Bringing your business to social media is, without a doubt, a step in the right direction.

If you’ve been following this blog (and I really, really hope you have!), you should already understand the true power of social media as a visual marketing tool, as a platform for building thought leadership, and so on. Social media is like the Swiss Army knife of marketing — it can actually surprise you with how much it can do, and I think we’ve barely even scratched the surface!

However, while social media has a myriad of uses and features that can help you build your brand, it won’t be able to accomplish this on its own. There’s a significant amount of work that goes into creating and preparing your social media accounts – from filling in the required fields to optimizing the text to improve searchability, everything matters. Naturally, managing your social media profiles also involves quite a bit of planning, strategizing, and executing.

One of the most effective social media management strategies is to hold campaigns to promote your brand. The purpose of this is twofold — to inspire loyalty in your followers by means of presenting an incentive for engagement, and to boost the reach and follower count of your page. For an example of some social media campaigns this year that really worked, check out this infographic I prepared:

Ideally, a social media campaign should last no more than 30 days. While you may think that’s a bit too short, it’s actually more than enough time for you to get your marketing machine up and generating leads. Some brands may have a portion of their budget allocated towards traditional forms of marketing, but it pays to remember that sufficient buzz and consistent monitoring are the key to a successful social media campaign — two things that you can do even without spending so much.

Out of those two things, let’s focus on the former for a bit. I’ve prepared a list of effective tactics in generating buzz for your campaigns on social media — take a look below and see which ones you are already doing, and which ones you can do.

Stay updated on the latest trends

It pays to be updated and to know what today’s generation is paying a lot of attention to.

After all, by being familiar with current trends and issues, you can take those concepts and mix them with your own, and even capitalize on their wave of popularity to boost your offerings. Who knows, your campaign just might become the next viral sensation!

Create and share quality content

Let’s face it — the best way to connect with your audience (and to give them a reason to keep coming back to you) is to provide high-quality and really useful content that is uniquely yours.

It’s not just about creating and sharing your own content 100% of the time, though; in fact, you should be sharing more content from other folks (given it’s related to your field of expertise, of course).

Establish a community of followers and like-minded individuals

By putting more time and energy into building relationships, you’ll be able to groom an entire community full of people who support you and are willing to remain as active members of your group.

Never underestimate “people power” when it comes to marketing! Let the online voices of your multitude of supporters drown out any negative comments or jeering that get thrown your way.

Do it, and do it now — promptness is key

Many social media campaigns — as a matter of fact, many marketing endeavours in general — become messy failures simply because somewhere along the line, the drive to consistently monitor the campaign gets lost, and it ends up running on its own until it completely fails to reach your objectives.

You can use just about anything as an excuse to put off working on your campaigns, but the fact of the matter is as long as you’re not doing anything or implementing any new ideas, you’re never going to reach your goals.

Tell your own story

It doesn’t matter whether you think you’re selling something plain, uninteresting or boring (and if you do think that, then maybe you’re in the wrong industry — though that’s a discussion for another day); your brand surely has a story, a relatable, emotional hook that will set you apart from everyone else.

Establish ties with the right people

Get to know the influencers and thought leaders in your field. Engage with them on social media, write guest blogs for them, tag them in tweets — build a friendship with them, one that you could mutually benefit from in the long run.

You should also build a network of bloggers for you to contact if you have any big events or campaigns that you would like to get some media coverage about.

Talk about yourself

Don’t be shy — after all, no one else is going to do the talking for you, just you. It’s your responsibility to create buzz by building a solid reputation for your brand (and letting people know what they’re missing out on if they don’t pay attention to you or your campaign).

There are many events and places where you can go to start meeting people and establishing connections. Don’t be afraid to let them know more about you, as it’s a prerequisite to building trust, in any setting.

Ultimately, you are but one of a thousand or more businesses all flocking to social media in the hopes of getting noticed by the right people and eventually become something more. Still, it all depends on how willing you are to put work into it — to engage with your fans, to stay up-to-date and informed, and to prioritize building up whatever it is that you do differently and that you can eventually become known for.