Social networks are one of the most powerful branding and marketing strategy tools. But for every effort and every action taken on social media to be effective, brands must constantly seek new ways to stand out in an already crowded landscape. Sometimes just listening to your audience or looking at what is happening with other brands in other industries can help you find the right ideas and strategies that will help you stand out.
10 proven strategies to stand out on social networks
1. Show your expertise with educational content
Most consumers do not want to be sold a product or service but prefer to be educated on the same product to make a more thoughtful purchasing decision without feeling like they have been duped.
Actually, most Internet users prefer to discover a product through content rather than traditional advertising. All brands have the expertise for which they can be recognized by their consumers as well as by their competitors.
By sharing your expertise, you will more easily gain the trust of your subscribers, who will no longer see you simply as a brand that promotes its products, but as an altruistic brand that is committed to educating them and sharing its knowledge.
In fact, consumers who watch videos are 1.81 times more likely to buy a product compared to those who don’t. With this in mind, you can enhance your expertise by creating informative explainer videos or tutorials that will inspire your subscribers and precisely meet their expectations.
2. Tell your story
Your brand’s story is what makes it unique because no other brand has the same thing to tell. You can talk about your values and what you are proud of, what you stand for and what you believe in. Talk about what inspires you to do what you do. Talk about the people who make your brand what it is. In short, enhance your brand heritage. It will help your audience identify with your brand by making it more human.
You can bring your brand to life on social media by giving an inside perspective and showing what you’re working on right now. You will give it more soul by showing that your brand is more than just a business and based on real people.
3. Show your personality
Brands that speak like automatons have little chance of really engaging their audience on social networks. To show off your brand’s personality, start by using social media to talk to your fans instead of talking to your fans.
If you respond to every comment or every solicitation with the same copy-paste message, your subscribers will see you as a simple automaton. To avoid this, show your human side and take care to develop a brand personality. Make your brand speak like a real person speaking.
4. Make your audience laugh
When a brand makes us laugh, we can easily create a connection like we would with a friend. Using humor on social media makes your brand more human by talking about topics that your audience can easily relate to. In addition to creating positive feelings in your community, humor has strong viral potential.
5. Be consistent and consistent
For your fans and targets to recognize your brand regardless of which social network you post to or what type of content you create, it’s essential to maintain visual consistency and consistency in tone.
To be identifiable, you can define graphic guidelines applicable to each post. You can also define your brand’s voice and the language and tone it uses on social media. Start by taking stock of your social media presence. Do all your branding elements form a unified and coherent brand image?
Set a posting schedule for your social networks and stick to it to keep a steady pace. Create appointments with your fans by posting your contests on the first Thursday of each month.
6. Share videos on social networks
In recent years, video content has been increasingly present on social networks. Video changes how brands express themselves and how Internet users discover a brand and its products. Video is popular content with Internet users that easily captures attention and arouses emotions, sometimes more quickly than other formats.
Video is also the most engaging content. Indeed, according to a study by Small Business Trends, video generates 13 times more shares than text and images collected on social networks. With video, you can show a new product or service on Facebook or Instagram. You can go behind the scenes and show all of your business.
Keep in mind that your videos should be tailored to each social network. Each platform has its own formats, uses and codes. On YouTube, for example, most videos are watched with sound, which is not the case with Facebook, where 85% of videos are watched without sound.
7. Make your fans brand ambassadors
To stand out on social networks, you can promote your subscribers by giving them the floor. You can ask your fans to share their stories or experiences of using your products.
To do this, create hashtags and encourage your fans to use them in their posts. Help them feel close to your brand and show them that they are part of a community, that of your brand. By leveraging the content generated by your subscribers, you can develop more meaningful relationships with them. You show that you trust them.
8. Ask your subscribers for their opinion
Your followers want to feel valued. Do ask them questions and challenge them. Their opinion can give you essential information about the perception of your brand and your products.
Be proactive on social media and don’t stop at just looking for engagement with your fans. Make them feel valued and respected by asking for their opinion or advice. By polling on topics specific to your industry, you can quickly generate conversations between you and your followers and even directly between your followers.
9. Focus on the right platforms
With the proliferation of social networks, it is easy to want to ensure a presence on every one. But you don’t have to. Besides, you shouldn’t force yourself to do it.
Determine which social networks your target audiences use and ensure a presence there only if you have a real strategy. Being on a platform just to be there will get you nowhere and may even harm you.
10. Partner with influencers
Working with influencers can be a great way to promote your products or services. Influencers are not just a promotional tool but are also a way of convincing people of the value of your products. In fact, according to a study conducted by Twitter, nearly 40% of users have made a purchase following a tweet from an influencer.
Suppose the influencers you target have an engaged and qualified audience. In that case, no matter how small, you will have a good chance of setting yourself apart from your competitors on social media, who will sometimes be content to promote their brand only on their own social media.
To conclude
If you follow at least one of these strategies, you will be well on your way to greatly improving your social media strategy. The main thing in a social media strategy is not to completely break with your brand’s personality and its values. Your brand must respect its tone and identity to be recognized by its community. In a word, create happy moments and a pleasant experience for your subscribers, do not make more noise on social networks than there already is.
