8 Tactics to Help You Stand Out on Social Media
There is a war for attention right now on social media. The only way to stand out on social media is to rise above all the noise. People need to hear your unique voice amongst the roar of everyone else.
Naturally, you’ll wonder how to cut through the noise, how to get heard in the social media ecosystem that more and more people are delving into each day with their own messaging.
How noisy is it, exactly? Here’s what happens every minute:
1440 blog posts are published
3.3 million Facebook posts
Facebook users share 2,460,000 of content
Twitter users tweet 448,800 times
Instagram users post 65,972 new photos
Yelp users post 26,380 reviews
Pinterest users pin 3,472 images
Youtube users upload 500 hours of video
3.8 million Google searches
149,513 Emails sent
These numbers are likely to make your head spin and, by the time you’re done reading this list, another minute will have passed, making it even harder to comprehend. This process repeats 1,440 times per day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. This is the unrelenting power of content on social media.
When faced with this staggering amount of content, how can you cut through the noise? That’s the question that every social media marketer strives to answer.
Information is good…except when there’s too much.
In any human, natural, or economic system, when there is an overabundance of some commodity, and a limited capacity to consume that good, something has to change. What worked in content marketing a few years ago — when content was a novelty — will not work in this era of overwhelming information density. (Content Shock)
High engagement is not sustainable on a large scale. The same “Content Shock” principle applies with every attention-based platform — when the amount of content goes up, so does the competition for attention. If the amount of content skyrockets, and our attention span is finite, something has to give.
The only solution then is to build a community of raving fans around your brand, deliver helpful, original, high quality content and focus on lead generation with those that are most likely to buy from you.
1. Tell your story
Stories are how we connect with other people. Emotional connections leave a lasting impression and customers align themselves with the stories that resonate most.
Tell the story of how you started.
Incorporate the story of your company in your content strategy.
Tell stories of outstanding customer experiences in your blog posts and social media.
Brands, including personal brands, who begin with this in mind, will stand out on social media.
2. Create a content strategy
A businessperson trying to adapt to social media is often at a loss for what to post.
The components of a solid content strategy are:
Pinpoint who you are as a brand (your core values)
Determine your value proposition (the unique value you bring your customers)
Identify and describe your target customers (in detail)
Set objectives and goals for your content (awareness, engagement, conversions)
Dive deeper into these objectives and identify the content that works best to achieve them.
If you’re lost when it comes to content strategy, I’m here to help. Get in touch with me >>here<<.
3. Know your audience better than they know themselves
The more clearly you define your target customers’ attributes, the more effective your marketing will be. This has never been truer than on social media today.
Social media and blog content that informs and educates customers earns engagement. When you answer questions that your customers didn’t know they needed to ask, you earn their loyalty.
The Facebook ads platform offers stellar audience targeting but you have to know exactly who you want to reach to realize the best results.
ProTip: Test different types of content to see what resonates. Test different ad images and copy. You’ll expend fewer resources in the long run and learn a lot more about your target customers.
4. Engage Employees as Advocates
Collaboration with and contributions from employees can be very successful. It’s been proven that employee engagement boosts the quality of your content.
Tapping into the tactic of Employee Advocacy has 3 dimensions:
Social Media Amplification: Employee engagement in specific marketing campaigns, events or promotions supports your goals.
Social Proof: Employees are considered “people like me.” When employees advocate for their employer, it brings another layer of comfort for buyers.
Social Recruiting: The top talent finds its way to you through your employees.
ProTip: Include employees in content creation. One of the challenges to stand out on social media is coming up with enough relevant content that customers need and/or want to engage with. Taking a collaborative approach to this challenge often produces outstanding results when you’ve got your best “brand experts” at your fingertips.
Employees possess the knowledge and information your customers need and their seasoned expertise fosters more trust than any ad you’ll ever run.
5. Create an online review funnel for customer feedback
Online review sites like Google and Yelp are considered part of social media. Your customers share their opinions so that others can make the best choices.
By creating an online review “funnel” you’ll systematically drive customers to one conversion funnel that routes them to the review sites you care about.
By leveraging tools to increase review volume and quality, you’ll guide happy customers through the process of completing a review.
You’ll also recover unhappy customers before they vent online. This process gives you a second chance by guiding unhappy customers to a mobile-responsive recovery page. You can fix their problem and sometimes even turn a bad situation into a profitable one.
6. Stop trying to be the most popular
“Vanity metrics” do not matter.
Prior to 2013 or so, the social media game was to collect likes and followers — vanity metrics. The more you had, the better chance your content would be seen by an audience predisposed to respond. But with social ad targeting capabilities available in these platforms today, you can now serve the content to the right audience, not just a broad, “best guess” group that might include them.
7. Go for Quality Over Quantity
In this world of cheap knockoffs, hidden agendas and muddled transparency, the reality is that not all social media connections are created equal. We’re searching for integrity within our network that leads to more meaningful interactions.
Regardless of what commands our attention, value is the driver in everything we do. Now that social media has matured, users and companies are discovering that a larger number of social network connections may be less valuable than a smaller, more intimate circle.
If you’re looking for a way to stand out on social media, focus on quality over quantity.
8. Practice Empathy and Gratitude
There are two things I rely on that keep me sane and focused: empathy and gratitude. I believe that possessing both of these attributes will not only make you a better marketer but a better human being.
Empathy is about having the ability to relate to and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives. Practice ways you can use empathy to stand out on social media.
When I hit a low spot, gratitude is what brings me back up. I make a nightly list of 5 things I was grateful for that day – no matter how small. I write them down right before I go to sleep so that my subconscious mind recognizes the gratitude mindset and drives my behavior the next day.