Social Media Principles

Back in the day, before the internet became the marketing giant it is today, if you wanted to get your brand in front of thousands of people, you needed to spend a significant amount of money on TV commercials or national press ads. Fast forward and we now have social media platforms that allow us to log in, type out a message and instantly promote our brand to all our followers. It’s cheap and easy, but here’s the question: are we really making the most of this technology? More importantly, are we using it wisely?

The fact is many SMEs—and even larger companies—struggle to harness social media effectively as part of their marketing strategy. With that in mind, here are The Last Hurdle’s guiding social media principles for building a successful strategy for your business.

Identify Your Target Market

If you don’t know who your marketing is aimed at, you risk using a scattergun approach to social media. Yes, you might gain followers, but a good proportion of them won’t be the right people. Imagine going to a party where you know everyone personally compared to one where you’re a stranger to most people. The difference is clear: when you know your audience, your message resonates.

Our first key social media principle is to sit down and identify your target market:

Where do they live?
What age range are they in?
Do they work in specific industries?
Are they predominantly male or female?
Which platforms do they use, and what kind of content are they interested in?

Understanding your audience helps you create content that connects and engages with the right people. Knowing their preferences, challenges and interests is the foundation for any successful social media strategy.

Know Your Platform’s Demographics

Choosing the right social media platform depends on understanding its demographics. Not all platforms are created equal and your target audience may be more active on one than another. Take some time to explore platform usage statistics to see where your audience hangs out. Here are a couple insights to get you started:

Facebook in the UK is equally popular with both male and female users, while Pinterest attracts a largely female audience (78%).
LinkedIn’s highest demographic is 35-44-year-olds, and it’s particularly popular among professionals and business-to-business marketers.

Our second principle is simple: get to know the platform demographics and match them up with your target audience. This ensures you’re focusing your efforts on the right channels.

Interaction Is Key

The third, and perhaps most important, of the social media principles is interaction. The clue is in the name—it’s social media. One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is pushing out content and expecting it to work wonders without engaging with their audience. You’d be surprised at how many businesses receive a question from a potential customer on social media and either fail to respond or send a standardised reply.

Social media is personal and your customers expect that personal touch. Responding in a timely, thoughtful way can turn a passive follower into an active customer. Your customers will appreciate the effort and your engagement—and ultimately, your sales—will improve.

Educate, Don’t Just Push Products

Anyone who has spent time on social media will have come across businesses that simply push their products with links to buy. While promoting your products is important, constantly bombarding people with sales pitches can be off-putting. To use the party analogy again, if you’re in a group of people and all you’re doing is trying to flog them insurance, you’ll soon find yourself standing alone.

Instead, give your audience something valuable. Share tips, offer useful information, demonstrate your expertise. By educating rather than selling, you build trust and position yourself as an authority in your field—making it much more likely that when your audience is ready to buy, they’ll come to you.

Enjoy Being Social

It’s easy to see platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn as necessary evils, but if you learn to enjoy them, it can make a real difference. Let your personality shine through in your posts and interactions. If you genuinely enjoy engaging with your audience, they’re more likely to listen to what you have to say and engage with you in return.

Remember, people buy from people. Another key point is to avoid being negative, no matter how tough your day has been. Negative posts can turn customers off and create the wrong impression of your business.

Quality Over Quantity

Yes, posting regularly is important, but don’t post for the sake of it. Quality always trumps quantity. If you’ve done your research and understand your customer demographics, you should have a good idea of the content they want to see. Random posts with little relevance or value can weaken your interaction and lead to followers switching off.

Focus on delivering valuable, high-quality content that engages your audience, whether it’s a well-thought-out blog post, an insightful comment or an informative video.

Consistency Matters

Once you start your social media marketing campaign, make sure you stay consistent. This means checking your page regularly, responding to queries from followers and maintaining a steady stream of content. Social media campaigns don’t have a clear end—they often continue gaining traction long after you’ve hit ‘post’, and sometimes they take on a life of their own.