How To Build A Social Presence In 2020
10 easy steps to getting your name known online.
Social presence is about being active on many social media platforms (not just posting cute dog photos on Instagram.) You have to have built a following on multiple social media’s to say you have an online ‘presence’ otherwise you’re simply just another page with a few followers.
A way of converting your followers into a social presence is by gaining fans. A true fan will buy anything from you, a true fan will drive across a country to come to see you, you need true fans to survive the social world.
People are becoming less and less stupid, they do research, they find information, they want to know more about you! You need to take the mask off.
That’s what this article will hopefully teach you, where, why and how you should be posting and focusing on to maximise your social presence. It doesn’t have to be hard, it just has to be effective.
Let’s get into the tips,
1. Effectively make content for multiple platforms.
You probably spend most of your time on Instagram, that’s not a problem but don’t forget about the other platforms.
Making content for one platform seems hard enough, making content and focusing on growing your following for many platforms seems nearly impossible. You’d be surprised, it’s not as hard as you think.
The trick is to be maximising your content usage, squeezing your content into as much as possible. This means posting the same content on multiple platforms, sometimes just making a few changes to make it more suitable.
Take this, when you make an Instagram carousel, post it on LinkedIn too, Why? Because LinkedIn has crazy organic reach and you’ll discover a whole new audience! You have now doubled your content and increased your social presence on multiple platforms, and there’s still more you can be doing to maximise content usage.
Post that same post on Behance too. Yes, you don’t have to only share your portfolio on Behance, posting your carousels on there, takes no extra effort and will increase your social presence yet again. You now have 3 pieces of content from 1 post.
Gary Vee, is a great example of this, in his article How to make 64 pieces of content a day, he explains his method of re-using content on multiple platforms, he calls it the content pyramid, or pillar content strategy. The idea is you start with one big piece of content, (this could be a blog post, YouTube video, etc..) and re-purpose it into many smaller pieces with little extra time or effort needed.
Finally, you distribute all the micro-content on as many suitable social media platforms (Like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Quora, LinkedIn, Medium and your personal website or email subscriber list, to name a few!) I highly recommend reading his post and watching his videos if you would like to learn more.
Make a commitment to be consistent. Once a day is great but it doesn’t need to be this frequent. Adjust the frequency of your posts based on your individual skill, time and needs. The important part is to have a regular deadline. Stick with it. Post no matter what. Learn to love the process of creating. Stay out of the results.
Create without expectations. Your intention should be to just try. Have fun. Experiment. Make mistakes. Some of what you create will be terrible. Embrace it and ask yourself, what’s one thing I can try next time?
After you’ve created 12 pieces of content, take a break. Look at the analytics. Study which pieces had the highest engagement. Find the metrics that matter to you. It could be views, likes, comments or follows. Form a hypothesis for what you think works. Write down 3 things you learned and apply it for the next 12 pieces of content.
2. Grow your presence on Pinterest.
Whichever social platform you focus on, you want high engagement. Pinterest, compared to other social networks, has high engagement and organic reach.
Pinterest is a site where users or ‘pinners’ can share images or videos. These pinners also have the opportunity to create specific boards packed full of ‘pins’ made up of the content that they like.
All that is useless if there is no good reason for you to be using Pinterest. However there is a good reason, Any company can grow with a Pinterest account. 50% of people make a purchase after seeing a promoted pin, and 67% say they discovered a new product or brand from Pinterest.
So you’ve decided to start focusing on growing your Pinterest, what next? Here are some steps to take to ensure a successful Pinterest account.
- The first thing you’ll need to do is set up a Business Account, not a personal one otherwise you’ll be missing out on crucial features to help you grow. Fill in all the details, don’t leave any information not filled in, the more you tell about yourself the more people will connect with you.
- Next, verify your site so you can use Rich Pins and have a Verified Icon, which will make customers more trusting. By doing this and getting verified it means your posts will be getting 20% more engagement on your posts.
- Finally, Include a Pinterest button on your website. This will both improve your sites SEO and your Pinterest page views. There are 5 different types of buttons you can include.
3. Understand Medium marketing.
Let’s say you’ve just spent many hours writing an article, hours of researching, hours of editing and you finally finish. What should you do next? Publish it to your blog or website. Well, congratulations, you’ve just wasted your time.
