How to Grow Your Brand on Social Media in 2021

My favorite controversial social media hot take is that creating content to share is the easy part. Once you share your post, the hard work really begins.

Most content marketers and social media managers spend all of their time and energy creating elevated content and planning their feeds. This is, obviously, important to succeeding on social media. Content that does not resonate with your audience will not perform well. However, after you click “post” is when the ACTUAL hard work begins. Growth is the name of the game, and authentic engagement is the way to make it happen.

Create a Brand Persona

The first way to grow your brand, and a major marketing trend within the social media space in 2021, is humanizing your brand. This means “being transparent, authentic, and even vulnerable is smart marketing in 2021” (Jenkins, 2020). Curating a brand personality that feels familiar, relatable and personable will help consumers and audience members feel at ease when interacting. Nobody wants to engage with a corporate robot, so creating a sense of camaraderie encourages authentic engagement which leads to growth. Here are some ways to do this:

The first step is to remember that your “persona is a combination of qualities and characteristics that give your brand a distinct personality” (Add This Academy, 2020).  This means establishing a tone, cadence and humor that feels like a real person rather than a stuffy corporate account. The best way to do this is to imagine that you are sitting next to your brand and posting together. Who are they? What did they eat for breakfast today? Which memes are they Doing their friends? What makes them laugh? If you can answer these questions, you are on the right track.

Build Community

Now that you have an authentic brand persona that reflects the values, humor and nuances of your brand, it’s time to build your engagement strategy to grow your account. Instagram tends to reward accounts that are building communities, not just spamming feeds with photos. While increasing followers is important, ultimately that is now how you build community. That is because i”t’s not just about looking popular: it’s about making meaningful connections with current and future customers, which will serve to boost your brand (and ROI) both on and offline” (McLahlan, 2020). If you are posting once a day, you should be engaging 10 times that amount with 10 accounts each day. It’s pretty simple, you just find 10 accounts that are within your niche or industry and leave meaningful comments. You can start by locating ten hashtags that represent your brand’s industry or aspirational industry, and pick 10 accounts that also use those hashtags and engage. The secret here is thoughtful engagement. Don’t just send each account one like, but follow them, leave 1-3 descriptive and personalized comments and likes. The trick here is to be genuine. This is how you build community, if you maintain this routine each day your account will grow authentically and the Instagram algorithm will reward your hard work at building meaningful community.

With these tips and tricks in mind, your brand will grow authentically and hit your KPIs in no time!

References

Jenkins, Lisa (2020). “Social Media Marketing Trends for 2021: Predictions From the Pros”. Social Media Examiner. https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-trends-2021-predictions-from-pros/

McLahlan, Stacey (2020). “How to Increase Social Media Engagement: A Guide for Marketers”. Hootsuite. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-engagement/

(2020). “How to Create a Social Media Persona for Your Brand”. Add This Academy. https://www.addthis.com/academy/how-to-create-a-social-media-persona-for-your-brand/