Top tips on helping your social media stand out from the rest

A question I get asked a lot from my social media clients is, “How can I make my social media stand out from the rest?”

Well, there's not just one simple answer for this, there are a number of factors which will help!

Trying to contend with 25 million business profiles on Instagram and 60 million business pages on Facebook is no easy feat. Read some of my top tips below on keeping your business current and engaging on social media.

1. Pick the RIGHT social media networks. This is a big one, be sure to pick the right social media networks. Don’t go in all guns blazing and create a presence on every single network. Research which ones will be right for you, social media is time consuming and needs to be kept up to date and posted on frequently. So having 10 networks just isn’t practical. Facebook is a biggie and always a good starting point, with 2.7 billion active users and usually a good first port of call with customers. Beyond this, decide which other networks will work for you and ask yourself, what is your target audience? Sprout social has a great tool to find out audience demographics for each social platform. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/#

2. Draw inspiration from other businesses I’m not saying pick your favourite business profile and replicate them like for like, but create a mood board of all the things you love from a number of different social media accounts. Particularly ones that are excelling on social media. You wouldn’t have started your business without an idea on your branding and its the same for social media. Instead of posting willy nilly, create a social media plan!

3. Be yourself Social media is all about engaging and connecting with your followers and customers, you want them to identify with you. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’re speaking with a robot! People want to know that there really is a human behind the profile, so try and engage with your followers on a personal level. Just remember that your social accounts are a reflection of your business so don’t cross the line, keep things friendly but remain professional!

4. Utilise National Holidays There are numerous days of each month which have a specific “holiday”, e.g. pancake day. Every one loves pancakes, right? So even if its not relevant to your business, posting something on the day relevant to the holiday will engage and connect people with your profile. Some are more serious and meaningful than others, which is also great to post about, its a fun or enlightening way to generate interaction on your social media.

5. Hashtags Seems simple, right? There are a lot of do’s and don’t when it comes to hashtags. Firstly, there are a few hashtag basics you should know. Make sure all your accounts are public, if they’re not then your hashtags won’t be seen by non-followers. Use relevant hashtags for your business, this will ensure that you’re connecting with relevant customers/ followers who are interested in what your business has to offer. Research your hashtags before posting by searching them first, this way you can see how popular they are. And lastly, don’t use too many otherwise it can come across as spammy.
   So what is the point of hashtagging? Including hashtags is like joining a specific community, it gets your brand or business out there for them to see. For example, if you’re an interior designer, then you’d include the hashtag #interiordesign, this will connect you with like minded business/ individuals - all of this will lead to greater engagement through likes, comments shares and new followers.

6. Trends Trends are great, finding out what current trends are and acting upon them is a great way to get your brand out there. Creating content which is relevant to your business, but also piggybacking off a current trend is a sure fire way to increase engagement. Google has a great tool to find out what current trends are: https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=GB
   Don’t forget to include current trend hashtags!!

7. Type of content Visual images are great, approximately 65% of people are visual learners. So including behind the scene images and photos of the team is a great way to put a face to the brand. Visual content also keeps the audience engaged, rather than having lots of text, using an image makes your content easier to skim and digest.
   Another great way to keep your audience engaged is demonstrating your expertise through “How-to-content”. With so much competition out there, set yourself apart by offering something that is useful to them. Creating simple, informative videos that inspire your customers to try something themselves. Adding these to social platforms such as TikTok, YouTube & Instagram Reels is a great way to get the video out to more and more people.