When you write an article you should be publishing it in many places, and Medium is a great place to do so. Medium is an online platform where you can share articles. It focuses on the customer experience by having no adverts and no click-bait.
Not only will you grow your social presence, but you will also get paid every time someone reads your article! By posting your article on your blog, LinkedIn and medium you’re maximising your efforts and getting the most usage from your article.
Here are 4 tips to help you master Medium Marketing:
- To gain attention on Medium you have to be posting interesting content often. The good thing is you don’t have to write every post, you can find posts on people’s blogs and share them on your page, just make sure to credit them.
- You can either publish articles taken straight from your blog or post smaller versions. This means you get more exposure from your article.
- Medium is for telling stories not for talking about how great your brand is, press releases or promoting yourself.
- Publish content about a theme, either original work or articles syndicated from your blog. This will help establish your brand as an expert in your field.
4. Learn to use LinkedIn.
Most people, when trying to grow a social media following, don’t think of LinkedIn. Even though it’s by far the most effective networking tool out there. 660 million users are on the professional network in more than 200 countries.
Posting on LinkedIn doesn’t require much more effort either, and will dramatically increase your leads, sales and grow your network. Like I mentioned before when you write an article, you need to be posting it on LinkedIn.
Unlike other platforms, LinkedIn also allows carousels and image posts. This means every single piece of content you make needs to be going on LinkedIn. But hold on, before you go posting every Instagram carousel and blog post on your LinkedIn page, you need to think about who you’re trying to target. Only post something that is suitable for your target audience or will provide value to a potential client.
Most people only use LinkedIn for business, not personal use. This means whatever you post needs to be professional, link to what you’re trying to sell and provide value.
- When posting on LinkedIn, only post Monday to Friday as most people using the platform won’t check it on the weekends (Unless they’re a serious hustler) Also posting in the mornings can help as that’s when people are checking their phones.
LinkedIn DM’s is a golden opportunity. Busy people get a lot of emails, busy people get a lot of Messages, busy people don’t get a lot of LinkedIn Direct Messages, also known as DM’s. It’s a quiet inbox, if you want to reach someone or build your network, don’t shout in the noise, use LinkedIn DM’s.
5. Invest time on Instagram.
Instagram is a massive, saturated platform full of people hungry for followers, doing everything and anything to gain a few likes or follows. It seems nearly impossible these days to get any sort of attention, simply because of the number of people on there.
Chances are you’ve already tried Instagram, you started out by posing every day, maybe get a few hundred followers, and then you slowly give up. It might seem a waste of time.
I can ensure you Instagram is still one of the best, if not the best, platform for building an online presence and connecting with your audience. From Comments to DM’s and Stories and IGTV, the platform has so many features to help you build a following.
Here are some tips to help with growing Instagram:
“The secret that I’ve learned, is that the discipline of quantity is what will lead to quality.” — Chris Do
- Reply to all DM’s and comments. This will help you start to build a community around your page.
- Post content and stories consistently, remember quantity over quality.
- Engage on other pages, leave comments. The more people you engage with the more they see your content on their homepage.
- Be active every day.
- Interact with new followers.
- Don’t purchase fake followers or likes.
- Make people spend lots of time on your page by creating content people will come back to. The secret is to share all your secrets!
- Finally, post at the best time. This is important because for the first few hours of your post going live, depending on how much engagement it gets Instagram will push it to more people. To find out the best time to post for you, check out this article.
6. Make the shot with Dribbble.
Dribbble is an online portfolio platform for designers. It allows smaller designers to get their work seen, which is normally hard if you’ve just started.
There are a few problems however with Dribbble. The first is that you have to be invited. This means someone else who likes your work will have to invite you to join, once you are invited you can invite one other person, and so on. While this creates a tight community of passionate designs, with little spammy, fake accounts, sometimes it can be hard to get enough exposure to be invited.
Here are some tips to help you grow your presence on Dribbble.
- Tell the story behind your work. People connect with a story. When you upload a Dribbble Shot, share a bit about the inspiration or idea behind the project.
