Social media has changed just about every aspect of our lives — how we interact with friends and family, how we consume our news, and how we research companies and products. Social networks are big, powerful and where many people spend a good portion of their time.

Social media isn’t trendy or a passing fad.

• There are 3.2 billion social media users worldwide which equates to about 42 percent of the population.

• 90.4 percent of millennials and 77.5 percent of Gen X are considered active social media users.

• 54 percent of social browsers use social media to research products.

• 71 percent of consumers who have had a positive experience with a brand on social media are likely to recommend the brand to their friends and family.

There are many ways for brands to market their products and services, and an effective marketing strategy incorporates a well-rounded approach. Historically, brands have used various forms of outbound, or seller-centric, marketing. However, with the shift to inbound marketing, or a buyer-centric approach, brands are now focused on providing value to the consumer at every stage of the buyer’s journey to both attract and pull them in. 

Social media marketing provides brands the unique opportunity to not only reach a larger audience but also to engage with that audience through real-time communication, brand ambassadorship, influencer marketing and user-generated content.

Whether you’re just looking to start marketing through social media, or you've been doing it for a while and want to gut-check your strategy, here are our top seven tips for achieving social media marketing success for your brand.

TELL YOUR STORY

Storytelling — in all aspects of your marketing — is a powerful and often overlooked technique. We’re naturally drawn to stories. While the main aspects of good storytelling are tried-and-true, the way in which we tell these stories has changed dramatically.

Our fast-paced lives have caused all of us, on some level, to develop habits akin to ADD. We process an obnoxious amount of information in very short timeframes and have developed limited attention spans. With social media marketing, brands must create content that’s strong enough to captivate a consumer’s attention.

The way to stop consumer scrolling is by creating content that has humor or heart — effective storytelling must evoke an emotional response in order for it to be found interesting or engaging.

POST CONSISTENTLY

Each social media network and even different audiences have various expectations with regards to the frequency of publishing of content. Some social networks should be utilized several times a day — lookin’ at you Twitter. For others, daily is fine — wink, wink Facebook. Others perhaps only on weekdays — hello, LinkedIn.

You need to maintain a consistent posting cadence to establish expectations for your audience. This can be a very important factor in someone deciding to follow you initially, not to mention their continued retention. There’s a fine line between regularly posting and overwhelming your audience — too much or too little of either and you run the risk of turning people off.

Posting content consistently to your social networks increases your opportunity for expanding your organic reach. 

UTILIZE AND SOLICIT USER GENERATED CONTENT

According to a Nielsen study, ​the​ ​most​ ​credible​ ​advertising​ ​comes​ ​from​ ​people​ ​we​ ​know​ ​and trust.​ Encouraging your audience to post content about your brand builds credibility and makes your job of content creation easier. Make it easy for them by making your social handles easy to find and easy to remember.

If you have a physical location, be sure your social media information is prominently displayed on signage, screens, monitors, receipts, etc. If you’re virtual, consider putting social handles and links in your website header or footer. This way, regardless of what page a website visitor lands on, your social information is always easily accessible.

Set up notifications on your social accounts to be notified when someone tags you. If you recycle their content, be sure to obtain their permission and then give them props when you repost. By tagging them, you’re increasing the reach of the content by exposing it to another audience (their followers) that may not be aware of your brand.

CREATE A BRANDED HASHTAG

Many brands have built huge social followings by encouraging and curating content under a branded hashtag. Entire movements have been created from this free marketing tactic. Anyone remember #IceBucketChallenge?

Anyone can create a hashtag. One of the best ways to capture and catalog the above-mentioned user-generated content is through the use of a branded hashtag.

Just as you should make your social handles easy to access, apply the same thought process to your branded hashtag. If people have to search too hard or too long for that information, they won’t utilize it.

You don’t have to be witty ­— simply use your company name or a tagline that people already associate with your brand. Make it short and easy to spell, and then use it consistently in all brand communications. 

EXPAND YOUR REACH

Organic reach is anything that happens on social media without a paid element or component. Opposite of organic reach is paid reach or anything that you put paid ad dollars behind. A great social media marketing strategy includes a mix of content that is both paid and unpaid.

The shift of most social networks to include algorithmic feeds means your posts are shown to users based on past behavior and preferences — not chronologically. 

An analysis by Social@Ogilvy studied more than 100 brand pages and found organic reach dropped by half for brands with fewer than 500,000 fans in 2014, from 12 percent to about 6 percent. For the biggest brands, organic Facebook reach fell from 4 percent to 2 percent. With the continued decline in organic reach, brands must invest in different forms of paid social content.

ENGAGE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

If you’ve done all of the above, then you’ve worked hard to build an audience on social media. Now you have to engage with them. If someone asks a question on a post, answer it. If they have a complaint, address it. If they provide praise, thank them. A little acknowledgment can go a long way.

In traditional outbound marketing, the communication channels were essentially one-way — brand to consumer. Social media has completely changed the way brands and consumers interact. Social media engagement increases brand awareness, provides social proof and has a better ROI than traditional marketing. 

People spend an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social media networks and messaging — if your customers aren’t engaging with you, then they’re engaging with someone else. 

Brands that aren’t utilizing social media are missing a huge opportunity to increase brand awareness, educate and provide value to their audience, and ultimately engage and connect with current and future customers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Skaggs is the co-founder of BODDHI Branding, a creative agency with a vision to authentically and creatively construct stories to help your brand grow. Digital and social media, branding, recruitment and content strategy are all functions Chris has developed building teams, processes and strategies from the ground-up. Dedicated to giving back Chris also co-founded Leighton’s Gift, a non-profit with a mission of turning a tragedy into something positive. He also serves on the boards of a variety of different organizations. A natural storyteller, Chris’ work and experiences have been featured on CNN, Marketing Sherpa, Thrive Global, CBS Radio, Recruiter.com and Glassdoor. Get connected online, @chrislskaggs.