Because millions of Americans log into their social media accounts daily — particularly younger generations like millennials and Gen Zers — a social media presence is crucial for brands. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn and more allow companies to interact with prospects and customers, spread the word about products and services and connect authentically and emotionally with followers.
Tips for improving your social media presence
Growing your business’s social media presence is crucial if you want to reach more consumers and make more sales. Here are 16 tips for improving your social media presence.
1. Take stock of your current social media presence.
Before you can improve your social media presence, you must take stock of your engagement and activities on your current platforms. For example, note the following:
- How many followers do you have on each platform?
- How many likes, shares and comments do you receive on your posts?
- How frequently do you interact with followers?
- Which posts perform well and which don’t?
This exercise will give you a road map of what’s working and what isn’t so you can focus your efforts where they’re most needed. You’ll also establish a baseline against which to compare your progress.
2. Decide what you want to accomplish via social media.
Your goals for specific social platforms will likely vary. For example, you may want to improve your follower count on some platforms and focus on increasing engagement on others. You may want to boost shares, encourage comments, tweak your content type and more.
Focus on setting SMART goals for your social media presence — that is, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals. For example, you may want to add 600 Instagram followers within 90 days. Once you reach your goal in one area, shift to another area, platform or account or set a new, more ambitious goal for continuous improvement.
3. Ensure your social media accounts attract the right followers.
You might have many social media followers, but if few of them are potential customers, you’re wasting your time. Assess your social media traffic and followers and determine the percentage of people who purchase something. If it’s a very small percentage, you may be attracting the wrong people to your social media accounts.
Research your customers and learn their interests so that you can tailor content to their needs. You may also want to realign your efforts to focus on the social media platforms your target audience uses more frequently.
According to
GWI's 2024 Social report, on average, social media users in the U.S. spend 2 hours and 16 minutes on social media daily.
4. Set the right tone on your social media platforms.
Social media users generally appreciate friendlier, more casual interactions on social platforms, compared to the stiffer, more professional tone websites and brochures typically employ. Don’t be afraid to strike a conversational tone and use emojis in posts and while interacting with followers’ comments. Prospects want to see your business’s more authentic, human side in a social media setting.
Still, you must be positive and polite, especially when addressing a customer service complaint on social media. Other followers will note your reactions and responses. However, if a social media follower is being abusive or otherwise acting like a troll, firmly and calmly rejecting their negative comments is OK.
5. Plan your social media content.
Juggling multiple social media accounts can be overwhelming. To keep things organized and streamlined, create an editorial calendar where you plan appropriate longer content pieces, such as blog posts, along with social media contests, events and promotions to link to and promote weekly. When you post about the same or similar subjects on different platforms, you can evaluate the kind of content that performs best for each platform.
An editorial calendar can also help ensure you don’t repeat content or ignore subjects your followers care about. To engage your audience on social media, mix up the types of content you post each month, including some text and image posts, some videos, some links and some posts with just images.
Consider the
5:3:2 rule for social media when planning your posts. This rule advises that for every 10 posts, five should be content from other sources, five should be content you create and two should be personal, fun content.
6. Use the right tools to optimize your social media posts.
To improve your social media presence, you must post often and at optimal times. Best practices differ according to the platform. The problem is that business owners are often too busy to log into social accounts constantly and generate content.
Fortunately, social media management tools like Buffer and Hootsuite can help automate your social posting, saving you time while ensuring your continued active presence. These tools let you manage all your social accounts in one place, schedule posts weeks in advance, post at preferred times when the most users will see them and analyze how well your posts are doing.
It is also helpful to take advantage of built-in social media business tools on various platforms. For example, Facebook business tools offer audience insights and advertising channels while X offers tools for advertising and growing your presence.
7. Focus on customer service via social media.
Social media has become a robust customer service platform. Instead of calling a business or waiting hours (sometimes days) for a company to respond to an email, many customers experiencing issues now turn to social media for help.
Focusing on helping people is an excellent way to grow your social media presence. Using social media as a customer service platform will funnel more users to your accounts and make resolving their issues easier. For example, using X (formerly Twitter) as a customer support channel publicly showcases your service efforts, which can affect your company’s public perception positively — especially if you do a good job.
According to McKinsey data, customers spend 20 to 40 percent more with companies that respond to customer service requests on social media — and companies that don’t lose 15 percent more customers per year.
Social customer relationship management (CRM) integration is a helpful
CRM software feature that allows you to communicate with customers via social media and address social media complaints promptly and systematically.
8. Promote your social media accounts.
Don’t expect your customers to know about all your social media platforms and search for them. Instead, you must share your social accounts with prospects and customers. If you make it easy for customers to follow or like your social media profiles, they’ll be more willing to take action.
Promote your social media presence to your customers and ask them to interact with you on your accounts. Here are some examples of how to promote your social media accounts:
- Add social media icons to your website.
- Add your social media feeds to your website sidebar.
- Include social links in your email signatures.
