With over half the world’s population on social media, it is no longer an option for companies to have an online presence – it is an absolute necessity. Businesses – both big and small utilize – social media to grow their online presence, gain followers as well as connect with their audiences.

However, the sheer number of platforms available and their different uses can make building your online brand feel like a daunting task. However even if you are just getting started or are a pro at this, there is always room for improvement. So here are a couple of simple tips to up your social media game and market your brand successfully.

Define Your Goals

You have to know the five whys behind your actions. Your goal will be the guiding force of your social media marketing strategy.

So without delaying anymore, grab a piece of paper, and pen down your goals!

But before we jump ahead, here are a couple of things that you must keep in mind while setting goals:

• Be specific
• Set attainable goals
• Make sure that your goals are measurable

Track Meaningful Metrics

Vanity metrics such as the number of followers and likes are quite easy to track, however, it’s difficult to prove their real value. Rather, concentrate on things such as engagement, click-through as well as conversion rates.

You may want to track various goals for different social media networks or even different usages for each network.

For instance, if you utilize LinkedIn in order to push traffic to your website, you would evaluate click-throughs. If Instagram is for brand awareness, you may want to track the amount of Instagram Story views. Alternatively, if you advertise on Facebook, cost-per-click (CPC) is a very common success metric.

Social media goals should be aligning with your overall marketing objectives. This makes it far easier to show the value of your work and secure buy-in from your boss.

Be Consistent

How consistently you post should be very specific to each social media site you’re utilizing. Some platforms – such as Twitter and Instagram Stories – require you to be active many times per day to get the maximum potential from your audience. Other post types, such as normal Instagram Posts and Facebook posts, don’t have as much urgency so can be utilized less sparingly. When deciding on your post strategy, look at factors such as how the algorithm works for each platform and if content posts chronologically or is curated based upon other factors.

This ties back in with your social media marketing plan. You should outline:

How often do you plan to publish on each social media platform based on best practices for that platform

• What type of content do you plan to post on each platform
• Who is your target audience on each platform
• A publishing calendar week view

Remember, your followers are likely following hundreds or even thousands of other people, from brands to businesses to influencers and those that offer the action online casino South Africa players love. If you’re not publishing new content as often as the other accounts out there, it’s easy to get lost and forgotten.