There’s no denying the power social media has when it comes to building your brand and growing your business. Strategizing a complete social media guide is therefore essential to the success of your brand and business.
Building a real following on social media is key to growing your business, and everybody knows it.
Every single day, millions of people, who happen to be your exact target customer, are scrolling through social media. What will catch their eye? How can your social media content grab their attention?
You might also be wondering, Which social media platforms are the best ones to focus my social media marketing efforts on? This is one of the many questions that makes influencers and business owners feel overwhelmed about developing a strategic and comprehensive social media guide.
That’s why I want you to think of this article as the influencer’s complete social media guide for building a global empire.
But why should you listen to my advice when it comes to social media? Well, I have built a personal brand from scratch and I’ve become a social media influencer with millions of followers. I have over 1.5 million followers on Instagram, and over 1.7 million followers on Facebook. I also have over 2.4 million subscribers on my YouTube channel. That’s why so many people want to learn my social media secrets.
My massive social media following is a big part of the reason why I’m so successful. You see, you could sell the best product or the most valuable service, but it means nothing if nobody knows your product or service exists.
Social media is the best way to make sure your brand and product are both highly visible and well-known among active consumers. Customers can’t consider purchasing your product or service without first knowing that it exists. Social media is one of the best ways to spread the word.
In this day and age, formulating a social media guide isn’t just about being “tech-savvy”. It’s about understanding your target audience and knowing which social media platforms will work best to engage them. You also need to know how to best maximize the potential of each of those social media platforms.
Social media marketing is also about consistency, brand image, and let’s not forget about conversion rates. One million Instagram followers, for example, doesn’t mean much if your followers are not converting into actual customers. However, if you post content that converts your social media followers into customers, you’re heading towards next-level success.
Why Should You Be Using as Many Social Media Platforms as Possible?
Some influencers focus too heavily on only one or two social media platforms. But why shouldn’t you engage as many as possible? It’s kind of like the basic principle of diversifying your assets. You never want all of your eggs in one basket when it comes to investments, so why wouldn’t the same principle apply to marketing?
Part of the reason why many social media influencers focus solely on one or two social media platforms is because they don’t really understand how to use or maximize the other ones. Nobody ever provided them with a comprehensive social media guide. Perhaps they know how to use Instagram and Facebook, but they don’t know how to use YouTube or LinkedIn.
Knowledge is power, and that’s why I’m offering this comprehensive social media guide to help you understand how to use other very powerful social media platforms that you are not currently maximizing or using. By not using them, you’re leaving money on the table, and I want to help you stop doing that.
In this social media guide, I’ll explain exactly what social media can do for your business and brand. With a well-established plan and commitment to long-term consistency, you’ll be building your own global empire in no time.
Creating a Personalized Social Media Guide
Before we get into specific social media strategies for different social media platforms, consider your brand’s specific goals. The best brands are authentic ones. Therefore, crafting a personalized social media guide that aligns with your brand is essential.
Recently, I revealed some of my insider secrets on creating a personal brand based on your own unique superpower. Your superpower is your special skill, gift, or area of expertise. Your brand story often involves the story of how you became an expert in your specific niche.
It goes without saying that your personalized social media guide will be based on your personal brand and your signature style. An influencer who’s personal brand revolves around outdoor adventure and sells survival kits, for example, would probably have a certain theme in mind for all their social media platforms. They’d post plenty of exciting videos and photos of beautiful scenery. They’d evoke excitement in their target audience with videos of stunning hikes, waterfalls, and cliffs.
Understand that while this article’s general social media guide is helpful, it still needs tweaking based on your personal brand in order to be effective. For example, Apple’s Instagram feed should look completely different from your own, because their brand is completely different from yours.
And, how you engage the consumer on Instagram will be completely different from how you engage them on YouTube. An effective social media guide requires research on the various social media platforms, and how they work.
Branding Strategies
While exposure is good, great press is even better. Crafting an effective brand strategy is vital to your success, but what exactly is a branding strategy?
The way I like to think about it is finding your target audience, and researching everything there is to know about them.
Unless your product is sliced bread, it’s unlikely that your business will appeal to everyone. Instead of trying to please the entire marketplace, narrow your focus to your target demographic. Choose your niche, and choose it wisely.
Target your marketing efforts on social media, with the eventual goal to find loyal brand advocates. Brand advocates are defined as anyone who would vouch for your business without being paid to do so. They recommend your brand simply because they love your brand. Finding brand advocates on social media is even better, since they are likely to have an audience of their own to promote your brand to.
Think of it this way: As a musician, would you rather have five ultra-dedicated fans, or twenty fans who are only somewhat invested in your brand? You’re likely to be better off with five dedicated fans since they’ll promote your music on their own, play your songs for their friends, and drag their friends to all of your concerts.
