The do’s and don’ts of marketing your brand on social media

media update’s Nakedi Phala spoke to Petrumarie Jacobs, client and brand experience manager at amaSocial, about the important do’s and don’ts of marketing brands on social media platforms. 

What do you need to include in your Page Bio in order to sell your brand? 

Your page needs to be a follower magnet. To do that, a quick summary about your brand is kind of a big deal. Remember, people find your business through searches, therefore, you need to ensure that you use SEO friendly keywords and accompany it with great visuals and your website link, as well as contact details. Don’t include an office number if your company is not channelling calls via Zoiper or Linphone during lockdown.

Set your brand logo as the profile image and choose a cover image that links to your tactical marketing activities or email marketing banners. Also, ensure that each profile and cover image is optimised for each platform. A few brands have recently been using Zoom meeting screenshots as their covers, which is a very good way to show that you regularly update your page and could be the brand they’ve been looking for.

Why does a brand need to link its marketing content that is shared on its social media platforms? 

Omni-channel marketing is key to surviving the changing media landscape. With more and more strategies shifting to a digital-first approach, backlinking ensures that your organic rankings make up for the ad spend you need to apply in other spaces. A good SEO strategy will include backlinks on social media posts [which link back] to your blogs or specific landing pages. People find you via searches or a recommendation, and alignment across each platform may enable users to find out more about your brand through a link click.

If your aim is to drive website traffic in order for people to contact you, buy your product or subscribe to your service, include those links because you never know who needs your solution at the time of scrolling.

At amaSocial, we have found that placing your full link to a post generates more link clicks than a shortened one. Even though a shortened link looks sleek, we live in a time where people do not click any link they see; they have more time to consume digital content and your copy needs to create an expectation that won’t let them click away within seconds.

We haven’t come across a brand that just wanted to post pretty content without a link or a contact method. If this was their only objective, they probably don’t exist anymore. You post with the intention to gain a customer base by raising awareness of your brand or generating engagement — Likes, comments and shares don’t pay the bills. It is the call to action or the click that leads to an opportunity to build a relationship with your brand.

Is it better to share a lot of content or a limited amount of content on these platforms, and why? 

Social media has become the go-to marketing tool for brands during lockdown. With audiences stuck indoors, traditional forms of advertising just aren’t cutting it. However, audiences have more time than ever to scroll through their social feeds. When it comes to posting content online, it is vital to ask yourself if the content you are posting is relevant, or if you are posting content for the sake of maintaining an online presence.

Knowing when to post is key to building a social media strategy. At amaSocial, we use an Hourly Insights feature to pin-point the exact times and days when brand engagement is high. This enables you to decide on the frequency of posting or the exact times engaging in genuine conversations with your audience in real-time. 

In order to understand the keywords people are using in relation to your brand, we offer a social cloud that visually displays the popular buzzwords. The amplification of the words, hashtags or @handles depicts how many times they were mentioned within a specified time frame. At a single glance, you are able to tailor your content to be in line with what your community wants to know — and, better yet, when they want to know it!

 The social cloud also allows you to be informed about the conversations surrounding your brand. Responding to these conversations will demonstrate that your business is in-tune with what is happening in your industry, aware of trends and ready to engage with issues your audience is facing at the moment.

What kind of research should a brand consider conducting before placing itself on social media? 

 You might know the platforms your audience usually spend time on, but these are unusual times. This means that you’ll see some shifts in the platforms customers are using, as well as changes in the times they use the different apps. For example, since lockdown began and people have been isolated from one another, messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger have increased in usage, and video chat apps like Zoom, Houseparty and TikTok have spiked.

Look at your industry and identify the brands in your direct market environment. Pop their keywords into a social media monitoring system, like amaSocial, and see the results of the conversations surrounding those brand mentions. With effective data management, you are able to extract key topics and questions that need to be answered. 

The opportunity lies in addressing the questions people have if they are wanting to or making use of your competitors’ products or services. You will also be able to see the social media platforms your potential audience uses and what type of content works with a particular audience. 

Think about yourself and ask: “Would I like to see my brand in my newsfeed?”. Some platforms may have a limited number of users, but high-quality engagements emerge from there. Social media takes time and a genuine tone of voice and dedication will reap great results.

Should a marketer, at some point, consider social media monitoring services? How will these monitoring services help a marketer? 

 If you want to stay relevant in a time of uncertainty, a social media monitoring service will definitely help you measure your brand’s success, as well as identify gaps in communication efforts. With the rise of e-commerce, people are looking to social media when a delivery is taking longer than usual or to find out if other users are having the same questions they have.

Opportunities are lost when brands don’t reach out in their post comment sections or respond to mentions without a tag, which will pop up in the community manager’s notifications. Therefore, you want to look at those mentions outside of your pages and find your audience in spaces and scenarios with tailored responses instead of automated chats. 
 
Placing your brand on social media is something that every business should consider. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below. 

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