7 Ways to Build a Community on Social Media

For many, social media feels like a race for likes, reach and overall engagement. What started as a way to stay connected, find your tribe and build a community has become a numbers game. Or is it?

Here’s a secret, the brands that are best succeeding on social media aren’t playing the numbers game, they’re allowing social media to do what it was designed for… building community.

If you’re ready to find meaning in your brand’s social again, you’re in luck. We’re sharing some of the top ways you can build a community and in turn create brand loyalty below.

1. Engage with your followers. People want their voices to be heard. Whether it’s by a brand or their favorite blogger, if your followers are putting in the effort to engage, engage back. Don’t let comments go unanswered, DMs go unresponded to or tagged content go unliked. Your followers will notice whether you’re actually interested in them as customers or whether your brand’s only desire is to make a quick sale. Make people feel heard.

2. Post with purpose. People don’t want to follow brands that only post about their products. Consider the benefits you can provide to your followers on social aside from product promotions and mix that in. Engaging content that your followers will find relatable and helpful to their daily lives is much more meaningful in building a loyal community than daily promotional posts.

3. Hold Q & A sessions in your stories. Whether these Q & As are hosted by the founder or the marketing manager, giving followers the opportunity to have their questions answered in real time can go a long way in building brand loyalty. Not only will it help your community feel more connected to your brand, but it can also give you a chance to respond to your most frequently asked questions, publicly.

4. Engage with similar or like-minded brands. Meaningful engagement goes far beyond simply responding to the interactions that you receive on your profile. Sharing the love and hyping up other similar or like-minded brands whose values align with yours can help to expand your community even further. Once you’ve forged relationships with said brands, the opportunities to team up and support one another will only grow.

5. Recognize recurring fans. If you’ve got a follower or followers who continuously take the time to comment on your posts, respond to your stories or message your brand, take the time to recognize them. Thank them for being such a loyal fan; it’ll go a long way.

6. Host meaningful giveaways. There’s no easier way to show your followers that you appreciate them than by adding meaningful giveaways into your social media calendar. Whether it’s after a successful product launch, during the holidays or just on a random weekday, hosting a giveaway is a simple way to give back to those that continue to support your brand.

7. Reshare user-generated content. Everyone loves a little free publicity. If your followers are taking the time to create beautiful content and tagging you in it, reshare it to your stories or even your static feed. Doing so gives your brand the chance to share additional content that you didn’t pay to create and also allows followers to feel seen.

Have you used any of these strategies to build a close-knit community on your social media? Do tell!

Or, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the thought of creating a loyal brand following, contact us for a quick chat about how we can help you take your social to the next level.

4 New Social Media Features You Need to Know About

Social media is an ever-changing changing landscape. From new app updates to new apps in general, keeping up with what’s hot before it’s not can be exhausting. That’s why this month, we’ve done the hard work for you. We’re sharing four new social media features that you need to know about and implement for your business.

1. TikTok… It's not just for dancing anymore!

We've been shouting from the rooftops for ages that TikTok is the ideal place for brands to go viral, connect with audiences and build loyal followings. Now to top it all off, it's also a place for brands to sell products.

A new partnership with Shopify will allow brands with Shopify stores to add a shopping tab to their TikTok profile. Read all about it here.

2. Brands work hard to get to 10,000 followers so they can add the coveted swipe up link to their Instagram stories.

But have you ever noticed that the swipe up link doesn't really seem optimal for click throughs? You have to add a text overlay or swipe up sticker for followers to notice that your story includes the swipe up link and it's, frankly, easy to miss.

A new Instagram swipe up sticker hopes to change all of this by making embedded links in Instagram stories more obvious to the end user. This month, Instagram announced that it is removing the swipe up functionality and adding it to stories as a sticker instead.

3. Did you know that Facebook Reels was even a thing?

In an effort to slow down TikTok's growth and keep their competition at arm’s length, Facebook is embracing Reels. Facebook Reels will enable users to create and share Instagram Reels within the main Facebook app.

Once a reel is shared to Facebook, that reel will be displayed with the user's Instagram profile. This may provide some relief to brands who are finding growth more challenging than ever on Instagram and Facebook.

4. 60 Second reels are officially on Instagram!

In a not very surprising move, Instagram announced in July that 60 second reels are here for all users. Have you noticed?

We haven't seen a large number of longer reels but we have noticed that many of our clients have not yet gotten the benefit of this increase duration despite the Instagram announcement. Do you have 60 second reels yet? If so, what do you plan to do with them?

