Brand mentions on social media can drive significant results for your business. With the ever spreading influence of the internet, most consumers follow brands through social media. Imagine your brand getting mentioned by tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people. People go to social media to talk about things that they find exciting, sad, or useful. You can have them talk about your brand if you know how to make that happen.
Here are five ways to explode your brand mentions on social media:
1. ‘Create a buzz’ during an industry event
Industry events are already popular, drawing large, attentive audiences. You can do something remarkable in the context of an event to expose your brand to a lot of relevant prospects. Think of the industry event like a cube of sugar thrown onto the ground. Within minutes, the cube is covered with ants. It’s the same with industry events.
Once you’ve seen the quality of the engagement an industry event has and it meets your needs for exposure, you can go ahead and create something exceptional using the event’s hashtag. It’s a powerful way to drive brand mentions.
2. Use few influencers
Another strategy to drive social media mentions is using influencers. This column has covered this very well, but how do you ensure you’re doing it the right way? The key is to avoid using all types of influencers.
Do you know that for every 1,000 Naira spent on influencer marketing, you get 6,500 Naira. That’s quite a huge profit.
But, you don’t need all the possible influencers out there. While this may sound counter-intuitive, it can help increase your ROI and cut unnecessary costs. Maybe you’ve seen stories and case studies of how influencers have helped your competitors (or any brand at all) grow, and then you feel you should get your hands on all the influencers you can think of. The more the influencers, the more your reach, right? Well, not exactly.
You want to be sure you’re spending your advertising budget on influencers who actually have your target customers as followers. In a bid to use all the influencers you can get your hands on, you may end up using some who don’t have your target audience as followers.
Instead of spreading yourself thin in that way, cut back and work with just the influencers who can expose your brand to an audience hungry for your content or product. You will increase your ROI when you focus only on influencers who are followed by your target customer.
A baby-clothing brand, for instance, is better off using baby or mommy influencers, not a popular Nollywood star or a musician.
3. Identify where target customers post from
There are now more social networks out there than ever before — obviously. Therefore, it’s vital that you know which platforms your target customers use the most. You can, of course, be “everywhere” if you want, but you would be better off focusing your advertising efforts on relevant social platforms that will drive more brand mentions and ROI than others.
So how do you find out where your target customers hang out the most? Again, you need a social monitoring tool to find this out.
4. Discover your target customers’ active days
Social media never sleeps, right? True.
Always remember that while some people sleep, many others are wide awake posting on, or going through, different social media platforms.
A Forbes article says:
[There is] a growing realization among businesses that social media is the single most effective way to reach audiences, with teens with teens (i.e. tomorrow’s consumers) now spending up to nine hours a day on social platforms.
However, while social media platforms are always active, there are days your audience is more active than most other days. If your target customers appear to be hyperactive (in a good way) on certain days, it could mean those are the days they’re not bombarded with their jobs, family, or school (if they’re students). You want to take advantage of these days and engage them.
5. Exploit User Generated Content (UGC)
If you’re not familiar with the term, UGC is: content (reviews) on social media generated by customers about your product.
According to research, 90% of consumers say user-generated content (UGC) on the Internet influences their decisions to make a purchase. People trust other people recommending products to them more than advertising that comes directly from the brand.
And rightly so. Whose recommendation are you more likely to trust — the brand’s or the consumer’s? Chances are high you’ll go for the latter.
However, to make the most of UGC, you should consider sharing them on your timeline. That is, after customers post something about your brand, don’t just be happy you’re spoken well of, retweet or repost the UGC. This will improve your reach and will likely get you more brand mentions.
Last Line
Brand mentions can drive huge results for your business. Afterall, more mentions naturally mean more popularity. And more popularity leads to better brand awareness and ultimately sales. Use the strategies above and you can drive social interactions about your brand or product like never before.
And, here is wishing every reader of this column a very happy Christmas and a better New Year.
