By now you’re already aware (or at least you should be) of the importance of a social media presence. Whether you’re trying to elevate your business profile for more leads and sales, or you’re hoping to get more eyes (engagement and followers) on your personal content and brand, having the right approach and strategies when it comes to your social media profile is key. Digital entrepreneur, Seipati ‘Miss Gates’ Masango, offers insightful tips you can use as a stepping stone to becoming the brand or social media butterfly that everyone wants to keep up with just like her.
- Connect and engage with your followers
It’s all fine and well posting incredible, interesting, viral-worthy content, but if you aren’t doing the work to cultivate a community of followers by engaging with comments or giving followers the opportunity to connect with you on live streams as an example, you aren’t going to turn viewers into loyal followers in a hurry.
- Take care of your community
Community management is key to social media success, which allows you to grow awareness of and affinity to your brand or personal page, network and even collaborate with others in the industry. Invest time and effort into conducting searches of relevant posts, brands, and pages that are relevant to you and start engaging with them. Make sure to respond and remedy every relevant query and complaint in your inbox or in the comments section – never delete comments about complaints!
- Keep an eye on social media trends
While you don’t have to jump on every challenge or trend that pops up on social media every other day, a good way to remain relevant and show your human, fun side is to participate in something that the mainstream online communities enjoy watching and are talking about. Scan your feeds for the latest dance challenges, new sound clips and hashtags, and viral videos, and give some thought to how these might translate favourably for your brand, business or personal page and its social media presence.
- Share your handles far and wide
Make use of the resources – especially the free ones – that are at your disposal. This includes platforms like My Community Connects, which was developed by fibre provider Vuma in lieu of appropriate directories where entrepreneurs, social innovators, artists and anyone with a talent of any kind could post and publicise their offerings to be discoverable by the right audiences.
- Consistency and patience are key
As is the case with almost anything and everything in life, it pays to be consistent. In this case, creating a content calendar that specifies when you will post content, and committing to being as consistent as possible with posting and engaging as promised to your community, will definitely reap rewards in the long run. Additionally, social media interventions are a long game, so remember to remain patient, don’t expect incredible results overnight, but know that hard work, time, and effort invested into your social media presence and being disciplined in your approach are key to success.
Elevating your social media presence is no easy feat – it’s taken some of the world’s biggest brands a long time and a great deal of effort to create the online empires they possess today. You can too, with the right attitude, approach and information at your disposal.