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Social Media 9 min read May 25, 2021

Beginner’s Guide to Growing on Social Media

When it comes to social media, everyone wants a piece of the action. A presence on social media offers valuable communication with consumers, and heaps of credibility to a business’s image. However, growing a business on social media isn’t a walk in the park. It takes careful planning, creative content creation, and lots of nurturing. 

As a social media manager myself, I’m going to share the most important steps, tools, and tips I’ve learned through my many ups and downs. I know it can be intimidating, (I’m talking to you social media interns). However, with the help of this guide, you’ll not only be ready to start growing your channels, but excited to do so! 

1. Start with a Plan 

To begin, it’s important to understand exactly where the business wants to be online. It’s tempting to get on every platform, but this may be biting off more than you can chew. It’s more beneficial to identify which will best help accomplish specific business goals. 

But, which platforms are best for your brand? Start by asking these simple questions: 

Digging into analytics from your website will help determine who your audience is. Always be sure to conduct further research on where to best reach your unique audience.

As a starting point, I’ve laid out six popular platforms and their strengths based on a 2021 Statistics report from Statusbrew : 

As an example, imagine a social media planner for a credit union is trying to decide which platforms are best. The credit union’s goals on social media are to foster its community, communicate with members, and display milestones. The credit union hopes to reach both members and potential members through social media. 

After defining the purpose, goals, and intended audience, the social media planner decides to create accounts on Facebook and Twitter. Both platforms provide access to an older demographic who have joined, or may be interested in joining the credit union. Twitter will allow for quick communication with members, while Facebook is a space for documenting milestones and engaging with niche audiences. Both platforms are highly interactive and perfect for a community-focused business such as a credit union. Once specific platforms have been identified, it’s time to start developing a content calendar.

2. Content 

The most time consuming aspect of running social media channels is figuring out what to communicate to an audience. 

Choose one consistent color palette that matches the brand to utilize when creating images. This will add a level of professionalism to an account. Next, decide how many days a week to post. A 2021 report by Statista recommends a few general starting points:

Based on your goals you will create a posting schedule. Continuing with the previous credit union example, the schedule may look something like this:

SundayMondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturday
1 Tweet1 FB Post3 Tweets1 FB Post3 Tweets1 FB Post1 FB Post
2 Tweets2 Tweets2 Tweets1 Tweet

For content curation, my favorite easy-to-use graphic design platform is Canva. This design tool provides countless professional looking layouts, simple and clean elements, and a massive selection of stock photos. They offer many elements for free, so you can test out the tool before making any purchase. 

Additionally, Egg to Apples utilizes Hootsuite. This tool allows me to create and schedule posts ahead of time, and track analytics for all of our social media channels. 

Content is specific to each organization and their goals. It’s crucial that the content you share is relevant and engaging to the specific target audience. Here’s a few tips I’ve picked up along the way to ensure content is engaging: 

3. Gaining Followers

Generally, there are two ways to grow: organically and with paid promotions. 

To grow organically, it’s important to understand that this is not always an easy task for small accounts. It can be tedious and at times disappointing. However, there are a few important things to do throughout this entire process in order to consistently gain followers. 

Beyond growing organically, businesses have the option to boost posts with paid promotions. This can be an effective way to build brand awareness for a small account. Simply input a budget for one post over a specific period of time. Then, the platform will estimate the amount of impressions the post may receive.

If your goal is to grow quickly, promoting posts regularly is a good option. Ultimately, your social media marketing budget depends on your goals, cash flow, target audience, and product or service. I recommend spending around 10–25 percent of your digital marketing budget on social media marketing. Then, it will be crucial to track traffic and engagement earned by the promotions. These valuable insights will help determine if the money is being well spent and adjustments can be made accordingly. 

4. Identify KPIs and Track Progress 

Tracking all of the data is key to growing an account. It’s crucial to understand what interactions the accounts are receiving and what strategies are helping or hurting growth. Key performance indicators (KPIs), will help tell a story with data over time. I recommend tracking: 

For each KPI, set a monthly goal. At the end of each month, conduct an audit recording each KPI and reassess the strategy moving forward based on weak and strong points. 

5. Be Genuine and Authentic

My final tip for any business on social media is to be genuine and authentic! Building up a brand through social media is all about connecting with an audience in a new and personal way. On social media, people won’t be impressed with a Tweet written like an ad. The best advice I can give is to talk like a person, and to be honest- always.

And with that, you’re ready to get started! If you have any questions or want to have a conversation, comment below or reach out on social media.

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