- Tell people to follow you on social media at the end of your blog posts.
- Promote your social media accounts in your email marketing.
You should also cross-promote your social media accounts within and across platforms. Include hashtags and account names in each social media bio section to encourage followers to engage with you on multiple platforms. The more people who are aware of your presence on social media, the bigger it will be.
9. Pay attention to what’s trending in the social media space.
One of the best ways to create a more extensive social media presence for your business is to track social media trends and catch hot trends at the right time. Riding a popular trend can get your profile in front of new users and could even help your posts go viral.
Stay on top of trends by keeping an eye on what’s popular. For instance, on X, you can see the top trending hashtags on the left side of the homepage in the Trends for You section. Look at what hashtags you can use to get more views. While it helps to use hashtags that relate to your business, they don’t have to be strictly relevant. If your accounting company can come up with a fun post for #NationalDonutDay, go for it.
10. Focus on eye-catching visuals for your social media posts.
Getting noticed in crowded social media feeds is a challenge, so you must make your business stand out. Focusing on attention-grabbing visuals is one of the best ways to increase your presence on social media.
Avoid using too many boring stock photos. Instead, focus on images that will connect with users. Share high-quality, behind-the-scenes photos and images of people using your products. Encourage customers to send in photos of them interacting with your product — a strategy that also builds social proof and consumer trust.
Video branding is also an effective social media strategy, as users enjoy engaging with videos. Post videos on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Don’t neglect short-form video platforms like TikTok — especially if your target market is young.
11. Actively engage with your audience on social media.
Would you keep talking to someone who never returned your messages? Probably not. Users won’t want to follow or interact with you on social media if they get nothing in return. Engaging with your audience actively on social media is crucial.
To grow your social media presence, your social media accounts must become a community. Here are some ways to connect with your audience:
- Like and reply to comments on your posts.
- Pose and answer questions in posts.
- Show appreciation to your followers and customers by thanking them and sharing user-generated content.
- Provide social-only discounts with coupons for followers.
- Preview new product launches.
- Hold contests and giveaways to add fun interaction and active engagement.
- Follow back interesting followers, influencers and members of your target audience.
Each social media platform caters to a different audience, so tailor your posts to the platform. For example, keep LinkedIn posts more professional and sales-oriented, share light-hearted GIFs and memes on Snapchat and showcase intriguing photography on Instagram.
Hosting Facebook Live Q&A sessions is an excellent way to engage with your Facebook followers and get your business in front of the eyes of new people in your industry.
12. Post regularly on your social media platforms.
Your post frequency must strike the right balance. You don’t want your followers to forget about you or think you’ve gone out of business because they never hear from you. However, you don’t want to bombard them with posts that seem “spammy” and prompt them to unfollow you.
Different platforms have various post-frequency best practices. Consider the following guidelines for ideal posting timelines:
- Facebook: 1-2 posts per day
- Instagram: 1-2 posts per day
- LinkedIn: 1 post per day
- Pinterest: 15-25 pins per day
- YouTube: 1 video per week
- X: 1-4 posts per day
- TikTok: 1-4 posts per day
13. Supplement organic posts with paid social ads.
When you want to expand your following, including some paid ads on your social media platforms can expand your reach. It’s also a good way to create a stronger presence because paid social ads are more likely to be seen, even by your current followers. Social selling and social shopping are becoming more popular and are supported by multiple social platforms, so this tactic can also help you boost sales.
14. Optimize your social media profiles.
Each platform has a profile for your business that you set up when you first joined. If the person who initially set up your profile was in a hurry and didn’t complete all fields or if things have changed since you created your profile, such as your website URL, branding, location or positioning, you should update and complete all relevant available fields.
Your profile data is seen by people who are considering following your account and is used in the platform’s internal search algorithm. Keeping this information current is a small time investment that can yield significant benefits.
15. Keep your eye on social platform algorithms.
You may have optimized your content for a platform’s current search algorithms, but these are subject to change. Social media platforms typically announce when they make changes, so it’s crucial to watch for notices. Ensure your marketing team is ready to shift to preferred content types. Algorithm shifts typically track with user behavior, so if you are in tune with your users, you may already be ahead of the game.
16. Look outside your industry or niche on social media.
Your audience may be concerned about or interested in a new trend, movement or current event. To connect with them genuinely, consider weighing in on the issue with a link, hashtag or content piece. For example, you can promote Small Business Saturday (the Saturday after Thanksgiving) with the hashtag #SmallBusinessSaturday and links to small businesses in your community. If your audience is particularly interested in climate change, you can support a charitable organization that advocates for environmental conservation.
In many instances, the organizations you promote will, in turn, promote you back by following you, thanking you or contacting you for advertising partnerships or cross-promotions, exposing your company to a new audience. However, be careful that your outside promotions don’t support competitors and that they align with your — and your followers’ — values.
Social media mistakes to avoid
Social media is a complex universe with many details that are important to get right. Avoid these common social media mistakes to present the best social media presence possible: