The Weekly Authority #58
By: Digital Authority Co
Tags: Sales Funnels, Social Media Marketing, Lead Generation, Social Media, Conversion

The Weekly Authority #58

We scour the web to give you the latest, proven Content Marketing and Social Media Strategies to grow your business with the Weekly Authority.

The Sales Funnel Series Pt. 3: How to Increase Brand Awareness with Social Media

Social media provides a great way to directly engage a target audience, prospects, and clients. By starting and joining conversations on major social networks, you can build a following for and interest in your brand. From there, brand awareness can snowball.

Of course, though, social media is a crowded, noisy place. That can make it challenging to grab and keep an audience’s attention — let alone, get them to remember your brand (the same can hold for Content).

With the right strategies, you can overcome this challenge and leverage social media to launch brand awareness to the next level. That’s the focus of this week’s segment of the Sales Funnel Series. So, let’s dive in!

Amplifying Brand Awareness with Social Media: 7 Helpful Tips

Keep the text concise and compelling — Text in social posts should be short and sweet. No one wants to read a novel on social networks. They want to find the most interesting posts and then decide whether to dig in more. So keep it punchy and interesting. Include great visual content — For many people, an image will catch their eyes before they ever look at the text. Don’t let your readers overlook your thoughtful, catchy text. Make them want to read what you have to say by including an engaging image (or video). Use hashtags — Include 2 to 3 hashtags in each social post (more than 3 can kill engagement). Pick relevant, memorable hashtags. This can help catapult your posts into new circles, expanding their reach (and increasing your audience). Respond to comments — This not only shows that someone is actively managing your brand’s social pages (rather than just throwing up posts every now and again); it also highlights that you care about what your audience, prospects and clients think (especially if they are expressing frustration or have a complaint related to your business). Addressing comments in a helpful, positive manner can resolve conflict, preserve your brand’s reputation and build awareness of (and maybe even respect for) your brand. Engage — Join communities, comment on others’ posts, share their content and otherwise demonstrate that you are an active member of a social community. Your brand is sure to be remembered by people who see that you’ve liked, shared or commented on their posts. Be consistent — Both in the regularity of your posts and in the tone and “voice” used in the language, be consistent. Maintain this across different networks so your followers know what to expect from you (and so they begin to develop trust in your brand). Always provide value — If you want your content to consistently engage your audience, this golden rule should guide any piece of content you create. Content that’s educational, insightful, helpful or otherwise valuable will hook readers. Once hooked, readers can be compelled to regularly visit your site, check out your social pages, share/comment on your content, respond to your calls-to-action and otherwise provide value back to you.

Driving Brand Awareness via Social Media: A Few Final Tips

Get it right on a small scale first — In other words, start small — like on one or a couple of social networks — when getting started with social media marketing. This can help you develop your brand’s voice, as well as figure out what does (and doesn’t) engage your audience, without expending a ton of resources in the process. You can always move into new social spaces when you’ve got the fundamentals down (but taking steps back from social networks can kill any following you’ve built on them).

— In other words, start small — like on one or a couple of social networks — when getting started with social media marketing. This can help you develop your brand’s voice, as well as figure out what does (and doesn’t) engage your audience, without expending a ton of resources in the process. You can always move into new social spaces when you’ve got the fundamentals down (but taking steps back from social networks can kill any following you’ve built on them). Use tools — Tools like Hootsuite and SproutSocial can help you organize and schedule posts (across various networks) while allowing you to meticulously track performance. Using these types of tools can save you time rolling out social campaigns while helping you continue to improve them.

Have you been able to use social media to increase brand awareness? What type(s) of social posts (and networks) have you tried? What have you found to be more (or less) successful?

Tell me about your experiences, challenges and successes on Facebook and LinkedIn. And don’t hesitate to get a hold of me on social media to ask any digital marketing question or just to say ‘hi.’ I look forward to hearing from you!