I asked the fabulous Carma from Carma the Social Chameleon if she would help us to understand a little more about Social Media, how it works and how we can improve ours! Check out these invaluable and easily implemented six steps to success.

Success Requires Fundamentals

There’s so much to learn about Social Media Marketing and often brands get stuck trying to create content, worrying about their posting, and biting off more than they can chew before they have the basics in place. 

This piece is to make sure your Social Media accounts are set up to give you the best chance at success.

In our time of ease of access to information, we need to make sure our audience has everything they need to know about us easily available to them.

So, let’s start at the very beginning…

The Social Media Philosophy

We know what Social Media is, and as brands we know we must be present on it. But we don’t always think back to what Social Media is for.

Social Media is your way to connect to your audience, and it’s not for you – it’s for them.

Make sure to keep it social!

Sure, you can post your latest product or your awesome sale, but ultimately your Social Media accounts are for community and engagement.

The more your audience engages with you, the more you build a community. The more you build your community, the better your accounts will perform.

Social Media platforms like Facebook and Instagram use algorithms to determine what “good” content is, and the more people indicate your content is “good” by engaging with it, the better that content (and subsequently future content) will perform.

It’s so important to post entertaining and useful content, and to always keep your audience in mind so your messages resonate with them.

What Are The 6 Steps?

Social Media can do many things like create brand awareness, create a connection and affinity with your audience, and help you communicate what your brand stands for.

Here’s the 6 steps you need to nail to succeed.

Step 1 - Audience

It’s important to know as much about your audience as you possibly can. If they are ‘mums who have a 5 minute tea-break at 2.35pm before they leave the house for the school run’ it helps to know that!

What brand of tea is it? Are they sitting in a comfy chair? Do they use a cup and saucer or a coffee mug?

This may seem oddly specific – but knowing who you’re speaking to changes your language, tone, and which kind of images can accompany your copy.

Knowing exactly who your audience are; what they like (and don’t like), what their challenges and beliefs are, when they’re online and their mindset at those times - and why would they like your products will help you entertain and educate them about your brand.

Create a customer avatar so you can keep your ideal customer in mind while creating your content and crafting your posts.

Step 2 – Your Brand

Your brand is way more than just your logo!

Your Social Media content needs to reflect your brand essence to your audience.

Style
The same way the products you produce have a style or theme, so should your Social Media presence. Use your brand’s colour palette, fonts, and overall aesthetic so people can recognise your posts in their newsfeed and know before they’ve even looked at them that they are from your brand.

Tone
Similarly, the tone you use in your posts should be consistent. You want your audience to get to know you and they’ll struggle to do so if your posting tone changes erratically.

Philosophy
Share your brand philosophy with your audience! If you think recycled packaging is important because of its environmental impact – your audience who feel the same will know you have that in common.

This creates brand affinity.

When your branding aligns to your products and your audience they’ll be delighted to see you in their newsfeeds, helping you build your community.

Step 3 – Optimisation

It’s important to fill out all your account details and keep them consistent across your Social Media platforms.

Your Social Media accounts should have consistent handles (or names) so people know they have found the right account should there be a business name like yours somewhere in the world.

Your profile pic should be the same across all your accounts, and it’s best if it’s your logo.

Keep your bio short so you can keep it consistent too.

Here’s some things you can check to make sure your Facebook page is optimised:

• Claim your 'vanity url' so you don’t have a string of numbers in your page address

• Select best category

• Add your website link (this is so important!)

• Allow tagging

• Create your Cover Photo ‘Call to Action’

• Fill in ALL details

• Verify if possible

Check these on your Instagram business account:

• Connect to your Facebook page

• Add your website link

• Use emoji in bio

• Add official hashtags to bio

• Add contact method
  

Step 4 – Content

We’ve already discussed making sure your content aligns with your audience – but what exactly is content?

Content is anything you post; Live broadcasts, video, gifs, photos, infographics, Stories, blog posts, links, quizzes and events are all content.

Your content needs to be on-brand and appealing to your audience, and since you put effort into making gorgeous products it makes no sense to use generic ugly content.

Craft your own spectacular content to match your creations!

Step 5 – Integration

Your Social Media platforms can’t work alone. They need to be part of your everyday life as a brand and connected to your other elements.

Use your email signature to include your Social Media links, have them on your website, and include your Social Media icons on any printed materials like banners and flyers.

Ask your customers how they found you, or if they’re on Instagram when you meet them face to face, they’d most likely be happy to follow you!

Step 6 – Love

This is the hard part. Your accounts need love to grow. It’s hard work building an organic following, and you need to show up every day for your audience.

Make time to answer all your comments and messages, after all they made the effort to initiate a conversation with your brand!

Keep tabs on others in your niche, even if it’s to know what not to do.

Test and refine everything, including posting times and content types and make tweaks to your strategy regularly as you find out what works and what doesn’t.

And most of all, be patient.

You’re not going to wake up with 10k followers, and that’s ok – because that’s just a number and your brand is worth more than that.

Start at the beginning (there’s no shortcut) and build a Social Media following that will make you proud while attracting your tribe who love your brand like you do.

Follow @carmathesocialchameleon for more tips from Carma.