By Namita Kabilas
January has already kicked in! This is the perfect time to look back at how far you come and what to focus on the most that will help you contribute towards achieving your important milestones for this year.
A new year always brings in new opportunities for you to bloom. With many of us still having to work remotely and manage the running of our small businesses from home due to the pandemic, nothing brings in new opportunities more than your own online social media presence. It is THE ultimate doorway to new opportunities to grow your business to the next level this year.
If you have not touched your social media presence over the holidays, you are not alone!
Online traffic reaches its lowest during the Christmas and New Year period and so your presence may be in need of some needed attention and care from this January onwards.
The post-festive holiday period is THE best time to rework your social media presence so that you build up the foundation your business needs to grow from and ensure you present your business and yourself as your own industry expert at your best to win in those needed connections, opportunities and customers this new year.
If your presence has gone a little rusty over the holidays, here are some things to consider to revamp your social presence to get your business ready to score in new conversations, connections and new opportunities for 2022:
1. Know your intentions
Know what you want to achieve know the milestones for this new year. What is it you want to achieve by the end of this year or in 3-6 months time. This will give your online presence a clear indicator to work from.
2. Set monthly goals
Each month set monthly goals that will add up towards your key milestone this year. Setting monthly goals will help you give clear indicators of what to base your online content on.
3. Know the needs, lifestyles and tastes of your audience
Knowing your audience very well is very important in order to create content that engages and understands with them so that they will be able to connect with your brand effectively and ultimately want to converse and connect with you.
4. Feature upcoming events EARLY -plan in advance
Got any new exciting live events or engagements coming up this year? Start featuring them in your online presence! It is never too early to start creating new content for our upcoming events. The sooner you raise awareness the more people will tune in and you will have more time to promote so that you build up a stronger pool of participants!
5. Build yourself the right look that stuns!
Ensure your social media presence is uniquely you and professional by using the right colour schemes to your branding. In terms of images, if you are using stock images, use matching images that go to the nature of your postings. You can also use your own personal images to give your presence a real personalised edge, but make sure you do not use too many of the same types of images (EG: only using stock images or only personal images in all your postings) otherwise, you will craft out a very busy appearance with hardly any structure. This will turn audiences away.
For a clean professional social media presence, you need a mixture of colour, professional graphics, texts and images as part of building a structured look that is memorable to your target audience.
6. Stay consistent
You may have good suggestions for your content but the secret to building a strong presence that wins new opportunities is to STAY CONSISTENT. Consistency is what will drive more traffic into your presence and the more consistent you are the more your audience will access your content and will want to engage with you. Keeping an active online presence also puts you in an active stand in the market!
When people browse for services they will want to know the previous time someone has last been active. A quiet presence can raise questions about whether you are open to collaborating or still open for business. This certainly applies to me- If I want to connect with someone on Instagram for example, I always check to see when they are last online as this gives me an indicator of whether they are active and if they will reply back to me sooner or not.
7. FOLLOW up with those you engage with you
You may have great content and people engaging with you which is great! BUT the secret to scoring in those opportunities and new connections and customers is to FOLLOW UP with the people who engage with you.
Look out for genuine comments: Compliments on your posts or any questions regarding your content or business or any other feedback. Respond to them.
Do not be afraid to ask questions back to your audience. Express interest and curiosity to your audience members too and start a conversation with them. Get to know your new potential connection as this will lead to winning audience trust and scoring in a new potential customer or an opportunity to grow your business.
Also do not be afraid to ask them to connect over a virtual coffee to connect further -This is a great way to connect and talk more to your new contact on the spot and you will win the chance to score in a potential client there!
Remember to only connect and respond with those who fit in your target audience and not just anybody! Your time is the most precious asset and so use it wisely.
Overall, when it comes to revamping up that social presence, be aware of your monthly goals as an indicator for the content you would like to craft out, know what your audiences are going through in each month or season throughout the year and know their lifestyles and tastes well to help you create the RIGHT content that understands and clicks with them. Most importantly, stay consistent and engage with your target audience regularly.
REMEMBER: The success of your online presence also lies in building relationships with your audience as well as just good content and having a good strategy.
This is the year for you to SHINE and make your mark in the market! You have what it takes, you simply need to take action and make those goals manifest to life! Nothing beats your online presence as the doorway to making your business goals happen.
For more guidance on building the right strategy for your online presence to ensure you connect with the right people and build a presence that strikes engages, connect and convert, you can get in touch with me at www.namitakabilas.com OR connect with me on Linkedin: Namita Kabilas or Instagram @namitakabilas. Subscribe to The Grow My Brand To Success New Feed for more educational nuggets of information at www.namitakabilas.com/blog
To your success & growth!