Have you seen success implementing any of these new features on your brand’s social? Do tell!

Or have you found a new social media feature that’s been changing the game for your brand? Spill the tea. There’s nothing we love like putting new apps and app features to the true test.

And if just one glance at this blog has you overwhelmed with how you’ll learn yet another new update, we’ve got you covered. Contact us for a quick chat about how we can help you take your social to the next level.

Are Social Media Holidays Dead?

In marketing, there's something called white space analysis. This means turning your attention to innovative content that's outside the box of what you would typically post. In a creative capacity, it's finding something to fit into the white space. It's not obvious. It's not expected. That's what makes it incredible. This is an ideal way to tap into opportunities and to go above and beyond what you see your competitors doing.

That's where social media holidays come in. There's nothing like finding an unconventional opportunity for your brand to maximize engagement. Need further convincing? Look at how Volkswagen found an opportunity on May 4 -- also known as Star Wars Day -- to innovatively market their brand.

Image via Volkswagen.

Now you're ready for inspiration, aren't you? Here's how to get started...

1. Plan: Naturally it all starts with a plan. Quarterly or even annually look at social media holidays and determine if there are opportunities your brand can embrace.

   We love nationaltoday.com, holidayinsights.com and foodimentary.com as all three serve as incredible resources for finding popular social media holidays as well as up-and-coming social media celebrations.

2. Brainstorm: Now, it's time to find outside of the box ways to jump in on the soon to be trending hashtags.

   Need help with compelling ideas? Contact us! Executing amazing social media campaigns for brands of all sizes is our passion. But, in case you want to get started on your own… The whole idea is to look for opportunities that seem as if they don't fit. That's where the genius happens like Volkswagen proved above. A cookie company posting on national cookie day is hardly innovative. But when Airbnb partnered with NASDAQ to "ring the bell," they brought to life exactly what it means to think outside the box. Watch and learn HERE. Feeling motivated? Great, because it's time to execute! And that, our friends, is step three.

3. Execute! Here's what to know about execution.

   Do use all relevant hashtags including any iteration of suggested hashtags. Also, do consider posting in advance of the big day or at least very early in the morning as changing social media algorithms impact when consumers will see your most recent posts. There's nothing worse than good news the day after the fact! And finally, do call on the experts. After all, you've got a business to run and our business is bringing your brand to life on social media. Contact us here; let's work together.

Website Basics: What You Need VS. What You Don't

Spring cleaning season has arrived, and if you’re looking for the perfect place to start with your business, we recommend your website. Today we’re talking smart navigation, social media handles, social media integration, fonts and more! Whether you are a new brand or a legacy brand, your website and its ease of use for consumers can mean the difference between landing a lifelong customer and losing a sale. Discover our top website basics tips below.

• Keep your target audience in mind. Change your perspective and pretend that you’re visiting your website for the first time as a user. Explore the different pages with fresh eyes to help you create a user-friendly website.

• Ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices. According to Orbelo, 55.56% of all web traffic comes through mobile phones. Make sure your website is not only mobile compatible, but optimized to perform on smartphones and tablets. You can check your website here.

• Incorporate social media handles. Encourage users to follow your brand on social media by creating highly visible social media icons above the fold. And most importantly, make sure they all actually connect to said network.

• Integrate social media. Technically speaking, “social media integration is the act of using social media accounts as an extension of your marketing strategy.” A few of our favorite ways to do so are by adding social sharing links to your blog posts, integrating the actual social feeds onto the website, using email campaigns to remind consumers of social channels and incorporating a branded hashtag to showcase a feed of posts from your followers and fans.

• Navigation should be simple to find and use. Due to the fact that navigation has a huge impact on traffic and conversions, it’s crucial to keep it on the same place on every page. Additionally, ensure that everything on your website is easily searchable. Readers shouldn’t have to spend more than a few seconds to find something.

• Consider the visual aesthetics:

  • Layout: When websites are cluttered, the viewer doesn't know where to direct their attention. But when it’s a well-organized layout, your viewer is guided directly where you want them to go. So consider where it is you’d like them to end up and organize your website accordingly.

  • Color scheme: Colors not only have strong psychological impact, but using too many will make your website design clash. The general design rule of thumb says to not use more than three colors, unless working with a brand palette in which case you might be able to use more.

  • Text placement: Don’t clutter your design with text. Break up long-form content on the website into readable chunks and don’t be afraid to use spacious design to do so.

  • Fonts: Just like color, less is more when it comes to fonts. Three is the ideal number which includes one for main headings, another for sub-headings, and the third for body text.

