Why is social media so valuable?

Social media has the power to turn a pass time hobby into a full-time job. On its own, organic social media (or anything that happens on social media without paid promotion) can garner a huge following relatively quickly. Just ask Christina Pardy, the founder of Sh*t That I Knit. What started as a blog sharing her knitting projects has become her career. Her instagram now has 45k followers and is often promoted by the celebrity journalist Caty Couric. As you can see, social media can enable us to connect with others that find your content interesting. This may be the most important aspect of social media, as it builds a virtual community (something that is especially needed in these times!).

More than just building a community, though, social media is important in order to establish your brand’s voice and get to know your target market better (social listening!). As an established brand with a strong following, you will be building yourself credibility in your industry.

How to create a social media strategy

Unfortunately, every social media channel has an algorithm that controls what type of content people see in their social media feed. This can make it especially difficult for new users to establish their online place and gain a following, although it is definitely not impossible!

Every social media platform has tools that you can use in order to increase the chances of your content being seen by a wider audience. While sponsoring your content will definitely increase its views, I’m going to teach you how to cheat the system and save your coins.

1. Go to town with your hashtags!

What I mean by this is that you should use a LOT of hashtags, but be careful to stay in your lane. Hashtags help to group content into categories and make your content easier to discover. Your hashtags should pertain to what your post is about, or it may come off as spammy. Think of some keywords that relate to your content and search for popular hashtags with those words.

2. Don’t be shy, mention other accounts!

Tagging other accounts that are related to your account can help increase the exposure to your page. I would also advise you to use this tool to engage with other people’s content. For example, if @Shutthekaleup posted a new smoothie recipe, I could make it myself and cite her in my post to share that I made her recipe. This increases the chance that she will share my content with her audience, but also, it’s just a good practice to show your support for other creators!

3. Work hard, be humble, and create stellar content.

Like weight loss, there is no quick fix to become social media famous overnight… unless you are a comedic genius like @adamrayokay on TikTok (me or her?). Take the time to consider what you want to share. Write it down. By having a backup list of content ideas, you can bring yourself out in times of a roadblock. It may take some extra time to create content that succeeds, but the more you do it, the more you will be able to see what types of content are working for you.

4. Post consistently so we know you’re still there!

If you stay engaged with your audience, there is. a greater chance that they will stay engaged with you. It can be difficult and overwhelming to post every day, but luckily there are content management tools like Hootsuite that can schedule your posts on almost every social media platform. Got a busy week ahead? Spend a few hours scheduling your posts for the week and boom! You’re set up for success. Hootsuite even offers tools to monitor your posts and analyze your social analytics from your social media accounts, all in one easy hub.