- Only use relevant tags, I recommend using tags that describe the type of design (i.e. web, illustration, packaging, logo, etc.) and also use tags that describe your design’s content, themes, and styles.
- Consistently share your work. Upload your work in progress (and ask for feedback!). Share personal projects, client work, and even the doodle you made yesterday that turned out pretty cool. Showing the breadth of your work helps people see who you fully are as a creative, and will help them feel more connected to you and your work.
7. Start answering with Quora.
Quora is a great way to help people directly, on an individual basis. Quora is a platform where users ask questions about pretty much anything and people answer those questions. As long as your answers are actually helpful,
Quora can benefit both the people asking questions and the people answering questions. This is because when you help someone out not only does that person appreciate you taking the time to answer their question, it makes you seem like the expert.
After taking the time to compose a helpful answer, many people with the same question will be thankful that your answer exists and will most likely find out more about you. You can use this to your advantage, by linking to your website or other social media’s and becoming seen as an expert in your community and therefore growing your social presence.
When you find a topic that you are fairly confident with and could benefit from your knowledge, you can start answering the questions posted on the site by users. Be careful not to promote your own business and risk looking spammy. Ensure your answers are well written and genuinely helpful.
The trick is to compose a thorough, well-written response to someone’s question, preferably one that doesn’t have many answers from other users, and subtly include links to your site when relevant. By doing this, you’re not only helping the person asking the question, but you’re also getting attention to your links, exposing yourself to countless readers.
To learn more about Quora, check out this article.
8. Try using Twitter.
Unless you’re already well known from other platforms, Twitter is nearly impossible to gain an active following. People don’t care what you have to say, they only care about themselves and providing value on Twitter is proven quite tricky.
Luckily there are a few ways of growing your presence, here are some tips.
- Respond to other users or engage with their content, and they’ll be more likely to pay attention to what you’re posting, too. This is especially true considering most brands don’t take or have the time to interact with a lot of followers, so it can mean more when you do.
- Retweet Other Users’ Tweets. You want to do this early and often, and the reason it works is that this is what most users value the most; not only are you liking their content enough to validate it, but you value it enough to share it.
- Share a Variety of Links. If you find great content, share it and tag the person who created it; they’ll appreciate it, and some of your users might, too. Even better, it can build relationships between you and industry leaders whose content you’re sharing, and they might later share your content in return.
- Know Your Peak Hours, just like Instagram.
9. Use Google my business.
Standing out in your local area is also a valuable source of new clients. For this ‘Google My Business’ really is your best option. Even though technically it’s not going to grow your social presence, it’s still a valid tool for boosting your online visibility by showing your business’s location and contact details, but it will also allow customers to leave feedback and suggest improvements.
To use Google My Business effectively ensure the following:
- Complete your business information and add a description
- Upload high-quality images
- Respond to all Google My Business reviews
- Use posts to promote events, offers and content
- Create and upload videos
10. Understand who you’re trying to reach.
There’s no point creating a post for Instagram called “Top tips for great logo design” if you’re a designer trying to reach potential clients, Potential clients aren’t the designer, you are and therefore you need to be creating content about the client’s world, not yours. If you want designers as your audience, then creating content about design is the route to take.
Using the right platform for your audience will allow you to grow a following of people who actually care about what you do.
Do you think an old granny is going to be using TikTok?
Or will she be browsing LinkedIn? Or maybe she’s snapping on Snapchat?
I hope not. The point is, to maximise your content’s efficiency, post where people will care about it. (and If you are targeting an old granny, Facebook is probably the best place.)
Conclusion.
Social media is bigger than ever and now’s your chance to take advantage of it. The key points to take away from this article are; Reuse your content by posting the same content on multiple platforms, don’t let your efforts go to waste! Remember who you’re targeting, be specific and target them on the right platform. And consistency is crucial, ultimately this is what will set you apart.
Even though Instagram is the self-proclaimed leader for building an online presence, do NOT forget that there are other baskets you should be placing your eggs in. You can create content on Youtube to build an audience, you can start a weekly email newsletter, reupload your carousel posts from
Instagram to LinkedIn, start posting on Pinterest and Medium, share your thoughts on Twitter & even create funny TikTok- yep, I’m dead serious.
Thanks for reading!
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