Brand advocates also help build your brand’s credibility, and improve your brand’s reputation. Positive marketing about your brand is better when coming from a secondary source other than your own self-promotion. I’m much more likely to trust a recommendation from my close friend, than the brand that is recommending itself. Makes sense, right?
One of the best ways to get brand advocates is to connect with your audience on a deeper, emotional level. This requires that you have a very strong and relatable brand image, and great personal branding.
First, Hone in On Your Personal Brand
If you haven’t done so already, the first thing you need to do is get crystal-clear on what your personal brand is all about, what your signature style is, and what you want to be known for.
You need to take the time to consider what your brand voice sounds like, how your brand comes across, and what your central themes are. Figure out how you stand out in the marketplace, and which pain points you solve for your audience. In turn, crafting a personalized social media guide will give you a clear image of your brand and where it fits in the marketplace.
It’s also crucial to gain clarity on who your target demographic is. Why? Because certain demographics use certain social media platforms more than others.
This will certainly require effort, but remember, in order to get somewhere you’ve never been, you have to do something you’ve never done.
Investing in social media in itself is useful since it forces you to establish your brand in entirely new ways. Once you start maximizing the potential of all the social media platforms that are available to promote your brand, the results might surprise you.
Perhaps the conversion rates from one social media platform will be much higher than you expected, and it could simply be that your target audience uses that platform more. TikTok, for example, is a video-sharing app that has a lot of Gen Z users. Gen Z users are under the age of 25. Perhaps that generation is your target consumer, and that’s why your social media marketing efforts on TikTok paid off.
In general, when it comes to a social media guide, I typically advise that people get crystal-clear about their personal brand and what it stands for, first. Now, let’s go over some of the most popular social media platforms that carry the highest potential for return:
Facebook Marketing
Facebook is still considered to be royalty in the social media world, with 2.3 billion active users. Since it’s one of the most popular social media platforms, it’s a no-brainer that you include Facebook marketing in your social media marketing strategy. Best of all, you can share photos, sales copy, videos, and blog posts on this platform. In that sense, think of Facebook as the swiss-army knife of social media.
According to a 2019 study conducted by Pew Research Center, 3/4ths of adult Facebook users visit the site on a daily basis.
One of the many benefits of marketing on Facebook is that you can post a wide variety of content so your consumer won’t feel unengaged. So, how do you create different types of content that still feel aligned with your brand?
The key is to alternate. If you’re marketing your brand on Facebook, don’t post two videos in a row. Maybe one day you’ll share a video, but the next day you’ll post an insightful blog post.
On Facebook, I’d also suggest sticking to a specific posting schedule in order to stay consistent. My loyal followers always have a new piece of content to look forward to, and they generally know when to expect a new post.
Instagram Marketing
While you should do your best to market yourself on as many social media platforms as possible, Instagram is a great place to begin. Why? Because Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users, making it the perfect platform to start building your global brand.
According to Oberlo, Instagram users spend at least one hour daily on the platform, making it the second-most engaged social site underneath Facebook. Instagram uniquely utilizes solely videos and photos, which are likely to receive higher engagement than text alone.
Clearly, mastering Instagram marketing is vital to the success of your business. Instagram is also one of the easiest platforms to partner with influencers and brand ambassadors.
Building your following on Instagram is also in your best interest because marketing on the platform gets even easier once you have at least 10,000 followers. You’re able to share embedded links driving traffic to your website directly from your Instagram stories once you have 10,000 followers or more.
A picture is worth one thousand words, so make sure your Instagram images stand out from the crowd. For example, the popular American grocery store Trader Joe’s clearly spends a lot of time strategizing their Instagram content. Each photo Trader Joe’s posts is beautifully shot, and valuable, giving the consumer valuable information while still advertising their brand.
Growing your Instagram following will require dedication and patience. Remember that growing an impressive social media following takes time. That’s why you can’t get discouraged if the growth isn’t happening fast enough for your liking. Is your goal to be an influencer with over 100,000 followers? Be strategic and consistent, in order to achieve these loftier goals in due time.
Video Marketing
A whopping 87% of video marketers say that their brand videos have increased direct to traffic to their brand’s website. You may be wondering, What is it that makes videos so powerful?
Well, for one thing, videos have the ability to engage multiple senses at once. The consumer is able to both see and hear your brand’s message, making it that much more engaging. And, evoking that much more emotion.
Think of it this way: Is your phone harder to ignore when it both rings and vibrates when a call comes through, compared to when it rings with the vibration turned off? With more stimuli comes more capacity for grabbing your prospect’s attention.
