With so many people and businesses now active on social media, it can be a little overwhelming trying to come up with ways to cut through all the noise. But then again, sometimes the answers are right in front of our faces – and no you don’t necessarily need a viral hit to stand out.
In this post, I’ll go over seven simple ways to make your business stand out on social media which you might have overlooked.
1. Use Your Brand Voice
One of the quickest and easiest ways to help your business stand out on social media is to be yourself (or brandself? lol).
Simple, right? Although nailing your brand voice can be quite the process, it will help you stand out from the competition, and subsequently attract the right followers to your social channels.
2. Theme Your Accounts
Theming your accounts is a great way to boost your presence – especially on Instagram. Theming essentially means sticking to a distinct color palette or approach, using the same filters and the like to create a distinct look and feel.
Themed accounts are visually pleasing, set the mood for your followers, and reflect your brand’s experience or current mood.
Themes can also change and fluctuate – which is completely fine.
3. Use Strong Visuals
A good, simple way to help your business stand out on social media is to utilize strong visuals.
Keep images and video as clear and high quality as you possibly can. Being able to carry your branding and reflect the feel of your brand through imaging can be key to attracting and retaining followers.
Remember to get creative and explore ways to use visuals in unexpected ways – for example trying puzzle feeds, and grid images on Instagram.
4. Tell A Story/Write Compelling Captions
Let’s combine the elements we just went over – strong visuals, a theme and your brand voice, and use all of these to tell your brand story. And the way you tell your brand story is to add more context to your visuals with captions.
Try to make your captions compelling, while adding value to your audience. Remember that the point is to connect with your audience – so try creating conversations instead of just speaking AT them.
5. Use Network Tools/Mix Up Content
Another way to help your business stand out on social media is to use network tools to add a little extra oomph to your presence.
Be sure to use different posting techniques and content types – in other words, get used to mixing up videos, images, and don’t forget to throw plain text posts into your content schedule.
Dive into how each network operates and explore features like Twitter polls, Twitter lists, multiple image posts, Live videos, Instagram Stories and Live Stories and whatever other tools might be at your disposal for a specific social media network.
Learning about these tools can help you come up with some creative ways to put them to use – take a look at this simple list post I created when Twitter expanded it’s character limit to 280 characters:
6. Create Recurring Posts/Events
One surefire way to help your brand or business stand out on social is to create a recurring post or event.
Perhaps host a weekly Q & A livestream on the social media network of your choosing, or share a weekly tip, or create a “best of the week” slideshow.
The key is to create something that keeps fans coming back, week after week.
This method can be one of the best ways to get creative, connect with your audience, add value, and even show a little personality.
7. Have A Strategy In Place
And the last, and most important, way to help your business stand out on social media is to have a strategy in place.
Why?
Well having a strategy will give you direction for content, and free up time to get creative. A strategy will ensure your team (if you have one) is on the same page and that nothing is falling through the cracks. You’ll be fully prepared for what’s coming up, and you’ll have the time to flesh out creative and effective ways to get the word out and create wonderful content to support your initiatives.
Hopefully this post sparks some creative ideas you can implement with your brand or business. At the end of the day social media is not a sprint, its a marathon, and showing up and being consistent is key to success.
With the tips I’ve just shared, you can extend the brand experience your customers already love and reflect it onto your social media channels.
A version of this post was first published on Dhariana Lozano’s blog.