Thanks to social media, connection and communication has never been easier. Companies are building personalized relationships with clients through social media platforms, using online marketing strategies, digital events and sales, and even managing customer service through social media. Tech-savvy business owners are using social media to network and engage with customers locally and internationally. With our social media marketing series, you can too.
In Social Media Marketing 101, we covered forming a mission statement and introduced the 6 major social media platforms. We also looked at how social media can be used to boost your business, research your competition, and even form partnerships. In Social Media Marketing 102, we discussed creating profiles, finding the voice of your brand, and using social media effectively. Now that you have an identity and presence, it’s time to increase your visibility across social media platforms and draw in new clients. 
What is visibility?
“Increasing visibility” means exactly what it sounds like: getting your pages seen. You’ve dedicated time and energy to creating social media profiles and coming up with engaging content. Now it’s time to be sure that people are actually seeing your hard work! When a consumer searches for keywords related to your field, you want your profiles to show up as a result. Here are some helpful ways to expand your reach and draw fresh faces into your online community.
Choose the right time to post
We touched on timing in Social Media Marketing 102, but this is worth repeating: timing is key. Social networking platforms use algorithms based on engagement (meaning clicks, likes, and shares) to determine how your posts are ranked in search engines (more about this later!). The more people engage with your posts and pages, the higher their ranking is. So, you’ll want to bolster engagement by posting during peak social media traffic hours:
- Morning: 5-7 am. Many people wake up to an alarm on their phone, and spend the first few minutes of their day checking in on social media accounts, or scrolling while sipping their coffee.
- Lunch hour: 12-2 pm. Students and employees will often browse social media during lunch breaks to escape the classroom or office for a while.
- Evening: 5-7pm. After work many people enjoy decompressing by tuning in to social media. This is one of the best times to capture their attention, as people commute home or look for distractions from their daily worries and evening chores.
- Late night: 9-11pm. Studies show that more and more people use social media at night to relax and unwind before bed.
These time frames are only relative to your local time zone. If your business takes place internationally or across time zones, you’ll have to consider timing your posts correctly. There are many free automated post scheduling resources available, like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Crowdfire that can help if you want to cater to a time zone that is vastly different from yours.
Create useful, exciting content
This might seem obvious, but if you want to increase the number of people viewing your content, it needs to be high quality, interesting, and useful. People should want to watch and share it. 
- For 2020, the top-trending content is video.This might be “brand stories” that highlight the consumer experience, informational how-to videos, live Q&A chats, or inspiring motivational videos.
- People enjoy educational content that adds value to their life. Consumers want to know that you’re an expert, and they want to feel a little like an expert, too. Teach them something and they’re likely to share it with their own network, spreading your name via word of mouth (or tweet!).
- High quality content is worth the work! You want to “wow” your online community. Try using bright, beautiful infographics or quotes, unique photographs, and high-resolution videography to make your content stand out.
Incentivize Sharing
In addition to creating exciting, beautiful, and useful content, you can also increase the return on your content by encouraging viewers to share it with their networks. Here are some ways to incentivize sharing:
- Offer an in-house discount, free shipping, or extra entry into a contest for sharing a social media post.
- Host an engagement campaign: For every like/comment/share, your business can donate money or time to a foundation you care about.
- Re-posting people’s commentary on your content is an easy way to let your viewers know you’ve heard what they’re saying and that you value their feedback.
- Have employees include social media icons in their email signatures and social media profiles. Encourage them to share posts with their own networks.
Social media marketing can be an uphill battle. Sometimes it might seem like you’re at mercy of unknown powers, but you can take matters into your own hands. Following these tips for posting timely, engaging content, encouraging sharing, and understanding a little bit about algorithms and SEO is the first step toward mastering social media marketing.
