Grow Your Reach Online By Making These Social Media Changes

• Mar 15, 2022
• Architechs for the Web
• General Info

You may be posting often, but are your social media channels producing traffic to your website and/or place of business? If your social media efforts are not growing your reach online and generating sales leads, the solution might be found in this list of quick tweaks that can help introduce more users to your brand.

Get to Know Your Audience
Some believe it’s better to have random content being posted than none at all. But, if your posts are not engaging your audience, or worse, turning your once prospective customers off of your brand, then it’s time to learn more about what your audience would like to see on your feed. You likely already know the demographics from reports like Google analytics, but do you know what customers want to know about you, your business, or your products and services? Do you know which social media channel your customers use more often? Are your followers on one channel the same individuals as the followers you have on your other channels?

Answers to questions like these can be invaluable in building your social media following and growing your brand online. Not sure where to begin? Try a simple survey post to ask your more loyal followers what they would like to see. Then, post a wide variety of content to test out which is getting the most engagement and reach.

Use All Available Posting Options
This brings us to our second tip. Now that you know a little more about what your audience likes to see, it’s time to bring that content to life by mixing up the styles of posting. Facebook, for example, offers a wide range of posting formats, such as Reels, Stories, photo carousels, slideshows, and more. An inspiring photo post with a nice quote, a product demo in a Reel that is stored in your Reels and Stories, and a photo carousel of your latest team bonding experience are all extremely helpful formats in building follower interest and expanding your reach online.

Use Unique Posts on Each Channel
We mentioned earlier it is important to discover which channels are the most popular with your target audience. It is equally beneficial to understand how many of your followers on one platform are also following you on another. For instance, if you have followers on both Facebook and Instagram, you would not want to bombard them with the same message and images. The subject could be the same, but try to upload a different post image/video or spice it up with a different type of post. Either way, be sure your wording is also unique for each post to avoid overloading your audience with the same information.

Plan Your Content According to Each Channel's Purpose
Another reason to vary your content and posting style for each channel is the different platforms have their own unique purpose that attracts users. Thus, a photo post announcing a new product on Facebook or sharing an informative article link is perfect for Facebook groups and users whereas TikTok requires videos only. Also, Instagram may link up with your Facebook account, but you still cannot post active links to blog articles and other URLs related to your content in the post.

Mix Up Your Content
Once you have mapped out your posts for the month, it’s time to take a closer look at what you are saying to your audience. Are you appealing to their interests? What are they searching for on Google that is related to your products and services? You can find this out by performing a search and scrolling down the first page to view “People also ask”. This will tell you some common questions you can answer in a “how-to” video, informative blog article you can share, or photo FAQ post.

What is Your Competition Doing Right?
If you have tried all of the above tweaks to your posts and you are still wondering why your engagement has dropped, it may be time to check out the competition. Search in your social media channel for businesses in your industry or businesses you like to follow yourself. Look over their post design, graphics, post subjects, length, hashtags, responses to comments, and choice of wording. What are they doing differently that you can incorporate into your posts?

Stay in Touch with Your Audience
No auto-pilot here! Social media is about interaction. As a result, you’ll need to respond to each comment or new follower. Reach out and make them feel welcome. Give a live meet and greet session with the team at a charity event or during some downtime. If you have permission to share a customer’s photo online, ask them their username in the social media platform of choice so you can tag them in an uplifting post of appreciation for their patronage. Ultimately, it’s the little details that show you care and build that customer loyalty and engagement you seek.