Capture Clients and Customers Through Social Media
11/02/2020
By Shelby Rowe Moyer
Almost 80% of people in the U.S. are on some sort of social media platform.
In a time when we’re all hungry for some human connection, this is a great time to use your social media to engage with current or future customers. Social media has the power and ability to draw people into your work, if you’re intentional with your approach.
Here are some tips to help you take full advantage of the platforms we use every day.
Know Your Audience
Who are you trying to reach? Understanding the demographic breakdowns on the different social media platforms will help your company reach the audience you want.
For example, on Instagram, roughly 56% of users are between the ages of 18 and 34 and overall, the majority of users are women, according to Statistica. Facebook, on the other hand, is more widely used by men and women between the ages of 25 and 44. Twitter seems to be the great unifier. The majority of its users are anywhere from 18 to 49, with many more up to the age of 64.
People also respond differently to different content on each platform. As you might expect, Instagram is highly visual. Facebook is a good place for logistical information. Twitter and LinkedIn are good platforms for thought-provoking and inspirational material. Needless to say, when you’re creating social media posts, it’s not a one-size-fits all. To get people’s attention on each platform, you’ll need to create each post differently, even if it’s conveying the same information.
Create Evergreen Content
We’re betting you have a treasure trove of past event photos. Collect them into categories — like venues, desserts, décor, tablescapes, speakers, etc. — and repackage them into individual blogs or social media posts with your take on each subject. This is a great way to showcase the work you’ve done in a way that feels fresh and inspiring to your audience.
A blog post will get strong traction on Facebook and Twitter, while a photo collage will garner lots of eyes on Instagram. If you’ve yet to utilize Instagram or Facebook stories, a themed slideshow is a great way to begin. On Instagram, you can even archive that slideshow on your profile, so viewers can watch it even after its live function expires.
When creating a slideshow, keep in mind that you’re telling a story. So, you need to have an introduction and a conclusion. If you dive right in with no explanation, your viewers might feel lost.
Engage & Inspire
Content creation is important; you want to get your work in front of an audience regularly, but equally as important is how you engage with people on social platforms. Write captions that draw your audience in and make them feel included in the conversation. Ask them for their opinion, and if they give it, respond! And respond in a way that furthers the conversation.
Users are more likely to converse back and forth on Facebook and Twitter, while Instagram users are more likely to have brief interactions. If you’re trying to build a following, “like” and comment on other people’s posts. These platforms are communities, and people are more likely to engage with you if they feel like a real person is behind the profile.
Tools of the Trade
Creating beautiful and professional looking posts is important, but you don’t necessarily need a design background to do this. Several apps have honed this process so it’s quick and easy.
Unfold is popular for creating Instagram and Facebook Stories. The free version comes with several template pages you can mix and match with numerous fonts, colors and photos. This is probably the easiest way to create multiple slideshows, and it even has an Unfold Brands version that lets you build slideshow campaigns on your computer (a huge plus since most only operate on mobile phones) and incorporate custom fonts and colors
SCRL also allows you to create beautiful content with collage templates that elevate the look and feel of your posts. It has several free template packages with the option to buy more for a few bucks each.
StoryArt takes Instagram Story templates up a notch with animated templates that add movement to your posts. The templates make it look as though you spent hours instead of minutes creating them.
Typorama is popular because it has a lot of stylized typeface options. Plus, you can format the size of the post specifically for each platform, whether that be Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and even YouTube. It has numerous stock photos options as well, in case you don’t have your own photography.
