How The Best Brands Use Social Media

Spend 10 minutes on your favorite social network and you will see plenty of examples of brands, both personal and corporate, doing social really well; and others that are misguided and shouldn’t be out there at all. The best brands utilize social media as one element of a larger digital strategy.

Below are seven ways your brand can use social media correctly.

1. Understand your purpose

Most brands are on social media because they know that they should be, but very few understand the nuances of the platforms they chose, and how this ties into their other sales and marketing activity. The best brands understand that a social media strategy has to begin with valuable content. There is no point in dedicating resources to social media if you don’t have engaging and consistent content to post.

2. Effectively communicate your brand

The best social media brands (personal or corporate) do an excellent job of enhancing the brand that they’ve created offline. They have defined what they want people to think about them and keep that in the front of their mind with every post. These brands are aware of the experience they want people to have when they interact with them, and they make sure that they deliver.

3. Stay focused

This is especially important if you are in a boring industry (and lets face it, many of us are!). Those who are doing social right aren’t casting a wide net. They have a specific audience (clients, prospects, niche industry, group, etc) that they want to target, and they aim their presence at them. Instead of trying to appeal to the masses, they set a specific goal to appeal to their desired audience.  For example, some of my best clients and friends in the insurance industry are crushing it on social media by providing valuable information and interacting with executives at the C-level. Their focus has led to them building a very strong brand with their audiences.

4. Give more than they get

The best of the best are tuned into their audience’s station of WIIFM (what’s in it for me?).  Instead of a self-serving model, they understand what their audience wants and needs, and then deliver advice to help them. As HubSpot describes it, they produce remarkable content – content that is exceptional and also makes people want to remark, or share it. This approach is very different from the ‘look at my new product’ or ‘please endorse me’ mentality.

5. Entertaining

You don’t need to be a comedian or clown, but your social media has to be information that engages people. Again, this is especially true if you are in a boring industry. Your audience doesn’t care about your industry jargon or technical skill. They want useable information that keeps them coming back for more.

6. Right fit

Just like work/life balance, social media doesn’t need to consume every minute of your day.  Most of us aren’t professional social media experts or power users. Your social media presence needs to enhance your offline activity without distracting from your goals.

7. Be social (duh!)

Your social media presence needs to be just that – SOCIAL.  The same way you interact and network offline needs to be done online. The best approach is to truly care about your connections. Show them that you care by interacting with the things that they post that are of interest to you.

There is no magic pill to make your social media successful, but taking the advice above and emulating some of the best online brands will help you get ahead in this digital world.