By Natalie Mills
Studies show that it only takes seven seconds for a person to establish a basic understanding of your brand’s identity and values.
With over 4 billion people using social media worldwide, it’s no surprise that many businesses are using it as a tool to engage their audience and establish their brand.
Your social media profile is probably the first result when your brand is searched on Google, making it crucial to creating a great first impression with new followers.
With social media becoming more popular among businesses, understanding which practices are best suited for your brand can make a difference in obtaining a good social media presence.
Simply having a social media profile is not enough. Optimizing your profile is key to making sure your brand stands out among the crowded digital space.
If you’re looking to boost your brand using social media, here are some tips to help get you started.
Choose the Right Social Media Platforms
There are dozens of popular social media platforms available, but it’s important to know that not all can be suitable for your brand.
Maintaining an active social media profile takes effort, so knowing which platforms are most popular with your target audience is crucial to avoid spreading your time and energy too thin.
Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are popular among younger audiences while older audiences are more active on Facebook.
Using LinkedIn can be helpful with building your professional profile and networking with fellow brands.
Create Your Digital Business Card
Think of your social media profile as your digital business card. The information that you want people to know should be clear, concise, and consistent among all platforms. Use these tips to help guide you in establishing your online brand:
Keep your username consistent
If you’re using different usernames on every social media profile, you’re interrupting the sense of community that your audience has created. Your Twitter followers may not even know your Instagram exists and vice versa!
Keeping your username consistent allows different social media users to easily find you and help you grow your market.
Perfect your profile picture
You might be deciding between your headshot or logo for your profile picture. Headshots are perfect if you’re a solopreneur. If being the face of the company isn’t for you, then you should consider using your logo.
Logos are also commonly used by large, well-known corporations like Nike or McDonald’s. Because they are easily recognizable, their logos are more important to their brand than the face of their CEO or President.
Whichever you choose, make sure your profile picture is adjusted to fit each social media profile.
Optimize your bio
Your bio is a short introduction to your company. Most social media platforms only allow a designated number of characters when writing your bio, so it’s crucial that you use them wisely.
Your bio can include a brief description of your business, a slogan, or a current promotion.
Use self-promotion
Your profile should include all relevant links associated with your brand, such as your online store, booking site, or website. If you find yourself with multiple websites or links, third-party websites such as Linktree make it easy to consolidate your links onto one simple homepage.
Use your pins wisely
Many platforms allow you to pin 1-3 posts to the top of your profile, make sure to use this to your advantage! Pinning your favorite or most important content gives yourself a free boost with your target audience.
Pinned posts also allow social media users to quickly gain insight into your brand’s amazing personality.
Stay Active on Your Social Media Profile
It’s no secret that social media feeds are run by different algorithms that allow the platform to choose which posts are shown to individual users based on past content the user has interacted with.
To stay out of the algorithm graveyard and make sure your content is reaching your target audience is to stay active on your social media profile.
Keeping a consistent posting schedule can be a beneficial way to ensure your social media profiles stay active.
Posting 1-3 times per week can keep your audience engaged in your content without bombarding them with posts.
Another way to stay active on social media is by interacting with your audience.
By asking questions, replying to comments, and answering messages, you’re building a sense of trust and community between your brand and your audience.
Double-check your privacy settings to ensure that your followers can easily share your content with their friends. This not only boosts the reach of your posts, but doubles as free advertising for your brand!
Cross-promote your posts to let your audience know what you’re up to on your other social media profiles. For example, you might go to Twitter to post a sneak-peek of a video you’ve recently uploaded to YouTube.
This can generate traffic from your Twitter followers, who may not normally be active on your YouTube profile.
Keep Your Profile Tidy
The last tip for optimizing your social media profile is to keep it tidy. As your brand evolves, tidying up your profile can help you avoid confusion with your audience.
Public profiles are handy when you’re trying to grow your social media presence, but this allows anyone to interact with your brand.
Make sure you’re reporting and deleting comments that may be spam, irrelevant, or inappropriate for your social media profile.
If you allow users to tag you in posts or photos, make sure you check each one carefully to ensure that it is consistent with your brand’s values.
Making sure your profile is up-to-date on relevant information like your phone number, address, or business hours is an easy way to ensure that your audience can easily keep in contact.
If you make a mistake on a post, don’t be afraid to edit and repost it with the correct information.
Remember those pinned posts we mentioned earlier? Be sure they’re tidy, also! A post that promotes last year’s Halloween special should not remain pinned in April.
Social media is an important tool for businesses to easily promote their brands and connect with their audience.
With a limited amount of time to make a good first impression, it’s important that your social media profile positively showcases your brand’s identity.
If you follow these simple tips to optimize your social media profile, your brand will have the tools it needs to ensure it stands out among the crowd.
If you are looking for social media consultants near you in Lafayette, LA, contact Klout 9!
Our team is passionate about helping you expand your social media presence so that you can ensure the success of your business. Contact us today for a free consultation.