Five social media tips to maximise your brand's online presence

If your content is unoriginal or boring, forget about it

Your content plays the crucial role of showcasing your brand to the public, which means it's absolutely imperative that you're creating original content that people want to share. Crafting content that resonates with your audience relies on knowing what makes them tick. If you're able to consistently produce posts that are engaging and of use, people will naturally want to share it - organically increasing your reach and influence. Remember that images count as content too, and the inclusion of them significantly up the 'shareability' of a post.

Make sure that that you're using the right platform for your audience

Contrary to popular belief, using social media isn't a case of 'one size fits all'. For example, the majority of Pinterest users are female, who use the channel for recreational use. LinkedIn, on the other hand is predominantly business related. In the same vein, Twitter users are mostly older than Facebook users. All of your content should be targeted - which means that you'll need to consider factors such as age, gender, and income.

Remember to use appropriate hashtags too - this is an easy way of gaining traction and exposure for your brand.

Get your timing right

You'll need to do some research in order to establish this - what time is your audience most active? Are there any discernible patterns? Does your audience mainly engage in the morning? Don't flood your audience with posts either - in an age where time is scarce, this practice will only serve to irritate.

Experiment with different posting times - this will help you to determine which time gives you the highest engagement rates. Finally, make use of UTM tags, in order to give you crucial feedback about the behaviour of your followers.

Optimise your content on Twitter

Many brands make the rookie mistake of beginning a tweet with @ - as they're unaware that this means that only the tagged person can see it. Refrain from doing this as much as possible, as this decreases your audience and reach.

When possible, include an image in your post - pictures instantly capture attention, and increase the likelihood of someone clicking through to your content, as well as sharing the post. As with all other social media channels, never bombard your followers with messages - this is a one-way street to losing followers.

Make sure that you share you content more than once, so for example, you may send out a post on Monday morning, and then re-post it on Tuesday evening. Stagger your content so that one any given day you're publishing a variety of content at different times.

Get a grip on social selling

For the uninitiated, this new trend uses social media profiles as a means to persuade people to buy into a brand. Brands take on a persona that is easily identifiable, helping them to establish a rapport with their audience. FNB's @Rbjacobs is one example of a brand that's seen huge growth, thanks to their empathetic and efficient engagement.

Always include a call to action in your posts - if there's no reason for someone to click on your content, why would they? The best way brands can go about this is to get the staff member with the most followers to share their content (a word of warning - make sure they aren't posting any dodgy content on their own time).

And there you have it. Our top social media tips that will ensure you're making optimal use of social media and getting a tangible return in the form of leads and most importantly, ROI.