4 Secrets to Successful Social Media

According to some estimates, there are 3.80 billion users on social media. And every business owner and founder knows that social media is one of the most cost effective ways to market your products and services. 

We asked members of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) in Australia to explain how they use social media.

1. Customize 

“We tailor our content in each platform” – Robert Tadros, CEO of IMPRESSIVE DIGITAL

“Our approach is multi-faceted,” Robert expains. “Generally, we’ll pick a content vertical that we’re focusing on for the month. Then we ensure that our website content, such as pillar pages, subcategory pages and blogs, is up-to-date before we map out the various posts across our channels to support this vertical. This provides social signals for SEO performance.”

Robert offere this key tip: Create different posts for different social networks. He explains, “We tailor our content in each platform. LinkedIn has previously been geared towards recruitment for us, but we’re now experimenting with curating a marketing industry newsfeed, while Facebook will be geared towards knowledge and results, and Instagram for recruitment and in-the-moment content.”

He also acknowledges that for the majority of platforms, exposure is difficult to achieve without amplification. “We do this if it’s beneficial to our campaigns. Otherwise, we don’t underestimate the value of our team’s personal and professional networks. You’ll frequently see posts shared by our staff, which highlights that our true value as a company is collaboration.”

2. Engage

“Our audience loves being involved and it also provides social proof” – Hannah Vasicek, founder and director of FRANCESCA COLLECTIONS 

As a retail brand with brick-and-mortar stores and an online shop, Francesca Collections must continually reach out to their current and prospective customers to share the latest designs as well as special offers. Hannah and her team use social media as one of the tools to communicate and build relationships with their clientele.

She finds that engagement is key to get the audience interested in the brand. “Currently, we plan our posts based on engaging educational content leading into a ‘sell’. We have found that by communicating to our audience—by asking them a question like ‘which product do you like better’—really gets engagement up! Our audience loves being involved and it also provides social proof”, she says.

Hannah cites planning as an important factor in social media success. Planning includes coming up with creative content and implementing it with the right timing. “We plan a week ahead of time and schedule all of our posts”, she explains.

While they generate content on various social media platforms and grow their audience organically, they also place advertisements on Facebook to boost their reach and visibility, which often help convert readers into buyers. “Facebook ads remain our highest return on investment”.

3. Plan

“We plan our social posts by having a social schedule working four to six weeks in advance” – Nathan Chan, CEO and publisher of FOUNDR 

Creating and generating regular content for its magazine, podcast and website, Foundr has developed and continues to develop a wide audience and astonishing reach through social media.

With over 2.4 million followers on Instagram, more than 840,000 followers on Facebook, and 101,000-plus subscribers on YouTube, it seems that Foundr has discovered the secret to growing its audience.

“We plan our social posts by having a social schedule working four to six weeks in advance. The method we use is providing quality content on a consistent basis at scale. We promote articles, videos and quotes or infographics. Our method is very effective”, Nathan reveals.

For Facebook, they invest by placing ads. “We spend millions of dollars every year to build the reach of our brand and acquire new customers,” he says.

Organic audience-building has worked for the company’s Instagram account. “We have one of the largest Instagram accounts in our niche. This allows us to build top of funnel awareness for our brand, as well as provide value, educate our audience with engaging content and sell Foundr products”.

Similarly, their YouTube reach has grown organically. “What we do is we produce many videos for community to build trust, develop top of funnel awareness and sell Foundr products. We’ve found that video is a very powerful tool to build a relationship with our audience versus other mediums”, Nathan explains.

4. Stay agile

“If you try a new style of content and you notice it is not performing well, it is important to recognise this immediately and adjust your strategy” – Tom Caw, founder and director of UNTITLED GROUP AUSTRALIA

Untitled Group is a Melbourne-based collective that produces a variety of unique festivals, tours and events within Australia and abroad. They also make the most of social media by reaching out to their audiences in promoting their events, artists and music.

According to Tom, “Our social media posts are planned around previous posts by reviewing how effective they were. For example, we look out for posts that performed well and then try and replicate that style of content or copy in future posts. If you try a new style of post or content or copy and you notice it is not performing well, it is important to recognise this immediately and adjust your strategy”.

Tom finds this method effective but recognises that other factors can affect the reach and engagement. “These factors can be the time of the day it is posted, day of the week it is posted or something happening in the community that day like a major announcement that will overshadow your post. Also, do you usually put money on your posts or do you let them go organically? There are a lot of factors that need to be considered when strategising, planning and reviewing your social media posts”, he explains.

For more insights and inspiration from today’s leading entrepreneurs, check out EO on Inc. and more articles from the EO blog.