The Power of Social Media: Your Key to Boosting Brand Awareness

With more than half of the world’s population on social media, it makes good business sense to use social media to increase your organization’s exposure. In fact, almost 90 percent of B2B marketers use social media platforms to distribute content.  

However, a strong social media marketing strategy is not just about posting regular content. Rather, it’s about developing unique content that is tailored to each and every platform. 

What Is Brand Awareness?

Brand awareness refers to the level of familiarity and recognition a brand enjoys among its target audience. It reflects how well consumers can identify and recall a brand, its logo, products, or services. High brand awareness means that a brand is easily recognizable and comes to mind when consumers think about a particular product or service category.

Why Use Social Media Platforms to Build Brand Awareness?

• Massive Audience: Host billions of active users worldwide, providing access to a vast audience transcending geographical boundaries. This allows brands to reach a diverse demographic range, expanding their visibility.
• Targeted Advertising: Offers sophisticated targeting options for brands to tailor their messages to specific demographics, interests, behaviors, and preferences. It ensures that brand content reaches the most relevant audience segments, maximizing its impact.
• Engagement and Interaction: Fosters direct interaction between brands and their audience through likes, comments, shares, and messages. This engagement humanizes the brand, builds relationships, and fosters loyalty.
• Content Distribution: Facilitates the rapid distribution of content, enabling brands to share updates, promotions, and valuable content in real-time. It keeps the brand top-of-mind among consumers and establishes it as a thought leader within its industry.
• Word of Mouth and Virality: Amplifies word-of-mouth marketing, as users share brand content with their networks, potentially reaching millions of users organically. Viral campaigns can significantly boost brand visibility and awareness within a short period.

15 Ways to Attract Your Audience via Social Media

Method #1: Become Familiar with Your Audience

Don’t make the mistake of assuming that you understand how your audience engages with social media. Instead, define your audience by targeting the individuals who want and need your product or services. If possible, search social media sites for relevant hashtags, research your competitors’ channels, and follow thought leaders to grasp the trending topics in your niche market. 

Method #2: Grab Your Audience’s Attention 

It is important to consistently develop valuable and needed content because content that provides value beats content with high production quality. While some organizations focus on producing content highlighting what they sell, it’s better to concentrate on educating your audience, addressing their needs and wants, and offering human and useful information. Educational content like ebooks, whitepapers, and blogs showcase an organization’s expertise. 

In addition, consider using social media to interact with followers and engage with your audience via comments, messages, and direct feedback. 

Method #3: Keep Tabs on Your Social Media Performance

Tracking your social media performance will provide you with valuable insights and data. Doing so lets you understand exactly what works and what does not so you can change your approach as needed.

Many social media platforms offer engagement stats while marketing customer relationship management (CRM) platforms (such as HubSpot) allow users to view social media analytics.       

Method #4: Work with Influencers 

Did you know that more than 60% of consumers have been swayed at some point by digital influencers? As a result, it makes good business sense to collaborate with influencers to enhance your social media following. 

Be sure to work with influencers relevant to your particular industry or niche to tap into the specific audience you are trying to attract. Believe it or not, influencers can be very helpful in driving traffic to your social media account.

Method #5: Understand the Social Media Rules 

Take time to understand the rules of each social media platform. Become familiar with the character counts of each platform, as well as the best image sizes and ideal ways to post content. That way, you can optimize your content for maximum visibility and engagement. 

For instance, Facebook suggests 40-80 characters, with a maximum of 5,000 characters. Instagram advises 125-150 characters, with a cap of 3,000 characters. Twitter recommends 70-100 characters, allowing up to 280 characters. Similarly, LinkedIn suggests 100-140 characters, with a maximum limit of 3,000 characters.

As an additional reminder, ensure you are familiar with all the recommendations to get the most out of your social media posts.

Method #6: Grasp the Disadvantages of a One-Size-Fits-All-Approach

Not only is every social media platform different, but users interact differently. As a result, thoroughly research each platform and understand how the users and platform structures differ. For example, LinkedIn is better suited to long posts, while Instagram is better for short captions and visuals. 