I’ve learned from experience that creating videos across various social media platforms, maintaining a consistent brand voice, is an extremely effective branding strategy. Moreover, many social media platforms offer more ways than ever before to embed videos in posts. Instagram developed the ‘Instagram Story’ which allows influencers to market themselves to their Instagram following in video format, and other platforms like Facebook allow videos to be posted as well.
Some social media platforms are entirely about video content, such as YouTube and TikTok.
Video-focused platforms such as YouTube will be covered more in-depth below, but the first step is to understand the power of video marketing. When developing a social media guide to follow, make sure that video-focused platforms such as YouTube are part of your plan.
If your competitors utilize video marketing and you don’t, that’s where you could lose a lot of followers and customers.
YouTube Marketing
YouTube has a shockingly massive, dedicated user base. As of last year, this social platform reported having over 2 billion monthly active users. This is the number of people that are actively using YouTube on a regular basis, and actively watching YouTube videos in their spare time.
2 billion monthly active users is huge. Clearly, it’s imperative to produce video content on YouTube if you want to grow your business, build your brand, and build a global empire.
A wide variety of audiences, demographics and communities use YouTube. That’s why YouTube is the perfect place to target your audience. And, since videos are so engaging, your video content is likely to produce higher rates of return when crafted the right way.
In other words, if your YouTube content is good enough, it can generate loads of qualified leads, sales, and brand advocates. Your YouTube channel can also become a source of passive income on its own through YouTube’s partnership program.
Why else is using YouTube important for building your social media empire? Since YouTube is owned by Google, that means your YouTube videos will automatically have a high chance of getting ranked on Google.
All you have to do is come up with a plan to make sure your videos stand out, have value, and engage viewers.
You could hire a copywriter to create engaging video scripts, rather than winging it when you create your videos. Or, get some training from a YouTube master on how to succeed at video marketing.
Whatever you do, make sure that your video content remains true to your brand. Keep your brand image and brand voice consistent across all of your social media platforms.
What About TikTok?
TikTok is one of the newer social media platforms that features a never-ending feed of 15-second videos. Impressively, the app already has 800 million active users. However, how are you going to use just 15 seconds of video content to your advantage?
As it turns out, 15 seconds can be just enough for certain brands and influencers to promote themselves. Stars like Loren Gray and Spencer X have emerged from the TikTok app with fully-fledged businesses, just by showing off their unique personalities and talents via these short video clips.
You could use TikTok videos to incorporate your product or service into a funny skit, or to connect with your consumers. These short videos help you connect with your audience on a more personal, lighter, more humorous level. Moreover, there are a number of TikTok influencers you could collaborate with to improve your own exposure.
Though TikTok is a young platform, it’s important to get involved before the market becomes too saturated. In other words, since TikTok is newer, that means many of your competitors aren’t yet using TikTok. If you start using it now, that’s just another way that your brand can get ahead.
Social Media Copywriting
Though we are in the age of photos and videos, do not underestimate the power of copywriting. Learning the art of crafting persuasive sentences can make your business appear more elevated and professional. Advanced copy also helps you position yourself as an expert and helps you communicate your message to your target audience.
But what if you simply don’t have time or the interest to learn copywriting? Consider hiring a professional copywriter to help you write your social media copyl. Not only can copywriters save you time, but they can also optimize your content making it more search-engine friendly. Social media copywriters and SEO copywriters can help you maximize your social media marketing campaigns.
Copywriters can write video scripts for YouTube, copy for Instagram captions, persuasive Facebook ad copy for better Facebook advertising results, LinkedIn posts, and more.
Improving the quality of your content and copy on social media is one of the best strategies to include in your social media guide.
If other brands, influencers, and businesses are posting social media content that has not been well thought-out, and they don’t have copywriting skills, what does that mean for you? It means that if you develop copywriting skills or hire a professional social media copywriter, you’ll have a competitive advantage in the form of extra-persuasive copy on your social media platforms.
Remember, anything you can use to set yourself apart from other businesses is to your advantage.
LinkedIn Marketing
As said by Bill Gates, “Power comes not from knowledge kept, but from knowledge shared.” Apply this helpful piece of advice to your marketing strategy. By teaching your followers valuable information or sharing knowledge, you can drive traffic to your brand and build credibility.
One of the best social media platforms to do this on is LinkedIn. The platform features many blog-style articles usually regarding business or branding advice. If you can teach other like-minded professionals in your industry something they’ll find valuable, they’re more likely to purchase or recommend your product.
Moreover, LinkedIn is also a great way to network with those in similar industries who may be a bit further along than you are. Use this to your advantage by using LinkedIn to find mentors, or people to collaborate with. Offer to take someone you admire out for lunch, to hear about their journey.
A presence on LinkedIn is also a great way to get clients, since LinkedIn is full of professionals with money.
