You’ve probably heard it a thousand times, that social media is one of the greatest marketing tools you can harness for business success. There are nearly 2.5 billion active social media users across the globe. A lot of small business owners use social media as their primary digital marketing tool because of its effectiveness and relatively cheap cost. Social media can increase awareness about your brand, connect you with potential customers, and help you make sales.

The question is, how can you achieve these great results for your business, especially when you’re just starting out? Creating social media profiles for your business and realizing that you have to actively grow followers and get your profile in front of your target market can seem very daunting, but it can be done. The key is to start right now, remain consistent and be patient. Remember that every business started with zero followers, and if you put in the work, you can gain traction in no time. Here are 10 tips that will help you improve your social media game.

1. Set your social media goals – What do you plan to achieve using social media? It’s not enough to get likes and retweets, you must gain something tangible from using social media. Setting social media goals will help you create the perfect plan to help you reach your goals.
2. Conduct a social media audit – What social networks do your target audience use the most? What kind of content do they engage with? Who are your competitors? What kind of content do they share on social media? These are questions you need to answer. The answers to these question will be of great help when you create your social media strategy. HootSuite has a great social media audit template, that will simplify this process.
3. Create or improve your social media accounts – Once you find out the social networks that your target audience uses the most, create a strong presence, in accordance with your larger business goals. If you already have an account, revamp it and make sure it’s a more accurate reflection of your brand.
4. Get inspired! – Do your research. Visit other brands’ social media profiles, see what they’re doing and find ways to do those things in an even better way.

5. Create a social media calendar – Creating a social media calendar will help you have structure. You can create a weekly or monthly calendar and fill it with intended dates and times you want to publish, and the type of content. Having a content calendar helps you always have something to post, even on days you don’t feel very creative. Remember, consistency is key.
6. Constantly improve your strategy – You need to finetune your strategy based on the performance of each post. To do this, you need to analyze your metrics, find out what works and why then adjust and improve based on this data.
7. Utilise imagery and graphics – Visual elements appeal to audiences on social networks and has high engagement value. Incorporate visuals such as static images, videos, gifs, and memes in your social media strategy. Always ensure that the visuals are relevant to your content and audience.
8. Choose quality over quantity – You might want to use numerous social media platforms in order to reach as many people as possible, however, it’s much better to focus on one or two platforms and put in your best effort. Focus on quality. Find where your audience is, deliver value and you’d be rewarded for it. Remember, the majority of your social media content should be aimed at adding value to your audience.
9. Harness the power of available tools – There are amazing FREE tools that will help you with creating an excellent social media presence. These tools will also make the process easier. You can create graphics with canva and schedule content with Buffer or HootSuite.
10. Be social – You have your social media profiles, content and strategy, now focus on growing your audience. Social media makes this relatively easy by allowing you to follow other people, pages, and profiles, repost content, and respond to comments. You can even use your social media accounts as a method of customer support, which will generate more traffic. Respond to people’s feedback and maintain a strong presence on your networks. By engaging and interacting with your audience on a regular basis, your community will grow.

By applying this tips, you will definitely witness a marked improvement in your social media presence. If you would like to speed things up, and see faster results, or you have too much on your plate and desire professional help for your social media presence, Atlas Creative Consultancy is ready to help! Send us an email with what you need, and we’d be happy to assist.