In addition to developing an effective social media strategy, it is also beneficial to grasp the advantages of using social media:

• Affordability and Flexibility: Social media is extremely cost-effective, so it should be one of your main strategies for building brand awareness. Traditional methods are more expensive and produce a lower ROI, making social media the smart choice for most organizations.     
• A Window Into Other Organizations: Researching current trends and topics on social media provides you with strong content ideas. Every organization runs out of ideas at one point, but social media platforms can be an excellent content source and help organizations keep tabs on what others are doing in the same space. 
• Lead Generation: Over half of today’s businesses use social media to win customers. Why is that the case? Because it works! Social media allows organizations to connect with new audiences and gain valuable intel on what prospective customers seek from brands. 

Method #7: Tailor Content for Each Platform

What works well on Facebook may not resonate on Twitter or LinkedIn. For instance, while Facebook prioritizes longer-form content and videos, Twitter thrives on concise, punchy messages. By tailoring your content to suit the preferences and behaviors of each platform’s audience, you can maximize engagement and effectively communicate your message.

Method #8: Utilize Visual Content

Visual content, such as images, videos, and infographics, is highly engaging and easily shareable on social media. Incorporating compelling visuals into your posts can capture your audience’s attention and convey information more effectively than text alone. 

Whether showcasing your products in action, sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses of your business, or creating visually appealing graphics to convey data, leveraging visual content can enhance your social media presence and attract more followers.

Method #9: Consistency Is Key

In case you don’t know, consistency is instrumental in maintaining a strong social media presence. This includes regularly posting content, which helps keep your audience engaged and reinforces your brand’s identity. Develop a content schedule and stick to it, ensuring steady updates across your social media channels.

Method #10: Share User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) refers to any content created by your customers, followers, or fans that showcases their experiences with your brand. Sharing UGC provides authentic endorsements and encourages community engagement and brand advocacy. By reposting customer photos, testimonials, or reviews, you demonstrate appreciation for your audience while being able to showcase your products or services. 

UGC also humanizes your brand and fosters a sense of belonging among your followers, inspiring them to create and share their content. Encourage UGC by creating branded hashtags, running contests, or featuring customer stories on your social media channels.

Method #11: Leverage Hashtags Strategically

It’s no secret that hashtags are powerful tools for increasing your content’s discoverability on social media. Research relevant hashtags in your industry and incorporate them strategically into your posts to expand your reach and connect with users interested in similar topics. 

Consider creating branded hashtags specific to your brand or campaigns to encourage engagement and user participation. However, be mindful not to overuse hashtags, as this can come across as spammy and detract from the quality of your posts.

Method #12: Engage in Social Listening

Social listening involves monitoring social media channels for mentions of your brand, products, competitors, industry keywords, and relevant topics. By actively listening to conversations on social media, you can gain valuable insights into your audience’s preferences, sentiment towards your brand, emerging trends, and areas for improvement. 

Use social listening tools to track mentions, sentiment, and trending topics for tailoring content, addressing customer concerns, and engaging with your audience meaningfully.

Method #13: Offer Exclusive Promotions and Discounts

Reward your social media followers with exclusive promotions, discounts, and special offers to incentivize engagement and drive conversions. Share promo codes, limited-time offers, and sneak peeks of upcoming sales or product launches to create a sense of urgency and encourage followers to take action. 

Consider hosting social media-exclusive contests or giveaways to generate excitement and attract new followers if possible. You can foster loyalty and increase customer retention by providing value to your audience through exclusive promotions.

Method #14: Showcase Your Company Culture

Humanizing your brand by showcasing your company culture and values on social media can help build connections with your audience and differentiate your brand from competitors. Share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your team, highlight employee achievements and milestones, and showcase your company’s involvement in community events or philanthropic initiatives. 

Method #15: Analyze and Iterate Your Strategy

Continuous evaluation and optimization are key to maintaining a successful social media presence. Analyze key performance metrics, such as engagement rates, reach, and conversion rates, to assess the effectiveness of your social media strategy. 

Identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement and use these insights to inform future decision-making and strategy refinement. Experiment with different content formats, posting schedules, and audience targeting techniques to know what resonates best with your audience. 

Final Thoughts

Although social media is a cost-effective and smart way to grow your brand awareness, it will not happen overnight. But with some tenacity, patience, and trial and error, your organization will ultimately find success when it comes to building brand awareness on social media.  

At NCH, we have a team of business specialists who can help you position your business for growth and success so you can focus on developing your brand. 

Whenever you’re ready, call us at 1-800-508-1729 to schedule your FREE consultation!

DISCLAIMER: The above material has been prepared for informational purposes only, containing opinions of the provider and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Please consider consulting tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.