How Can I Market Myself On Social Media?

To me, the answer to this question feels pretty obvious. There are so many people and brands out there that do not understand the concept of social media marketing. Even some social media marketers (not naming names for legal reasons) prefer to stay in their lane and not dabble in anything else.

Okay, I’m well aware that I might have to expand a bit more, so I’ll do it subtly. I knew someone who was a registered Facebook trainer, he lived and breathed the archaic creator of social networking. To an extent, marketing on the platform was still successful for small businesses, but the market was changing. Tiktok had finally released their ads manager to companies, and other agencies were beginning to explore that and Instagram advertising.

Would this man consider telling clients to get TikTok? Hell no! To them, it was still an app for five-year-olds to lip-sync to Jessie J or some other Gen Z crap. When this simply was not the case, it was a massive source of E-commerce traffic and was taking steps to increase their already excellent results. At the time, the ads would have been exceptionally low-cost, and despite having over 1 Billion downloads, they seemed more aware of their consumer needs than Facebook.

Although it sounds childish, my thoughts on this guy were utterly destroyed after these comments. How can you work in modern but creative industry (that’s still relatively new), and refuse to continue to grow with it? It’s just stupid.

A bit of a tangent there, but my point still remains. A lot of people don’t know what social media has to offer and I’m not saying I’m the omnipresent guru, but I’m keen to throw my two-cents into the jar on this.

Find Your Platform

Every platform is different and engages your audiences differently, too. Twitter is chatty, Facebook is formal, Instagram is sexy, and TikTok is personal. If you’re someone who wants to be found on every platform out there, then you must figure out how to reach the right people on them all. It’s not a copy and pastes social media strategy here.

Suppose you’re an online personality who relies heavily on social media. In that case, you’ll probably notice that ‘your brand’ goes down a lot better on specific platforms. Which is fine, there’s a place for everybody, but knowing which platforms you thrive in is essential. If you know where you excel, you should be putting the majority of your energy into maintaining it.

Experimentation Is Key

There is no cookie-cutter social media strategy which guarantees success on social media. Of course, there is a list of guidelines that high-profile marketers preach by. But just like Jon Snow, they know nothing about you, your business, or your brand. There is the perfect formula for you, but none of these high-flyers will be able to provide it.

You’ve got to experiment, to try some of their techniques and chuck some of the others. You never know, you may find new techniques yourself.

Don’t Be Afraid To Get Personal

One of the things I love about social media is the fact it breaks the standard rules of marketing. People don’t care about the bells and whistles that come with a product anymore. They care about the people behind the brand. We touched on this topic when I last spoke about cancel culture. But Generation Z has made tidal waves in the sense that they want to make sure a brand is morally correct before they even look at the items on sale.

The same principle goes with marketing a personality. If you’re fake and always happy, then people won’t relate to you, and they definitely will not commit to supporting you.

Don’t be afraid to post when your sad, happy, or nervous. If people have decided to support you, then they’ve signed up to learn more about the people in your company. They want to know how your products are made and even how you’re feeling. Don’t be afraid to share.

Network

A while ago, I did a series on influencers, the people are succeeding at the very thing most of us are aiming for. The overwhelming theme of every post was the need to network. To meet new people online and engage with people you’ve never met in person as if you’re best mates.

When I initially read their entries, I thought they were implying that people should do the old fashioned “follow/unfollow”, but they were severe.

I absolutely love supporting my blogger, pals!

Don’t Go Crazy

Don’t # every other word and don’t post more than once a day. Read what you can to understand the platform, try and understand the algorithm and where possible, forge your own way to success.