Social Media 101 – 5 tips

Social media takes serious work! See below for the five tips you'll need to be successful:

1. Have a purpose

Formulate your social media strategy by identifying why you’re on social media in the first place. Evaluate and define your audience, learn who’s online doing what you’re doing, and determine how can you join in/add value yourself. Once you’ve determined your purpose and completed your research, you can begin creating content that resonates with people you’re trying to reach.

2. Be authentic

No one is you and that is your superpower. The more authentic you are on social media, the more people will trust you and value the content you’re sharing. Be real and vulnerable, and the content you share will attract like-minded individuals.

3. Tell stories

This tip is consistent with the second point on authenticity. Tell stories about your life struggles, triumphs and interesting musings/learnings. You never know whose life you’ll impact.

4. Create a community

Sometimes people on social media don’t want to go through the serious work of growing a following organically, so they buy followers. Don’t do this! It’s not going to work out in the long run. There’s nothing more obvious than seeing someone with 10K followers garner only 7 likes on a post. Creating a community may take more work, but wouldn’t you rather have an amazing relationship with your followers, versus not knowing how your posts will perform because you haven’t cultivated genuine relationships online? To create a community, you’ll want to engage with other content creators, moderate your own posts and DM folks every once in a while, to show you care. We all need love, especially online, and this is how we grow.

5. Add value

Teach people things you’ve learned and experiments you’ve tried, and find ways to make their lives easier. Think about why you follow your favorite accounts, ask yourself what you’re offering and replicate the same idea for your audience. The more we give online, the more we get!