Social media for a brand is not easy, even if it’s not very good. And excellent social media is that much harder. This is now pretty common knowledge, but some brands still miss some of the fundamentals needed to succeed at Tweeting/Instagramming/Linkedinning. While there are PR firms out there who can help out a lot, here are some of the biggest do’s, and a couple don’ts, that are key to good social media. 

Know Who You Want to Reach

You can’t be everything to everyone. If you try appealing to a universal audience, it will take longer and likely fall flat. So you need to do some serious research into your target demographic. Determine who is going to be reading your posts, what they respond well to and what kind of language resonates with them. Because you’ll need to develop the perfect tone. 

Watch Your Tone

The tone of your social posts are the #1 thing that is going to bring people in or lose them immediately. You cannot take this for granted or assume anything else will compensate for it. People make split-second decisions when scrolling through social media and you need to make sure your messages are honed, both for your intended audience, and for whichever platforms they’re on. 

Pick The Right Platforms 

There are plenty of platforms to choose from nowadays, and not all of them are the right choice. Maybe your audience is a demographic who spend their time on TikTok. Maybe they’re more of a Linkedin crowd. While you should be grabbing accounts on everything just in case, you need to find where your audience hangs out and then start spending your time there.

Don’t Try to be Too Clever

No one wants to be boring on social media, but that doesn’t mean you want to come off as trying too hard either. A lot of brands have made waves with voices that are sarcastic or meta or other non-traditional approaches to social media. There is nothing wrong with that, but we’ve also seen brands try those same approaches, only to have them backfire. Working on a voice that feels genuine and reflective of the brand is your best bet for organic growth.

Always be Listening

Don’t be tricked into thinking that social media is a one-way street. One of the reasons social media has been so effective is because these are not billboards; this is interactive and needs to be treated that way. Pepper your posts with questions and comments that encourage engagement. And when you receive that engagement, make sure to keep the conversation going.

Be Consistent, Be-Be Consistent

Probably the biggest mistake brands make about social media is believing it’s easy. After all, you just post a couple sentences every day; how hard could that be? This is why so many brands’ start out with strong social media and quickly fade away. Create a content calendar, designate owners and hit your goals.

Get Visual 

How a message is written is still the most effective way to bring people in. But adding visuals, whether they’re photos, illustrations or animations, are far more likely to get people to stop for even a brief second. And if you’re looking to put resources into Instagram or TikTok, you obviously have no other choice. 

Set it, But Don’t Forget it 

A crucial part of consistency is automation. After all, with multiple platforms, timely topics and correct tone (and possibly some visuals), you should be putting time and thought into that instead of just dashing something off at 4pm on a Friday. There are plenty of free or reasonably-priced management tools that will make this much easier. But, just because it seems all taken care of doesn’t mean you can just forget about it. There are innumerable stories of automated social posts causing major headaches for brands, whether that means an innocuous tweet looking insensitive due to breaking news or an unforeseen wave of trolling comments. Automate, but make sure someone is checking on those posts to avoid any serious repercussions. 

Ask Yourself “Why?”

The winds change quickly on social media. A post that would have done well last month might bomb this month. Things that never saw any engagement all of a sudden start exploding. Social media is a black box in many ways but that doesn’t mean embrace a strategy of blindly posting and hoping for the best. You need to consistently be questioning why things are happening. With the available tools, such as Buffer and Analisa, you can audit your social media engagement which will help determine what you’re doing right or what needs to be fixed. 

And if this still feels a little too overwhelming, it may be time to speak with a top PR firm and really kickstart your brand’s social media. 

Interested in joining the MGP PR team? Email your resume/CV and cover letter to hello@wearemgp.com

Social media for a brand is not easy, even if it’s not very good. And excellent social media is that much harder. This is now pretty common knowledge, but some brands still miss some of the fundamentals needed to succeed at Tweeting/Instagramming/Linkedinning. While there are PR firms out there who can help out a lot, here are some of the biggest do’s, and a couple don’ts, that are key to good social media. 

Know Who You Want to Reach

You can’t be everything to everyone. If you try appealing to a universal audience, it will take longer and likely fall flat. So you need to do some serious research into your target demographic. Determine who is going to be reading your posts, what they respond well to and what kind of language resonates with them. Because you’ll need to develop the perfect tone. 

Watch Your Tone

The tone of your social posts are the #1 thing that is going to bring people in or lose them immediately. You cannot take this for granted or assume anything else will compensate for it. People make split-second decisions when scrolling through social media and you need to make sure your messages are honed, both for your intended audience, and for whichever platforms they’re on. 

Pick The Right Platforms 

There are plenty of platforms to choose from nowadays, and not all of them are the right choice. Maybe your audience is a demographic who spend their time on TikTok. Maybe they’re more of a Linkedin crowd. While you should be grabbing accounts on everything just in case, you need to find where your audience hangs out and then start spending your time there.

Don’t Try to be Too Clever

No one wants to be boring on social media, but that doesn’t mean you want to come off as trying too hard either. A lot of brands have made waves with voices that are sarcastic or meta or other non-traditional approaches to social media. There is nothing wrong with that, but we’ve also seen brands try those same approaches, only to have them backfire. Working on a voice that feels genuine and reflective of the brand is your best bet for organic growth.

Always be Listening

Don’t be tricked into thinking that social media is a one-way street. One of the reasons social media has been so effective is because these are not billboards; this is interactive and needs to be treated that way. Pepper your posts with questions and comments that encourage engagement. And when you receive that engagement, make sure to keep the conversation going.

Be Consistent, Be-Be Consistent

Probably the biggest mistake brands make about social media is believing it’s easy. After all, you just post a couple sentences every day; how hard could that be? This is why so many brands’ start out with strong social media and quickly fade away. Create a content calendar, designate owners and hit your goals.

Get Visual 

How a message is written is still the most effective way to bring people in. But adding visuals, whether they’re photos, illustrations or animations, are far more likely to get people to stop for even a brief second. And if you’re looking to put resources into Instagram or TikTok, you obviously have no other choice. 

Set it, But Don’t Forget it 

A crucial part of consistency is automation. After all, with multiple platforms, timely topics and correct tone (and possibly some visuals), you should be putting time and thought into that instead of just dashing something off at 4pm on a Friday. There are plenty of free or reasonably-priced management tools that will make this much easier. But, just because it seems all taken care of doesn’t mean you can just forget about it. There are innumerable stories of automated social posts causing major headaches for brands, whether that means an innocuous tweet looking insensitive due to breaking news or an unforeseen wave of trolling comments. Automate, but make sure someone is checking on those posts to avoid any serious repercussions. 

Ask Yourself “Why?”

The winds change quickly on social media. A post that would have done well last month might bomb this month. Things that never saw any engagement all of a sudden start exploding. Social media is a black box in many ways but that doesn’t mean embrace a strategy of blindly posting and hoping for the best. You need to consistently be questioning why things are happening. With the available tools, such as Buffer and Analisa, you can audit your social media engagement which will help determine what you’re doing right or what needs to be fixed. 

And if this still feels a little too overwhelming, it may be time to speak with a top PR firm and really kickstart your brand’s social media. 

Interested in joining the MGP PR team? Email your resume/CV and cover letter to hello@wearemgp.com