It is becoming increasingly difficult to separate your online business from the thousands of others. Everyone is competing to gain the attention of consumers around the world. Many businesses make the mistake of pushing all of their products out onto their social media platforms. They hope that the more they post products, the more likely it is someone will make a purchase; however, this is simply not true, and in fact, can tarnish your authenticity on social media.
One of the most important aspects of social media marketing is authenticity. Consumers will not make purchases from businesses that they cannot trust. Running authentic social media for your business is easier said than done, but it will pay off in the end. When done well, the result is a loyal customer base with exponential growth.
One of the many challenges to being authentic on social media is that businesses by definition are seen inauthentic as they are not 'real people'. Whoever is managing the social media page has to show a humanized version of the company for people online to interact with. This will make them feel as if they were interacting with a human, not a business. Here are some tips on how to run your social media platforms authentically.
Transparency
With the plethora of information that can be found online today, it’s hard to sort through the false information. When consumers decide whether or not a business is trustworthy, they will be looking at how transparent they are. Many businesses today choose to be as open as possible, thus decreasing false information and negativity.
If you’re selling a product, the best way to show authenticity is to display through pictures or videos the process that goes into creating the product you sell. Many companies, small and large, will not show you this process out of fear that the customers might not agree with how it’s made. This makes it that much more effective when your business does show this process openly through their social media. It creates a level of trust between the company and the customer that is incredibly hard to recreate.
Stop Selling
Although the whole point of using social media to market your business is to make sales, many companies will make the mistake of only focusing on sales.
An Instagram business page allows you to tag products in your posts that you sell through your website. But, I don’t recommend doing this for every post. Your posts on social media should not necessarily be selling anything outright.
Social media posts should be used to educate your customers on products and services your business offers; not to sell to them. I recommend tagging products in posts sparingly. You want to build a relationship with the customer, not just push them to buy your products all the time. In order to present yourself as an authentic business, you need to have a balance of posts that are products and others that will resonate with your audience.
No more Clickbait
Clickbait refers to businesses hopping on trending topics and trying to gain traffic from the topic.
The issue with clickbait is that even though you are increasing the traffic to your site, the topic is entirely irrelevant for the business. An example of Clickbait is creating articles with a headline that discusses the viral topic; whereas, the content of the article has nothing to do with it.
With this type of clickbait, you may see an increase in traffic as many people who are searching for the viral topic have landed on your article. This is misleading to consumers, and it won't increase your conversions. Your website traffic will increase, but your brand recognition will plummet.
Your website visitors will become frustrated and associate your brand with dishonesty. Not only will this hurt your brand recognition, but a high bounce rate will decrease your Google ranking. This, in turn, will put you lower down on the SERP.
Brand recognition and authenticity go hand and hand as, without authenticity, it is challenging to grow brand recognition. In turn, it is easy to decrease brand recognition by being inauthentic. It will not happen overnight, but through authentic social media management, you can grow brand recognition for your business.
If you are looking for an expert to professionally manage your social media pages contact us today for a consultation! 866-208-3095
