Do you know of any brand, big or small, that doesn't have a profile on any social media platform? Probably not. Nowadays, everyone is on social media and that's how it should be. It makes life easier for us as users, and if done right, it can greatly improve a brand's business. Let's highlight this one more time, in case you missed it: "if done right".
Don't expect a miracle from social media based on a few posts that you published at some random time that you found online to be the best time to post, and you're not even sure what you're trying to achieve.
There are all kinds of advice on how to work and manage social media on the internet. Some of them are good advice, but some of them should be discarded. We have decided to use our experience to bring you 9 things to pay attention to in order to successfully position your brand on social media, learn how to stand out in the sea of competition, and achieve better results.
So, let's get started. Get ready, there's a lot to cover.
1. You must have a goal.
Okay, we haven't discovered hot water, but we just want to emphasize one thing that everyone who has ever had to make a social media strategy for someone, will relate to. The goal cannot be "everything". You can use social media with the goal of selling as much as possible, you can use it to achieve a higher reach or engagement, you can use it primarily as communication with customers. You can do all of these and one does not exclude the other, but you have to choose a focus. Some brands will successfully sell on social media, some won't. For some industries, customer trust for purchasing on social media is high, for some it isn't.
Would you ever buy an apartment through Instagram? Probably not. But you WOULD buy shoes.
2. Audience and testing.
If you've ever googled any social media strategy, you've come across the phrase that you need to know your audience. Pretty logical, but how do you get to know them? The answer is - through testing. And let's just agree right away, testing does not mean posting 10 posts in shades of red because you really like the color red.
Testing means checking what your competition is doing, what their most successful posts are, what is common to those posts, what kind of comments you and your competition get. For starters, why you're doing this is because the questions that are asked in the comments are the topics of your future posts. At least they should be.
Testing also doesn't mean randomly posting 10 different posts and seeing which one performed the best and then publishing that theme and format for months. Maybe the only thing that is common to all social media is that they constantly change. What you have discovered that your audience likes, they may find fun for three months. So, you have no choice but to constantly test.
And how do you test?
You test texts, visuals, formats, and anything else that comes to mind. If you want to see whether your audience prefers videos, photos, sharing a link to an article, or a carousel, that means that it is the only variable that needs to be changed. So, the same message, but different formats. If you get the most reactions on a photo, then you can conclude that within your publishing plan, 70% of the content should be photos. Now you know that you need photos. But what kind of photos? Ones with or without text? With or without people? Staged advertising photos or more spontaneous ones? Do you see where this is going?
Testing takes a long time, but once you've done it, you can more or less say that you have a formula that will lead you to what will work well in most cases. However, before any testing, you must know exactly what you are testing. This is well shown in the book One million followers (Brendan Kane). Perhaps it's an old reference, but the logic and concept of the quantity and method of testing content on social media that is described there still holds true.
And besides that, one good thing about getting to know your own audience is to talk to them. Social media is called social for a reason.
3. Tracking results..
This will be short. Tracking results depends solely and exclusively on the goal you set. If you have decided to publish content with the aim of increasing sales on the web, it doesn't matter how many likes you got. Of course, they are not useless, but they are not as important as sales. Determine the metric you will focus on and track how that metric is moving on a daily basis. If it starts to fall too much or the results become too expensive, it's time for optimization and changes. Here's what to track for the most common campaigns.
Sales – Link clicks, ROAS, Website purchases, Cost per purchase
Brand awareness – Reach, Impressions, CPM, Frequency
Engagement – Post engagement, CTR, Saves, Shares, Comments, Link Clicks
4. When to post.
You have surely come across advice on exactly when to post on which network. Feel free to skip them. That hasn't held water for a long time. Your audience is always online, and the algorithm is made much smarter. If someone follows you, likes your content, and reacts to it, it doesn't matter when you posted it, they will see it when they come to social media. The main goal of all social media is to keep people on the platform as long as possible. If you have content that helps Instagram do that, if people react to your content, or if they stay online longer because of your content, it is in Instagram's interest to show your content to as many users as possible. It's not personal, so don't think Instagram loves you.
5. How much to post.
There are no rules regardless of the many tips you have probably found online. If you have just opened a profile, the intensity should be a little higher because you are just building your audience. You test and try to reach as many people as possible. Later, you adjust that intensity to the needs of your audience.
There is no need to follow the rule of posting three times a week if you don't have anything interesting, useful, or entertaining to say. Consistency is important, but for every post, you must have a goal and a reason. Don't post just because you have to be active. If a message has been well received, use it again in a different way. If you're afraid of being boring, believe me, only a very small number of your followers see every single one of your posts, especially if you have a lot of them.
On the other hand, we have examples where up to 10 posts are published per day. Believe it or not, in some cases, this is also acceptable. If you can produce a large amount of interesting content and if that content performs well with your audience, feel free to publish it.
6. Social media trends. 
You must follow and put effort into this. You have to be an active user on social media to know what your audience is watching and what is being offered to them. Forget about Googling trends because the information you get is available to everyone else. Anyone can write an article saying that their posts with a flower in the right corner exploded. This will be read by 150 people responsible for social media. Suddenly, everyone will be posting flowers, and soon it will be called a trend.
Following social media trends means following content on social media and the algorithm. One of the most popular online sources of information is Social Media Today, and it's not a bad idea to follow the Instagram profile Mosseri. He's the head of Instagram and often the first to announce what they're working on. Test what he says as soon as you get the chance. Not everyone gets these opportunities at the same time, but as soon as you get it, jump on it.
7. Content.
Simply put, the content that catches your attention while scrolling through Instagram also catches the attention of your audience. New things and possibilities that platforms offer determine trends. If you put up a story and Instagram offers you some occasion-specific GIF stickers, for example, for Chinese New Year, put it on your story and see what reach you get.
When a platform releases something new, they do it with the goal of expanding it widely. Therefore, people who help in that expansion and who are among the first to use new features will be especially valued.
8. Algorithm.
Research it well, learn everything you can about it, how it works, how it benefits you, and then give up the idea that you can outsmart it. Just let go and take advantage of the fact that someone has developed that algorithm.
9. Which social media platform to use for your brand.
All of them. But! Yes, there is a but. Each platform needs its own content. You can't make one video and post it on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, and so on. Well, you can, but you shouldn't.
If the same thing worked on every platform, there wouldn't be a need for so many of them. Each social media platform offers something different, and each has a different audience. Once again, we go back to the goal and the audience. Once you define that, see which platform best provides what you need. Focus on that platform and create content that works well there.
On other platforms, you can have a profile, let's call it a presentation profile, where people can find the main information about you, your brand, product, and services. This is in case someone is looking for you there. It's good to be found even if you're not active on that platform, so you can direct them to some online or offline location.
That's it for now. There's a lot more to it, but this text is already too long, and the chances that someone has read this far are very low. If you're reading this, please please let us know what you think. It would be an honor to meet someone who's not afraid of a lot of text :)
