Six Rules For Keeping Your Social Audience Connected

As we have said before, social media marketing is essential to building your brand and growing your customer base. The key to successful social media marketing is to keep your audience tuned-in and engaged with your brand. Here is a refresher on the six rules for keeping your social audience connected. 

1.  Know Your Target Market: The foundation of any successful social media plan is understanding your target audience. Generally, your social media audience should reflect your target customer base. Knowing what interests and influences your audience will help you provide them with relevant content.
2.  Balance Your Range of Content: While it may seem like the purpose of using social media is to talk about your products or services, your audience does not want to feel like they are constantly being pitched to. Research conducted by Convince & Convert shows that companies that post about themselves or link to their website only 25-50% of the time have the highest conversion rates. Developing a wide variety of content to share is a great way to keep your followers tuned-in. In addition to posting about your business, you can share industry related news, short videos or infographics. Starting a two-way conversation with your audience by asking open-ended questions or taking polls is a great way to engage.
3.  Be Consistent: Actively using your social media platforms is an important factor in achieving your desired results. It is a common mistake for businesses to create accounts and either post sporadically or not at all. Inconsistent posting on social sites can reflect that a brand is out of touch with their audience or undependable. According to Socialbakers, posting less than twice a week will not engage your audience enough to maintain a social connection. Some platforms, such as Twitter or Instagram that have fast moving feeds require more frequent posting. Consistent interaction and responding to followers is also crucial to compelling your audience.
4.  Stay On-brand: One of the most challenging aspects of social media marketing is making sure your that your digital messaging coincides with your brand identity. From the content you post to the tone used in comments, all of your social interactions need to agree with your brand’s voice and messaging. Your social media voice should reflect who you are talking to. If your brand targets a younger audience you may use an upbeat and informal tone, while a high-end, exclusive brand would require a more professional dialogue.
5. Be Interactive: Social media is about maintaining an active conversation with your audience. Give your follower an opportunity to contribute and always respond promptly. Consumers feel a stronger connection to a brand that they have interacted with online. According to Bain & Company, consumers spend 20% more with companies they have engaged with on social media.
6. Analyze and Modify Your Content: Through analyzing your social data, you will be able to determine what content interests and engages your audience. Some social sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest offer their own analytics pages for businesses to track and measure their impact. According to Gleanster, 96% of top performing companies analyze their social media results to better their social performance. Analyzing your results is a necessary step in creating content your audience enjoys.