  • Images: Photos should be used sparingly to make an impact. After all, not only are images essentially unreadable by search engines, but large images can also delay your site’s loading time.

How to Successfully Launch Your Social Channels

So you’ve started your business, and you’re ready to drive revenue on social. But wait, before you rush into spending your hard earned money on social media advertising, it’s important that you take the time to launch your social channels thoughtfully and with purpose. We’re sharing our top tips for doing so below.

• Decide which networks you have the bandwidth to not only post on but to also create and manage a social community. Begin by identifying the audience you intend to reach and figure out which networks you can find them on.

• Next, create matching usernames. This is a crucial step because you want to be able to ensure that your audience can easily find you across all platforms. We recommend this website to help you verify that your brand name is available: namechk.com.

• This one may seem obvious but when it comes to your password — make them 12 to 16 characters long, don’t reuse them and store them in a safe spot for future reference.

• Have a basic bio, profile picture and header image ready to go for all networks, however, be open to customizing them as appropriate for each. Include hashtags in your bios except for Twitter where you don't really need one unless it’s branded.

• Decide what type of account you want for the networks you’re launching on. For example, Facebook has personal and business pages, as well as groups. Instagram on the other hand has personal accounts, business accounts and creator accounts. Take the time before setting them up to decide which is best for your brand.

• Write your social playbook. Think about items such as:

  • Does your brand refer to itself as “we” or “I”?

  • Are any words off-limits?

  • Will your brand opine on things like politics and religion? 

  • Will you respond to comments and if so, how often? 

  • How will your brand handle negative comments? Complaints? Customer service requests? 

  • What is your brand’s personality on social?

• Determine what success looks like on each network. We’d recommend starting with one measurable goal for each network.

• Create a social media strategy and plan out your content calendar for at least four weeks. The more ahead that you get, the less likely you are to skip posting because you just “don’t know what to post.”

• Have a plan for marketing your social accounts themselves. Think about ad spends, contests, subscriber emails, video content, etc.

• Invest time in creating valuable, compelling content before you start trying to build followers. Why would anyone follow you if there's nothing on your social accounts yet? Expect consumers to want to see valuable posts in order to hit the follow button.

• Automate like crazy, but humanize with your community management. Create a personal connection with those who engage.

Your social media accounts should be an extension of your brand. In following the above tips, your brand is sure to succeed in sharing meaningful content, creating engaging conversations and developing a loyal following.

Our Top Instagram Reels Tips

If you’re not using Instagram Reels, this is the sign you’ve been waiting for — DO IT! Not only are Instagram Reels available to everyone, but they boost organic reach and discovery which is followed by a higher engagement rate, and as a result, you’ll receive new followers. Within a short span of time, some Instagram Reels videos have already garnered more than 8 million views and a 13% higher engagement rate than other forms of content on Instagram. Check out our top Instagram Reels tips below.

• Watch what’s trending and put your own unique spin on it.

• Develop a strategy for your Instagram Reels and batch shoot content to save yourself time.

• Use a ring light and a tripod to make filming both seamless and more professional.

• Our favorite app for editing Instagram Reels and building out transitions is InShot.

• When choosing music for your Instagram Reels, make sure you’re following copyright guidelines.

• Have fun with filters.

• Add dynamic text that comes and goes for further explanation within your Instagram Reels for those that watch with the sound off. And when doing so — think square! If you plan on sharing your Reel on your profile, you’ll need to think inside the Instagram square because once it’s posted to your profile, the video will be cut into a square.

• When in doubt, save in drafts for additional editing.

• After finalizing your Instagram Reel, always save the video to your camera roll so you can repurpose the content on your social networks of choice.

• In terms of posting to Instagram, only add a cover photo if it’s a graphic overlay that explains what your Instagram Reel is about. Otherwise, the last thing you want to do is add a stock photo that will make it blend in with the rest of the content on your grid.

• Captions count. Don’t disregard a caption because the video takes centerstage... remember you are publishing this to your feed, too!

• On the same note, don’t forget to include hashtags with Instagram Reels.

• Stats indicate that between 3 and 4 pm is the best time range to post.

• Finally, don’t forget to share all of your Instagram Reels to stories for optimal reach.

How to Build a Social Media Calendar

Are you determined to make 2021 the year you finally take control of your brand’s social media calendar? While building out a social media calendar may seem intimidating at first due to the amount of time and energy that will initially need to be invested, doing so will greatly ease your burden and save you ample time in the long run.

Find out the steps we recommend, as well as our top tips, to mastering your social media calendar in the new year.

