5 Things You Need to Know About Social Media

by Syrup | Sep 12, 2017

How do you know what’s right and what to prioritize when it comes to social media for your brand?

While every social media strategy should be unique and based on the individual brand, the customers, and the overall goal, there are a few things every brand can benefit from knowing.

Here are 5 things you need to know about social media:

1. It’s important. Social media is changing the way we’re reaching, connecting with, and staying in front of our audiences. If your brand is not active on social, you’re missing out on reaching your audience and people begin to question your validity. It’s often overlooked and rarely prioritized, but when done well, it can change the game for your brand. In fact, 53% of Americans who follow brands on social media are more loyal to those specific brands. 
2. Engagement matters. Actually engaging in conversation with followers (and even those that aren’t already following you) is one of the most important pieces of your social media strategy. This means replying to comments, retweeting, liking, sparking conversation, etc. How boring would it be if you were at lunch with a friend and they ignored you the entire time while they talked about themselves? That’s what it’s like on social when you don’t engage with others. Engage with them not just as customers and followers, but as humans. Let them know there is another human on the other end of that Twitter handle that is listening and cares. Engagement is the new customer service.
3. It’s not about you. Think about the type of content you share. Is it all about your product or service? When writing content for your brand, especially on social media, you should never be focused on yourself. New York Times Bestselling Author, Donald Miller, makes the point that your customer is the hero of your brand. When it comes to finding your brand’s story, many people like the idea of being the hero in the story. However, this isn’t going to win you customers. Every customer should be the hero of your story, while your brand is simply there to provide them a solution.
4. Social media is more than just words. 65% of your audience are visual learners (via WebDam), and visual content is more than 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content(Hubspot). The moral of the story? Use photos and graphics to make your message more memorable and easy to digest for readers. Check your Twitter feed. What type of content catches your eye? Great social media matters in a noisy, content-driven world.
5. Followers want quality over quantity. Creating a relationship with your fans on social media through meaningful posts and connections is huge; it’s more important to connect than to just push content. Post what people want rather than posting about EVERYTHING just because other brands are doing it (stop the FOMO!).

As you dig further into your social media strategy and get to know your audience better, you’ll find what works. If this sounds overwhelming and you’d like some help (or you’d just like to pick our brains about social media), we’d love to talk.