Top tips for building your social media in 2021

Are you looking to grow your business this year? Have you been toying with social media but don’t really get much from it? To help you out, we have put together our top 13 tips for building a stronger social media presence.

1 | Update your bio

One of the best ways to give your profile a revamp is to update your bio. It pays to regularly check to see if there is any information that requires updating, such as additional credentials or experience, and ensure there is a working link to your website. Update your profile picture and cover image using the below template to optimise it, and always include your logo. Another tip is to ensure your bio and profile picture are consistent across all of your social platforms to help with brand recognition and consistency.

2|Set clear goals

Just posting willy nilly and paying to boost random posts is not only a waste of your money but also a waste of your time. This may seem like a blunt statement, but it is important to note! Without setting goals and optimising your paid campaigns to reach them, you may as well throw your money in the bin.

The type of business you run will determine your goals, for example, if you own a bricks and mortar business that makes money from people walking through your doors, then you want to optimise your campaigns to get people to your location! This is actually very easy in the Facebook Ads Manger, as the system walks you through step-by-step in setting up your ad to optimise for foot traffic. Your goals also help guide your content, for example posting pictures of people enjoying your products is more likely to entice buyers.

3|Focus on engagement

Having a large following does nothing for your business if your follows are stale and don’t engage. Engagement is people reacting to your posts with like, love, or wow, as well as commenting and sharing. Don’t focus on the numbers but put your attention into creating an engaged following. Staying on-trend, such as with seasonal or special occasion posts, as well as encouraging a high level of engagement through CTAs (calls to action) will ultimately do more good for your business than paying to boost a post.

4|Ask your audience questions

One of the best ways to get your audience to engage is to ask them questions. Below are some ideas from my social media feed to get you thinking about what you could ask your audience. Asking questions is a great way to create engagement, plus it gives you valuable insights into your audience’s habits, likes and dislikes.

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5|Educate yourself on your competitors

If you think your competitors aren’t watching what you’re doing, you are kidding yourself! By educating yourself on what they are doing on social media, you can gradually improve your approach. I do not mean copying other people’s content (that is unethical), but you can take inspiration from your competitors and work on making your content better. A little bit of healthy competition is not a bad thing, in fact, I personally invite it. It makes me better at what I do.

6|Batch and plan ahead

Batching means creating your content in advance all at once. For example, I create anywhere from three to six months of social media posts at one time. If I get my hair and makeup done for something, then I will create a few videos while I am dolled up. This not only saves money, but it also saves time – and who doesn’t want more of that?! Batching also helps you automate your content more, which we will discuss further down this post.

7|Get personal | Show them who you are

People don’t want to just see products and services in posts, they want to engage with real people and get to know the face behind the screen. Introduce yourself and your staff so when people visit, they come to a familiar face. If you are an online business and don’t have a face-to-face connection with customers or clients, letting your audience get to know you is even more important. Since COVID, consumers seem to be switching to be more likely to buy local than ever before, so getting personal on your social feed helps people feel connected and more willing to work with you.

8|Automate your social posts

Once you have batched and created a month or more’s content, schedule it so you don’t then have to think about it. Facebook has an in-built scheduling service through Publishing Tools, however if you wish to schedule to more social media outlets, then you need to find a third-party app. There are many options available now and they are fairly cheap if not free, but I always recommend paying for something as you usually get more from it, and it will likely give you fewer headaches. Check out Sendible, Buffer & Hootsuite.

9|Start collaborating

One of the greatest things about social media is the ability to be able to collaborate with other small businesses or people who share an interest in your business. For example, our content editor owns her own business and I often ask her to write blog posts to share with my followers. This helps give her business exposure but also helps my community by sharing the amazing helpful health tips and programs she writes about.

Collaborating with others via social media is a win-win! Brainstorm some people or businesses that you could collaborate with and drop them a message to talk it over. Collaboration could be as simple as pairing some products in a gift basket and running a social media campaign to win (ensure you stay within the legalities of social media competitions) or swapping guest post spots.

10|Take photos or hire a photographer

One big problem I find on social media is seeing the same stock images over and over! Stop selling other people’s businesses and start promoting yours! I have a few blog posts on photography to help you out here, and you don’t need any fancy equipment or time-consuming setups. For example, get your staff to have some fun at work and take a photo of them smiling and happy. If you have a product that is going to revolutionise peoples lives, have someone take photos of you or someone else USING IT (even better, video it). Your images don’t have to be perfect or professional, they just have to be eye-catching and engaging.

We have very affordable photography packages available

11|Be consistent

If you weren’t posting regularly on social media last year, then it is time to change that! Above all else, the biggest thing you will be rewarded for on social media is consistency. As discussed above, an easy way to ensure regular posts is to batch create and schedule it. This is a concept I am strict on with my clients. There is no point investing in a social media strategy if you aren’t prepared to commit. Aim to post at least three times per week – every week.

12|Create paid ads

I often hear the cry, “PAID ADS, I thought Facebook was a free platform!” from fellow business owners. The truth is, yes, it is a free platform, but with 2.89 billion users worldwide (and growing every day), Facebook needs to ensure their users are benefiting from the content. Unfortunately for us, organic reach tanked with the updates released in 2019, meaning paid ads became even more improtant. Now, if you want to really draw people to your business page, you need to create paid ads regularly. These ads do not have to cost a lot (you can spend as little as $1.50 per day), but the more you spend, the better your results will be.

13|Optimise your socials with video

Videos are becoming more important on social media and tend to rank better in people’s feeds. As a business, optimise your socials and attract more customers with short videos, such as an interview, a quick piece to camera about a product or service, an interesting thought or tip, or even a funny video of something you are doing during the day.

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Our offer

We offer 11 of these 13 tips as a standard in our social media packages, and each package is customisable to suit your business and budget. Below are our three levels of recommended packages to browse and learn more about our standard package inclusions here. Click ‘book now’ below and make a time to speak with us about your social media needs and budget. We will then offer an accurate quote to suits your business.