How to Maximize Your Online Exposure with Social Media

Social media is one of the easiest, most accessible digital marketing tactics for businesses to gain online exposure. Usage has skyrocketed over the last ten years and is no longer limited to younger demographics.

Based on a Smart Insights study, there are 3.5 billion social media users worldwide as of 2019.

Consumers and businesses alike have taken to social media for brand engagement and it's even more important to leverage your social media strategy.

Here are a few tips to help you gain online exposure for your business by harnessing the power of social media.

How to Gain Online Exposure for your Business

1. Narrow Your Social Media Focus

Rather than attempting to master all the social media platforms at once, pick one or two, to start. Then build a strong social media brand on those platforms and measure your social media ROI before moving on to the next channel.

FYI - Not every social channel will deliver the same results nor will they all be a good fit for your industry.

It’s important to understand the ROI for each platform as you continue to build out your strategy. With so many social channels nowadays it's important to choose ones that make sense for your business and your audience.

2. Know Where to Start

Before you choose which platform to focus on first, you need to do a little legwork. So, find out...

• Where do your customers spend their time?
• Where are they most likely to interact with you?
• What are some creative ways to market your business that appeals to your specific audience?

For example:

• Facebook has historically been a better marketing channel for B2C businesses than B2B - but that's been evolving.
• LinkedIn caters to both audiences but stronger with B2B.
• Twitter, although restrained by character limits, can work for both B2B and B2C organizations.

By understanding the social habits of your buyer personas and prospects, you’ll be on the right platform at the right time.

Avoid These 10 Social Media Mistakes

3. Be Consistent & Conversational

Develop a consistent posting schedule and stick to it. Set a task on your editorial calendar, or take advantage of a social media auto-posting app.

By regularly posting content, it's more likely stay engaged with readers and build a bigger audience through "likes", "shares" and organic exposure on social media. Equally important is to be responsive when someone engages with you on your social media channel. Be prompt and polite in your reply, even when you don’t want to be.

Mentions and Re-Posts

Keep an eye out for mentions and re-posts and engage with social audiences when appropriate. It’s your responsibility to know what people are saying about your brand so you can re-direct the tone of a conversation or graciously respond to complimentary posts.

4. Make Everything Measurable

Besides measuring sentiment and what people are saying about your brand, you can also measure a wide variety of metrics that will help you gauge the success of your social media tactics and adjust as needed.

For example, you can measure simple things like the number of shares you get, the number of followers you gain and lose, what time of day your posts get the most traffic and how many conversions you get per ad or post.

If you can measure import metrics - do it. It's well worth it to know what return you're getting on your investment of time and resources spent on social media marketing.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help

If social media isn’t in your wheelhouse, or you just don’t have the time to invest in a social strategy, consider having someone else in your organization dedicate time specifically to social media efforts. You might also consider hiring a part-time social media manager to coordinate posts and manage the tasks for you.

Over to You

Social media isn’t going anywhere. As consumers continue to turn to it more frequently to share and get information about brands and services, a strong social media strategy is an easy tool in your marketing toolbox to increase awareness, and quickly expand your online exposure.