Love it or loathe it, social media is a must for promoting any business. It’s one of the most powerful ways to get noticed, grow your reach, and build a deeper connection with your audience. But with so many platforms and so much competition online, how can you get the best out of social media? Follow our five pro tips:

1. Choose your platforms wisely
Just as you get to grips with one platform, another pops up and becomes the ‘it’ place to be. (Hello, TikTok.) But the good news is you don’t need to be everywhere to be successful. Far better to choose a couple of platforms that best suit your audience – based on market research – and do those channels well, rather than have a lacklustre presence on all channels.

2. Plan your content
The best social media feeds may seem spontaneous, but it’s (mostly) an illusion. All the pros plan their posts in advance, complete with captions, images, hashtags and links. Do the same and you’ll never have to scramble around for a last-minute post, or share low-quality content just to ‘get something up there’. Be sure to plan a variety of content, including photos, videos, polls, memes (where appropriate), behind-the-scenes glimpses, and so on.

3. Provide genuine value
One of the biggest social media mistakes is doing too much hard sell. While the odd promotional post is fine – say, once every half a dozen posts or so – the rest should benefit your audience somehow. Tips, tutorials, nice-to-know facts, inspirational quotes, and links to helpful articles all provide value. Even a light-hearted meme provides value by making people smile.

4. Engage, engage, engage
The clue is in the name, social media. So don’t just post your content and log off for the day. Be sociable and interact with people. Ask your audience questions. Like and comment on other posts. Share content from others that you think your audience will love. Remember, you’re here to build and strengthen relationships, not fling content at people.

5. Know what works…
…so you can do more of it. Do certain types of content perform better than others? Do posts get more traction at specific times or on certain days of the week? By tracking metrics such as views, likes, shares and comments, you can keep giving your audience what they want.

And if social media really isn’t your thing, OCTOPUS can take care of it for you. From planning content to managing your posts, we’ll work with you to create an engaging social media presence. Let’s get started.

(Business photo created by rawpixel.com – www.freepik.com)