Social media: the phrase sets off very different feelings in people. Curiosity, fun and time off for some; irritation, information overload or even unease for others. Either way, dealing with social media has become close to mandatory today, whatever your age, your company or your role.
If you want to place something new on the market or open up new groups of customers, social media marketing is one of the ways to get there. And if social media is something you cannot quite get hold of, or your company has never warmed to the channel, this article is a springboard into the subject: a list of the social media best practices you can use to improve your presence on any channel and see better results — as a B2B company, and as a private individual too.
Social media: the formula for business success, or just a pile of cat videos?
Social media has long been more than a collection of cat videos — that much is common knowledge. By actively using the various channels, companies can win a good deal for themselves. A presence on platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, X (formerly Twitter), Meta, TikTok or LinkedIn lets a company grow its reach and its visibility among billions of users.
You can also build a closer bond with your customers through authentic, approachable communication. Look at the return on social media marketing and it is clear enough: a wider reach, or a wider network, can lead to more leads, more conversions and ultimately more revenue. Seen that way, staying off the social channels would simply be inefficient.
From zero to social media hero: how to power your marketing with the best practices
Ready for take-off? Do you know your users?
Before you start on any “fancy” strategy, elaborate videos or the most creative post you can think of, settle on a starting point: the foundation of every social media plan is your audience.
Who do you want to speak to, and who do you want to win over? Surface-level demographics are not enough here. You need to get inside your audience’s head and see things through their eyes. What problems, expectations, wishes and needs do they have? Which topics interest or inspire them?
“You can only do effective, successful social media marketing if you know your audience well.”
An analysis like that gives you a clear view of the value you can promise your audience when they buy your product or your service. One word of caution: that promise has to be kept, and it also has to be communicated to customers in the right way.
Social media channels have a communication culture of their own. Find out how your audience talks to one another. Is the exchange open, close and personal, or do potential customers put weight on professional distance? This audience research gives you a picture of your ideal customer, and with it the knowledge of how to reach them with the right content on the social channels.
Ready, set, go? A strategy for social media success
One point that certainly belongs among the social media best practices is strategy planning. It may look as though everyone on Instagram and the rest is merrily posting away, but that is not the case, and it is not the route that works either. Goals agreed in advance should be what drives the marketing here. As in any other part of the business, plans and strategies are worked out to reach those goals as quickly as possible.
Treat your social media presence and the content you post as an extension of your marketing mix and of the business itself. Build a social media calendar and put every important date in it: product launches, company events and other moments that matter to the company, and public holidays or awareness days as well.
For each of those dates you want content ready to go, so concentrate on preparing content in several formats. Creating and scheduling it early lets you build campaigns that hang together logically — paid ads or organic posts, for instance, and equally the link between social media marketing and an event. Plan enough time in advance, leave room for correction and approval rounds, and the quality of your content is assured. Then you have the go-ahead to post.
And up you go — be authentic
Being authentic is always easier said than done, but on social media it is everything. People on these channels are looking for a credible presence and a credible exchange, and since you will not get far without one, it belongs among the best practices. So make sure your brand has a clear identity and that your posts are easily associated with you. Be open and transparent as well: showing the everyday life of the company and sharing what the team is doing builds a connection with your followers.
Carry that authenticity into your images and your video too, because content that is overly staged or heavily edited tends to have the opposite effect. Avoid drifting away from the truth, and avoid lurid or misleading posts put up purely to attract more attention. Inspiring, credible storytelling is the right approach. Interact with people authentically and you may well go viral before long.
All set? Are your brand guidelines in place?
As mentioned briefly above, a clear brand identity matters, and part of that is setting rules on tone, style, colour and so on. It is just as important that the visual look stays consistent across all your social media posts, and the same goes for spelling, structure and the way content is put together. Careful use of hashtags is particularly essential: they will vary with the content of a post, but keep a fixed record of the ones you always use.
“The more consistent and the more thought through a post or an ad is, the more professionalism and expertise it conveys to the people who see it.”
Employee social advocacy guidelines matter just as much for authentic engagement on social media. If you want to bring your colleagues on board, it is both sensible and only fair to support them with a set of guidelines of that kind, setting out how the company should be represented and which rules apply. Nothing then goes wrong with social advocacy.
Speaking of going wrong: social media is not all friendliness, and the internet holds plenty of negativity too. Should that ever reach the company profile, it is important to have crisis communication guidelines ready. In cases like that what counts is responding consistently, rather than simply deleting the comment. With all of this written down, you are set for your social media experience.
And off you go — stay in touch with your customers
New customers are easy to find and to approach on social media. Just remember that this is not only social networking but also customer care. The competition never sleeps, least of all on Instagram and the like, so answering direct messages as quickly as possible and keeping customers happy is decisive. If there are plenty of interactions, which is what you want, you can fall back on tools that bring structure and, where needed, answer for you with the help of artificial intelligence.
Creating ads or posts that people can interact with is another proven best practice. Add a call to action to your ads and encourage your customer base to comment and to share. Most social media algorithms, the ones that decide whether your post is shown at all, put weight on a high level of engagement — and it is not only the algorithm that gains: customer loyalty benefits considerably too. Stay in touch, and stay present for your customers.
The goal? Only a proper analysis gets you there
Now that you have put the practices above to work, it is time to analyse how they perform. A thorough analysis helps you market effectively, because you can concentrate on what is working and improve what is not. Find out which posts or ads performed best, where you got the most engagement, and which topic your audience took a particular interest in. What you learn shows you what fits you and your audience best, and lets you use social media a little more effectively with every round.
So does this really make me a social media hero?
There is of course a good deal more to social media marketing than this. But the article shows that you do not need superpowers to make social media work for you. Keep these essentials in mind and go into your social media marketing with the best practices in your pocket.
If you have further questions or ideas on social media marketing, performance marketing or employee social advocacy, get in touch. Our experts will be glad to help.
