Online branding plays a key role in the success of your business. But with so many platforms to choose from, where do you start? Teresa Truda, social media guru and self-confessed geek, spoke at our recent Connect Event about building your brand online and making the most of your social media. Take a look at her top five tips.
Facebook is one of the biggest ad platforms in the world, but according to Teresa, it’s going back to its community roots. It can pay to build presence through closed Facebook groups, because they ‘bring back that community vibe’.
If you create your own closed Facebook group for your audience to join, you can start discussions with your members, offer exclusive content (you could even charge for subscriptions), create events and more.
Or, you can find existing groups that align with your business and join the conversation.
Teresa says that when it comes to social media, it’s about knowing your business and having the right content for the right platform.
If your audience uses Instagram, she’s got a few tips to help you make the most of it:
Plus, her favourite trick – hiding hashtags in Instagram stories. ‘Get all MacGyver on them. Type in up to 10 hashtags, pinch them so they’re small, then cover them with a gif or sticker’.
If you’re going to work with influencers to expand your reach, Teresa explains that ‘finding the right influencer for your brand is key’. Do your research - make sure their content aligns with your brand values and find out whether the people following this influencer are the type that would be interested in your business.
Then, once you’re ready to collaborate, get creative. Whether it’s exchanging a product or service for a post on their social media, or an Instagram story takeover, there are lots of ways to mutually benefit from an influencer relationship.
'The key to ads is planning your approach’, according to Teresa. Outline your strategy before you start - think about who your audience is and what their interests are, then work out what content, images or videos you could test with them.
Once you start playing around with ads, think about what you’re trying to achieve. ‘What does a conversion look like for your business? It’s not necessarily a sale. For a real estate business, it might be a lead’.
Teresa recommends planning content two weeks ahead of time. And after you post? ‘Monitor, learn and optimise based on performance’.
When planning your content, she suggests picking key pillars or themes – decide what you’re going to post about (like products, facts or industry news). This way, you’ve got a starting point when creating your posts. But, she says, be open to spontaneous inspiration.
Then, think about how you can repurpose content. If you write a blog post, you could post it as an article on LinkedIn, share it in a Facebook group or turn it into a podcast. If you create a video, you might post it on Instagram and direct people to LinkedIn to see the full clip.