Guest blog from @wordsmithcomms: Five ways to improve your social media reach for FREE #IndieRetail

Likes… shares… retweets… favourites – there are a whole heap of ways that users can spread your message online. The difficulty is in saying something that makes it worth their while: something engaging, interesting and, most importantly, relevant to them.

Why some companies feel social media doesn’t work.

Here at Wordsmith Copywriting, we are constantly speaking to businesses who don’t understand why their social media “isn’t working”. While the reasons for this “failure” vary, it usually boils down to a very simple issue: they are either sharing too much information about their company, or not enough.

Sounds simple, right? But finding that balance is actually rather difficult.

Take Company A. Despite sharing all of its products online and posting plenty of links and calls to action, Company A wasn’t getting the fan base it wanted – there simply wasn’t enough to pull users in. Company B, on the other hand, shared plenty of content that its followers found interesting, but nothing about its website or products, resulting in a less-than-successful hit rate and less-than-adequate sales.

Five tips to expend your social media reach and get the results you want

Here are five tips to help you expand your social media reach and get the results YOU want, without spending a penny.

1. Share relevant content with your followers

Sharing relevant content should really go without saying but it’s important that you think carefully about what your company posts. You know your customers better than anyone, which means you know what they want to read.

Remember what your keywords are – social media posts often pop up in search engine results, so making sure you’re using the right words are essential to gaining more followers.

Think about what you like to see in your personal newsfeeds. Constant promotion of your products isn’t going to fare well with your followers if you don’t offer them other useful bits of information. If all they see from your company is “sell, sell, sell”, they’ll probably be turned off and heading towards the “Unlike” button.

As well as sharing links to your website or blog, why not further engage your followers with facts and updates, mutual interests and some light-hearted humour?

2. Post regularly

This might seem obvious but you need to keep up a constant presence across social media if you’re going to make any kind of impact on your followers. Use Google Analytics to find out when you get the most hits on your website and aim to post every day around that time.

This doesn’t mean bombarding your followers with a constant attack of posts – again, think about how YOU would react if it were your personal newsfeed.

Start steady to gain your followers – aim for at least one Facebook post and three tweets a day (including weekends!) and gain momentum from there. It may be difficult to find the time to do this but scheduling posts on tools like HootSuite can help to ease the pressure.

3. Engage and interact with your followers and your peers

One of the most exciting features of social media is the ability to connect with like-minded people all over the world, and your business is no exception.

As well as sharing your own relevant content with followers, keep an eye out for other users’ tweets and posts. Some may be appropriate to share with your own followers and may result in mutual benefit.

Ask your followers questions – find out what they like, what they don’t like, the products they enjoy, the things that annoy them. Not only will you receive a greater understanding of your customers, you’ll stick in their minds as a company that really cares about how they feel.

Above all, join the conversation. There are plenty of hashtag conversations on Twitter – find the right one for you and use it to talk to others. You’ll soon find that more people are engaging with you and (hopefully) sharing your content with their followers, extending your reach even further.

4. Make use of your sharing buttons

Is your blog just not getting the views you wanted? Is your website traffic dwindling behind your target? You might find that adding some sharing buttons to your sites might gain you more attention.

Give your users the opportunity to share an article or product they’ve found interesting and your reach should increase automatically. After all, their friends on social media will have the same interests and are more likely to click on that post, and then maybe share it with their friends, and so on.

The more shares you get from engaged users, the more likely it is that your following will multiply with more potential customers.

5. Spread the word with guest blogs

How many of you had heard of Wordsmith Copywriting before we wrote this guest blog for Support for Independent Retail?

Guest blogs are a great way to reach a bigger audience. Not only will you be sharing your knowledge and products to a wider audience, you may just gain the attention of people who didn’t know you existed.

Find a company, association, campaign or blogger with similar ideas and interests and strike a deal with them. The chances are you’ll be addressing a group of users who are genuinely interested in what you have to say, and may follow up by visiting your website or following your social media profiles.

BONUS TIP: Use promotions, discounts and competitions to boost your followers

Across social media, you will find companies of all sizes offering incentives for likes, shares, favourites and retweets. Examples include the chance to win a prize by liking a company page, or receiving a discount code in exchange for sharing a post.

Of course, this method of expanding your reach is going to cost you something – whether you’re actually investing in a valuable prize or dropping the prices of your revenue-earning products (hence why it’s a bonus tip!).

No doubt, this is a fantastic method of gaining new followers and getting your company’s name shouted across the digital world. However, be warned – this sort of post may result in a bunch of new names on your followers list, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll become customers.

Think about what you want from social media: a handful of genuinely interested people who may buy your products, or thousands of followers who are most likely waiting for the chance to grab a freebie?

Get the best out of your social media

If you are still having trouble connecting with the right people on social media, or if you’re struggling to find the right words to engage your followers, Wordsmith Copywriting can help you.

We can assist you in identifying the keywords to capture your users and weaving them into your social media posts. We can help you to find the right people to follow and, in turn, gain the right type of followers. We can discover when and where your posts will be relevant and make sure your profiles are up to date and engaging.

If needed, we can even take over your social media accounts and manage them for you!

For more information on our content marketing solutions, call +44 (0) 1529 298729 or email hello@wordsmithcopywriting.co.uk.