Social media has been an absolute boon for businesses today. The unprecedented access we now have into our potential customer’s daily lives has been nothing short of revolutionary. Yet, for all the advances in technology, the quality / quantity of customer data at our fingertips, the ease of access, etc., etc. We are still seeing businesses come up short when it comes to social media marketing.

That’s because, while social media is undeniably the most effective marketing tactic out there, it is also one of the most difficult. There is a lot of effort required if you are to be successful on the various social platforms out there today. However, if you’ll follow the below social media best practices, you’ll better position yourself against the competition!

1. Define Your Theme / Platform

Take some time and consider your brand’s “personality.” Answer the following questions about your brand:

• What industry do you serve?
• Do any social platforms naturally fit your brand (or a part of your business) better than another?
  • For example, a lot of businesses will use Twitter for customer support vs Instagram to show beautiful imagery of product.
• Is there place for humor?
• What do your target customers expect?

2. You Must Be Consistent

Finding your brand’s voice is key to accomplishing this best practice. Once you know your brand’s voice, you’ll want to maintain that voice across all channels. The idea here is to never leave the customer feeling that you are irrelevant to what they need or that you have misrepresented your self to them.

Think about the following:

• How will you interact with customers on social?
• Who on your team will be handling reputation management?
• Who will be handling content creation and posting to your different social accounts?
• You will want the same tones, thought process, and phrasing across all facets of social. This can be a little tricky if different departments / teams / individuals are handling different customer interaction points on social.

3. Don’t Be Cool Dad

The internet is a treasure trove of street lingo and popular sayings, etc. In most cases, you’ll want to avoid incorporating popular slang and just try to be as sincere and relevant to yourself as possible. Of course, this depends on your brand as well. If your primarily reaching people on Snap Chat and your brand is built on “swagger”, this advice may change.

4. Competitor Research

The best way to stay ahead in the social media marketing game is to constantly analyze your competitors. What’s working for them, what isn’t, and why? You can bet that your competitors are researching you, put their wins and losses to work for you!

Things to look for:

• Changes in competitor content themes
• What hastags are they using?
• What type of content is getting your competitors the most engagement?

5. Remind Them Your Human

Have you ever had to call into a place of business for an issue, only to get buried in an automated phone service that made you feel like you were on a merry-go-round?  That’s exactly what you are trying to prevent here. Social media allows you to really bring the human side of your business online. Use it to your advantage!

Consider the following:

• Offer value every chance you get
• Entertain your audience
• Provide utility where you can