In today’s digital world, social media is, or should be, a critical component of your staffing firm’s marketing plan. Developing an effective social media strategy that represents your organization and addresses the vertical(s) that you service is essential to impact current and potential clients and candidates.
How do you assess your success once you’ve committed to social media and developed a strategy? Expanding your following is often the most critical metric in measuring the progress of your social media efforts. More followers mean more potential readers of your content and more opportunities for engagement and shares. In other words, it gives you more “bang for the buck.” You’re already creating the content, so your return is much more significant as your audience grows.
Let’s review five ideas that will help attract followers to your platforms.
- Determine the right social media platform for each audience. Just because there is a platform for content does not mean that it’s where your content belongs. The first step is to determine which platforms will best support your strategy based on the profile of your audiences. You should have a clear understanding of who each target audience is and where they can be found. Each platform has a type of audience that it attracts. Feeding content to the wrong audience is the equivalent of swimming upstream; you’ll never get anywhere. And if you do get their attention, they’re probably not who you were looking for anyway.
- Your online presence must represent your brand. Your brand must be represented well on your chosen platforms. People will decide whether they want to follow you based on your overall social media profile — images, usernames, descriptions, and the specific content you post.
- Provide fresh and engaging content. In real estate, it’s all about “location, location, location.” In social media, it’s “content, content, content.” Content should be exciting and highly engaging to the audience. Ideally, the best social media marketing tip can be summed up in one word — consistency. You should be consistent in posting content, whether images, written material, company news, or invitations to events. Developing a social media calendar will help you produce consistent material and plan a posting schedule.
- Think promotion. A misconception is that the job is done when the blog or white paper is written and posted to social media. How you promote your content can determine how successful that content is. Look for additional distribution methods – shares by your management team or key industry sources, re-purposed as a newsletter, etc. Plan a blog series on one vital topic to encourage return readers. You’ll be able to exponentially expand your followers, get more visitors to your website through strategic links, and increase the opportunity to convert more visitors.
- Engage and interact with your followers. It’s probably no surprise for you to hear that social media is first and foremost about being social. Interacting with your followers will help develop relationships and increase interest in your company. You can engage with followers by asking questions and creating opportunities that encourage interaction between your company, staff, and followers. Of course, these interactions should always add value to your brand and make a positive impression.