Follow Them

It’s very easy when you want to grow your business on social media to look at what the big boys and girls are doing and try to copy them. It won’t work.

Chances are, they’ve been doing this for years and have established themselves as a creator of authority. They are also very well known for a particular style and if they are killing the social game, I can almost guarantee they are copying no one.

To grow your business on social media, you have to first identify what stands you apart from the competition. It might be your product or the way you deliver your service but the biggest differentiator will always be you and your people. 

Agree on the topics you want to discuss and embrace feeling uncomfortable because to truly make an impact on social media, you will almost always have to do something you’ve never done. For our clients, this is usually the creation of video content which is still hugely underused for business.

Focus on Content Distribution

To grow your business on social media, you need to resist the urge to spend all your time on one platform when your target buyer is spending theirs on many. Yes, as a B2B company, for example, many of the people you wish to target might be on LinkedIn during the day but that doesn’t mean they are not consuming copious amounts of content elsewhere. 

Work with a coach (if you are not confident) to help you create a monthly bank of video content so that your messaging can be repurposed across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. These platforms still play a major role in the growth of any business and cannot be excluded from your social media strategy. 

Use a scheduler (we use Social Pilot) to plan your content distribution process so that you are not wasting time posting to individual platforms natively. No one has time for that. Lastly, please don’t assume that if a channel doesn’t show a return in isolation, it doesn’t play its role in the overall strategy. 

People may see you on TikTok or YouTube and still come to LinkedIn or your website because that’s where they feel comfortable. 

If you have any questions on anything in this article or would like to work with us directly to seriously increase your social media game…

Hit the button below. 

Stay Unconventionall.