The Art of Persuasion
You should aim to build your social media following even when you’re offline. Your goal should be to wake up every morning to new followers – but how can you persuade people to follow you on social media? One popular technique is to incentivize loyal consumers to follow you online in exchange for a discounted good or service.
For example, perhaps your local coffee shop offers a free baked good to any patron who shares a photo of their coffee on their Instagram account, and tags the coffee shop.
Tagged posts are a great way to drive traffic to your business and build brand credibility.
Take some time to consider what powerful words or phrases you can use when persuading others to follow you on social media. Shift your perspective to that of a consumer. What words or phrases would lead you to buy a product after viewing it on your social media feed?
Social Proof and Influencers
What is social proof and why is it important? The term ‘social proof’ refers to the expectation that people tend to follow accounts that already have a large following, lots of positive reviews from the public, or follow accounts that have been endorsed by a celebrity or public figure.
You may be wondering how the concept of social proof relates to your branding strategy. Well, for starters, 97% of consumers report that online reviews affect their buying decisions. Therefore, building a sustainable brand requires testimonials from people not affiliated with your business. Simple enough, right?
One of the best ways to utilize the power of social proof, is to invest in brand endorsements from popular influencers. These social media influencers typically have a large, highly loyal following who listen to everything they say, do, and recommend.
Is it worth the money you might have to spend to get one of these public figures to promote you on their social media? Yes. Do your research, first, though. Ensure that their following is loyal, legitimate, and engaged. You should also ensure that their following is composed of the type of people you want to target.
You can always start by partnering with less expensive, micro-influencers, and work your way up to big-time social media influencers for brand endorsements.
Which Social Media Platforms are the Best for Building Your Empire?
You may be wondering which of the platforms are the best for your social media brand strategy. In short, all of them. However, you’ll want to make sure that you target a select few first to maximize your engagement.
In fact, I’ve learned that there’s essentially a holy trinity of social media platforms based on their engagement and content output. For these reasons, I recommend Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn as your focuses on social media branding.
For one thing, Instagram and YouTube have the most active monthly users which make driving up your engagement easier. They also allow notably longer videos than other sites like TikTok. While TikTok is still great for connecting with a certain audience, longer videos mean more time to explain your brand. Makes sense, right?
LinkedIn is set apart from most other social media sites in that it’s a huge community of professionals. Dedicating yourself to branding on LinkedIn will improve your copywriting skills making you a better business person overall.
These three media outlets also have another vital factor in common: They all work well to utilize social proof. All outlets have comment sections and ways to network with similar businesses and influencers in your community. The more credibility you build, the better.
Social Media Marketing Education
While you create your social media branding strategy, don’t stop learning. You may feel like seeking out information could distract from your marketing technique. However, don’t make this mistake.
Instead, use new information to your advantage. I’ve learned to adjust my strategy as I take in newfound social media marketing insights with great success. While it is tough to learn and act simultaneously, you’ll be a better business person for it.
The only reason successful businesses thrive is their underlying commitment to adaptation. As any branding expert, my success has largely fluctuated over the years. I keep at it, although because I trust my ability to adapt to a new normal. Evolution is only possible when you’re open to change.
So, is it worth the money to invest in some social media marketing training, coaching, or educational course on social media? If you want to be an influencer, then yes, it’s definitely a good idea. This is you investing in yourself, which is smart if you want to achieve your goals faster.
Learning to harness the power of social media takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so neither will your global empire. Continue to educate yourself, follow through consistently with your branding strategy, and watch as your business begins to grow.
Are you ready to maximize your social media platforms for ultimate growth? If you’re ready to build the kind of social media following that grows your business and takes it to the next level, enroll in my High-Ticket Influencer Program here.
Have You Ever Wondered What The Most Popular Social Media Influencers Do That Works?
Many people ask me,
Dan, how did you do it? How did you get over 1.5 million followers on Instagram, and over 1.7 million followers on Facebook? How did you get over 2.4 million YouTube subscribers?
When I’m constantly asked these questions, I realize that people don’t just want a social media guide from me. They want my social media secrets.
So now, for a limited time, you can access my most closely-guarded social media secrets by ordering your personal copy of my Social Media Secrets Vault. Here, you will gain access to my Instagram secrets, my YouTube secrets, my copywriting secrets, and even some closely-guarded persuasion secrets.
These social media secrets are what you need to build a global empire, and build the kind of social media following that will take your business to the next level.
In my Social Media Secrets Vault, you’ll learn how to get your first 10,000 followers fast, along with an Instagram checklist, a coveted YouTube cheat sheet on how to create superior videos, and many other social media secrets. I tend to guard these secrets with my life, so consider this a limited-time offer. Order my Social Media Secrets Vault here.
