7 S’s to Creating a Social Media Tribe

1. Stories

Instagram and Facebook stories are a fantastic way to reach your prospective consumers. Video stories and in particular, IG Live Stories and Reels, keep social media viewers engaged for a longer duration of time. Video content delivers an honest and unadulterated introduction to your brand. Think of your favorite shoe brand or wine label – imagine getting a daily, first-hand introduction behind the scenes to see how things are unfolding. Many of us want to meet the makers, the doers, the people responsible for our favorite brands!

2. Sincere – Be real!

Authenticity is a key driver for earning the trust of your social media tribe. Share behind-the-scenes with your consumers on the good days and the bad. In a social world where every one of your competitors shares a common goal, the way to stand out is creating a personality and human identity and not being afraid to show it.

One local wine company that excels in this arena are our friends and clients over at Jessup Cellars. For over 20 years, Jessup Cellars has created a lifestyle wine brand that’s connects with consumers through fun, friendly and unapologetically down-to-earth tasting experiences. The brand resonates with a loyal community of wine lovers who relate to the tasting room team on a personal level. If you need proof, catch their recent review by Fast Company awarding them the “Rolls Royce of Virtual Tastings” or simply Google for yourself “Friendliest Tasting Room”.

3. Speech

Also tying back to being authentic and personable, creating voice and speech behind your product helps lend credibility. Some easy ways to incorporate speech is through live stream videos, Instagram and Facebook stories, YouTube or podcasting. Brands can earn serious brownie points among social media shoppers by conveying passion and emotion behind their product introduction.

4. Scheduling

If you’re a social media manager who wants to stay on top of their Instagram game, you need the tools and resources to reach your goals. Social media scheduling tools can help make sure there’s always something to go live, when you don’t have time. The best social media scheduling platforms offer the ability to easily design in-app graphics, execute cross-platform posting, schedule based on best audience engagement times and give advanced analytics of post performance.

Our dedicated WSI Social platform offers our clients a suite of design and multi-channel scheduling capabilities. As a social media agency, our services offer DIY or hands-off social media marketing packages. Our social savvy creatives combined with our data dude, Andreas, ensures that your brand has a competitive edge when it comes to reaching the right social media shoppers and understanding campaign performance.

5. Strategy

A solid social media strategy involves the refining of your campaign message to reach and connect with the right group of buyers. A winning social media strategy requires consistency. Our persona development strategy helps our clients understand who their target consumers are, in order to refine a brand voice including everything from image and aesthetic to copywriting language and hashtag strategy.

Actionable Tip: If you’re trying to understand the persona of your existing social media consumers, visit your tagged images on social media (Instagram) and scope out User-Generated Content that already exist around your product and service. If you have a product or service worth talking about, your fans may be years ahead of you. View your insights and analytics too to better understand demographics.

5. Strategy

A solid social media strategy involves the refining of your campaign message to reach and connect with the right group of buyers. A winning social media strategy requires consistency. Our persona development strategy helps our clients understand who their target consumers are, in order to refine a brand voice including everything from image and aesthetic to copywriting language and hashtag strategy.

Actionable Tip: If you’re trying to understand the persona of your existing social media consumers, visit your tagged images on social media (Instagram) and scope out User-Generated Content that already exist around your product and service. If you have a product or service worth talking about, your fans may be years ahead of you. View your insights and analytics too to better understand demographics.

6. Spend

Social Media advertising is not for every brand. Social media advertising compared to social media marketing involves paid social media ads. These strategic placed promotions can help your brand reach new consumers who may not have otherwise crossed paths with your company. Facebook tools like look-a-like audience builder can help you craft a social media campaign directed at similar social media shoppers that share similar interests, desires and preferences as your existing clientele.

Whether your goals are increased reach, likes, engagement, email subscribers, webinar signups or product store visits, our expertise in social media ads can help place your ad spend dollars where they matter the most.

7. Showing Up

Simple… but easier said than done. Staying consistent is fundamentally the most important driver of social media success considering today’s Instagram algorithm. Instagram’s platform is purpose-designed to keep social media shoppers engaged on their app and interacting with brands. It’s important to remember that the algorithm prioritizes content that receives the most engagement in the form of Comments, Likes, Reshares and Views. Showing up with consistent posts gives your audience more opportunities to interact with your content.

BONUS: Easy ways to level up your engagement and boost your page performance and impressions is creating Shareable, Savable and Swipe-able content.