Jumping into the world of social media is still a new thing for many businesses, and any new business obviously has to start from scratch when it comes to building a social media marketing effort. Many companies that are just beginning their social media outreach invest minimal time into the endeavour; this can ultimately lead to failure in many cases. Still, this should not be misconstrued to mean that proper social media management takes tons of time – rather, it takes knowing what works and what does not. Below, we will outline several pieces of advice that any budding social media effort will want to utilise in order to gain the most out of its existence.

Import Email Addresses

Most social networks – such as Facebook and LinkedIn – allow you to import email addresses into the platform and invite those individuals to connect with your page or account. Many social media campaigns fail because they try to reach out to people who are visible on the network, rather than beginning the process by connecting with those who have already interacted with their brands. If you want to find people who are most likely to connect with you on social media, then look no further than your mailing lists – if these people have interacted with you prior, then it is much more likely that they will do so once again.

Schedule Updates

Pinging the servers of social media sites with consistent updates is the best way in which to encourage both existing and new followers to stay in touch with your brand. Some social media platforms offer integrated functions to allow for in-site scheduling of posts for a later time and date. Others will require standalone programs – many of which can be used across multiple social platforms simultaneously – in order to use this feature. Social media campaigns that only emit status updates occasionally or in spurts will fail to reach as many of its followers as it can when publishing content on a consistent basis. Since life can often be distracted, scheduling updates in advance can be one way to keep your social media empire growing, even when you are not at the desk.

Interact with Followers

If a friend never stopped by but always expected you to, how would that make you feel? When it comes to building an effective social media presence, give and take is essential. By interacting with your followers directly on relevant topics, you can demonstrate that you are aware of their existence and care about their opinions. Fostering these types of one-on-one relationships can be very rewarding in the long run, as many of these individuals will return the favour by posting, sharing your content with friends and spreading the word about your brand.

Conclusion

Building a social media empire from the ground up is not easy, but using these three simple steps, you can make the process much easier while encountering less resistance. By pinging the servers of social media sites with consistent, quality content, interacting with your followers in meaningful ways and using existing contact information to reach out to those who are already on social media, you can take the guesswork out of building a solid foundation from which to launch your next big brand or project.