Are you optimizing your social potential? Social media never seem to be enough! Agree? Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have millions of profiles who could be your customer. If you can tap in this massive potential, everyone could be a Bezos or a Musk!

All dreams start with small steps. The key is to offer a highly relatable experience to the world.

Just how could you do that?

Time for some self-evaluation

Start with identifying the areas of untapped potential. Let’s start with four basic premises.

Premise 1: What is the percentage of your customers following you on social media? 

Premise 2: Are you inviting potential customers to follow up with you (social cold calling)? 

Premise 3: What is the percentage of people who actively engage with you?

Premise 4: What is the percentage of customers actually converting via your social media branding?

You need to formulate a balanced strategy attending to all of these premises. Before long, your social presence starts working in a self-feedback mechanism.

It won’t happen overnight though. The above premises follow into each other, but they are not necessarily linear. Invitation, engagement, and conversion are three sides of the branding triangle. Pay attention to all three.

Feel the buyer persona

Most marketers do the mistake of adopting a matter-of-fact approach to understand the buyer persona. You are missing out the point. Social media is an intimate niche, and people would relate only when there is a personal touch in your branding.

So, you need to have a personal ‘feel’ of your buyer persona. More specifically, you get to understand what makes them happy. No one buys a product to regret it later. Neither is happiness a commodity that you can sell. You need to know this fine line between what to sell and what won’t make your customers happy.

The research should go deeper than merely trying to figure out the buying pattern of your customers. Instead, you must find out the clues on how can you enrich their lives with your product.

Take cues from the success stories. Amazon got this big because it sells the promises of pleasant online shopping. Elon Musk sells the promise of an out-of-the-world driving experience. People visit Google because it sells the promise of knowledge.

You get the idea! Build on a great promise that people can relate to at a deeper level.

Proven tips to drive engagement

No, you don’t have to do anything radical. Follow the convention, but make it exciting. For example, you would also have to make social media posts, just like everyone else. The more relatable your posts are, the better is your engagement.  

Tip 1: Keep it organic: Avoid being too systematic on social media. You don’t have to make three posts per week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday exactly on 7: 30 PM! Be flexible. On some weeks, you make two posts on any random day. On other weeks, you make five posts spread over four days.

Tip 2: Place a question: Nothing drives great engagement than a well-placed question. Questions seek answers, and a lot of people feel compelled to respond.

Keep it simple and stay active. For instance, you can ask for feedback on how to improve your product line. Appreciate it when users respond. Like the comments of others and carry forward the conversation. However, remember the first tip. Don’t be too methodical and ask questions in all your social posts. Always keep it organic.

Tip 3: Present an opinion: Keep a tab on the latest in your niche. You cannot mention your competitors directly. But, you can always present an opinion that tacitly presents your views on your competition.

Just like questions, opinions can invite debates. However, stay put from talking on political or controversial matters.   

Try influencer marketing

Did you try out influencer marketing already? Done well, it carries an immense potential to connect with your customers on a personal level. Focus on delivering a great array of User Generated Content (UGC).

The key issue with influencer marketing is that the posts may not look professional. So, find influencers who can create semi-professional content, but always with a personal touch.

The tone should be friendly, honest, and interesting. You need to show that your influencers are happy using your products. However, you must see that the influencers are really happy working with you. If you are paying them peanuts, don’t expect them to promote your pizza!

Wrapping up

Social media success is more about emotions than promotions. People usually don’t visit social media to buy stuff. But, if you can present a great offer, they will consider buying from you.

The bottom line: figure out how can people relate to you at an emotional level.