These are the best social media practices to use without breaking the bank

This article was written for Daily Hive by Jina Marwood of ID Agency.

Social media advertising doesn’t always have to be a daunting task for you or your bank account. There are several methods that can help boost your brand without over-spending — here are six to help you get started.

Research your demographic

When your brand has a full understanding of your customer’s wants, needs, and expectations, you have the ability to fundamentally reshape and change the way your audience views your business. Are you targeting baby boomers or millennials? Is your audience predominantly women? Where are they located? These are important questions to answer so that you know how your customers search for information, purchase products, and the type of content they’re drawn to.

Community management

Community management is all about building relationships with your customers. When you interact with the communities that your audiences are a part of, you become more active in discussions that are relatable to your business. It doesn’t have to be complicated — simply liking, commenting, and responding to direct messages in a timely manner will transition your business from an average brand to a humanized brand.

Gather data on optimal posting

Start using your data to tell you when to publish content. When Instagram updated the algorithm in 2018, the time you post became increasingly more important. While there are findings that suggest the general best posting times, we believe it’s best to find your own optimal posting schedule based on your audience. Scheduling tools like Later and Sprout Social will automatically pick the best time for you to publish content, based on when your followers are the most active on each platform. It eliminates all guesswork and is more likely to boost content performance.

Hashtags

Hashtags are a simple part of social media marketing yet often overlooked or not executed properly. Including the proper hashtags in your posts means that your brand is taking part in relevant conversations and helps make your content visible to the right audience. Using a personalized hashtag strategy can lead to an increase in reach, engagement, and followers.

User-generated content

At times, brand-generated content can appear unrelatable to consumers on social media. This is why the authentic look of user-generated content is often viewed as a more trustworthy source. Users want to know what they’re going to get before they hit the purchase button, and UGC provides the most credible review.

Another way to leverage UGC is by launching a social campaign so you always have relevant material to share. For example, we partnered with Growers Cider for an influencer marketing event, and #OhHeyRosé was the hashtag guests were encouraged to use. This allowed Growers to re-share content that specifically marketed their products to a wide range of audiences.

Contesting

Running an Instagram contest is an easy way to allow users to engage with your brand and increase your following at a low cost. Try to ensure the method of entry is simple, by including a CTA to tag a friend and follow your account, it will help expand your brand’s reach and boost your overall rate of engagement.

If you’re still not seeing the results that you like, it may be time to start looking into a budget for social ads or performing a social media audit.

ID Agency is a Vancouver-based agency that specializes in influencer marketing, events, and press trips. For more articles, click here.