Step One: Figure out what is the goal of your social media marketing on each network. 

Step Two: Determine the types of content that will help you reach that goal.

Step Three: Decide how often to post and on which networks.

Step Four: Now, it’s time to plan.

Step Five: Implement your social media calendar flawlessly with scheduling tools. 

Now that you have actionable steps to take in order to build out your social media calendar, find out how to perfect your strategy with our top tips below…

Tip One: Don’t try to reinvent the wheel each week. The less complicated you make it, the more likely you are to stick to it. Choose weekly content buckets for your social media calendar and use them as a guided outline when creating posts each week.

Tip Two: When creating your weekly schedule, also source relevant, trending hashtags to match your content so you’re not in a rush to find them in the moment when you go to post each day.

Tip Three: Look at previous content from the past month or even the same time last year to see what type of content is resonating best with your audience. Use this as a guide and continue to implement this type of content into your social media calendar. For example, look at which holiday content performed best last year and emulate it.

Tip Four: When planning out your social media calendar, look ahead for upcoming social holidays and determine how you can work them into your content.

Tip Five: Include giveaways in your upcoming social media calendar. Planning these out in advance now only ensures that if you’re looking to partner with other brands that you can fit into their schedule, but it also allows you to schedule them around upcoming holidays.

Tip Six: Check out the social media accounts of brands that you admire both in and out of your industry. Consider why you gravitate toward their accounts. What are they doing well? What isn’t working for them? Do they evoke a certain feeling or portray a certain message that you want your followers to see or feel when they visit your social channels? 

Tip Seven: Automate your social media calendar when and where possible. If you don’t have the bandwidth to manually publish during your account’s optimal hours, look into scheduling software. This ensures you’re staying consistent with your content calendar and showing up for your audience. 

• Planoly - Free scheduling for 1 Instagram account, but you need to have a Facebook Business page connected

• Hootsuite - Free scheduling of up to 30 posts per month 

• UNUM - Allows you to plan out your content with images and copy, but you manually publish. This is a great option if you want to batch create your content but still prefer to publish the posts manually.

Social Advertising: How, When and Where to Spend Your Ad Dollars

It started on Facebook and spread to Instagram… the slow but steady downfall of organic reach on social. The more time goes on, the harder it becomes to get your content in front of people’s eyes for free.

But WAIT! Before you go deleting your brand’s social media accounts and thinking it’s not worth your time, think again. Social advertising is one of the most inexpensive and effective places to invest your brand’s marketing budget.

According to Disruptive Advertising, it’s even more affordable than Google AdWords, especially when ad campaigns are given a high relevance score, which means Facebook believes your ad is a good fit for your target audience, resulting in a lower cost per click.

We’re breaking down how, when and where you should consider spending your advertising dollars below:

Have a strategy behind every ad. Consider the following… who is my target? Will they be a cold audience or a warm audience? IE, do they already know my brand or am I introducing them to my brand? Which stage of the funnel are they in exactly? What is the goal of the campaign? Do I want leads, brand awareness, site traffic, sales, or something else? Don’t create an ad without a strategy.

Choose your ad’s objective for Facebook VS Instagram. Is your goal brand awareness? Reach? Website traffic? Engagement? App installs? Video views? Lead generation? Messages? Conversions? Catalog sales? Store visits? Decide what it is and create your ad based on that goal.

Decide what the goal of your call to action is. Does your call to action drive people to your profile, messages or website? Are you looking to grow followers and engagement or boost revenue?

Select your ad’s format. Consider what will perform best for each specific ad. It could be a single image, a video, a carousel or both. This also includes deciding where you want your ad to be displayed whether this is on the static feed, in stories or in messenger.

Get specific with target audiences. Create specific audiences and target based on locations, interests, age and gender. You should start creating your ad campaign with a strong idea of who you want to target—flesh that out beforehand.

Set a budget and use it efficiently. For clients on our most affordable packages, we set a monthly budget of $100 and boost every single post with roughly $2 to $5 per day. And just that small of an investment can really POWER UP your reach and results.

Evaluate whether your goals were met. What are your impression and reach? How many saves and shares did you have? How much revenue did you capture? What’s your cost per acquisition.

Double down on posts that perform well. Don’t be afraid to put more money behind a post once you see that it is performing well. On the flip side, monitor ads that aren’t performing and tweak them accordingly or even stop them, if need be.

If your ad is rejected, figure out why. You can appeal posts that were not originally approved if you build a strong case. If you win, your post will be boosted ASAP.