3 Easy Ways to Grow Your Social Media Presence

Social media has become a must-have ingredient to a company’s success.

A well-crafted Instagram account could rope in key customers for a small business or catch the eye of a successful social media influencer and capture the attention of thousands of people with one simple Instagram story.

With 105 million users on Instagram and 330 million users on Twitter, it’s simply impossible to ignore the power of social media.

So, how do you create a successful social media presence that isn’t just a jumble of shameless promo?

Here are three easy and digestible ways to grow your followers, engagement and overall brand awareness on social media today, when it matters most.

1. S.M.A.R.T Goals

Before you do anything, understand why you are doing it.

In other words, what do you want to achieve through social media and what actions can you take to achieve it? You should be able to answer these questions before setting up your social media accounts. If not, you may be setting yourself up for failure.

Creating a social media strategy will help you figure out the answer to both. A reference to use when creating your social media goals and strategy is the S.M.A.R.T method: Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. Make sure that every goal you create checks those boxes. This will ensure that you are making achievable and realistic goals for you and your company’s success.

For example, do you want to grow your follower count by 50% in the next three months? Or how about increasing the traffic to your website through a giveaway event on Instagram?

Start with the big picture and flesh out the steps on achieving it. By doing that you will have a goal and a step by step guide on achieving it. What’s that called class? Oh yes, you have a strategy now.

It really is as simple as one, two and three!

2. Utilize Links, Hashtags and Tags.

Do not forget to link back to your company’s website.

This may seem like a no brainer, but many look over this vital step. A simple rule of thumb is placing a link in your bio when creating a social media profile. Once you catch the attention of a user they will automatically want to verify if you are a “legit” business. You have a 8 seconds window to direct curious users to your website - yes, attention spans are really that short.

Alright, I’ll say it again - do not forget to link back to your website.

In addition to including a link to your company’s website make sure to utilize tags, links and even hashtags in your social media posts. There are a number of reasons why this is essential. The most common use would be while doing a self promotional post you want to make it as easy as possible for an interested user to check out the product you are promoting or click through to your website. Hashtags can help you reach users who are interested in similar products or services. Finally, tags can help engage users through customer spotlight posts or just make you stand out from competition through personalization.

All three can increase engagement, follower count and overall success of your social media account.

3. Optimization is necessary and worth it.

Optimization may sound scary at first but let us start with something small like keywords.

I have one question for you - what are keywords relevant to your business? Let us ask Google.

Remember that Google is your friend. Don’t be afraid to ask them for help.

Google Ads can be used to figure out relevant keywords to incorporate in your profile bio and posts in addition to running paid advertisements to increase your search result ranking. Keywords are words that can be associated with your business. This is particularly important because when someone searches a topic such as public speaking and you are a public speaking coach - your website can pop up in Google search results if you optimize your profile correctly. You may even be able to reach the first, second or third rank in Google search results.

Another tool to use when searching for keywords is Keyword Everywhere. This tool is an add-on for your browser. It automatically lists relevant keywords in addition to the monthly search volume and cost-per-click based on your search.

Optimizing through keywords can give you a better look into competition and customer expectations. Make sure that everything you are putting out is reaching the right people. The key formula to a great social media presence is crafting the right content for the right people. By strategically placing a few keywords into each social post or profile you can avoid wasting your time and energy.

Social media can be intimidating and you may feel like you are failing before you even take a crack at it. However, if you put in the time, effort and you follow the easy steps we just shared with you, the results will be so worth it.