If you want to become active on social media but are unsure how to start, or if you’ve already taken the first steps but it’s not quite working out, then keep reading: Because this article presents six hacks for your social media marketing as a trainer.
#1: Know your target audience
What applies to product development and marketing campaigns also applies to social media marketing: Know your target audience!
- Who do you want to reach with it?
- Do you want to reach your existing customers and stay in touch with them through social media? Do you want to attract new customers?
- How old is your target audience?
- What problems and interests do they have?
Find out as much as possible about your target audience. It’s helpful to imagine specific individuals in your target audience and create so-called personas. Imagine a typical customer. What’s their name? What are they interested in? How old are they? Describe this customer as precisely as possible. This will not only provide a great foundation for choosing a social media channel but also allow you to produce content that resonates with your target audience.
#2: Focus
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Xing, Snapchat, TikTok, … There are countless options. The key here is focus! This means: At the beginning, choose only one channel to start with. Get to know this channel better—what works, what doesn’t? What features does it have? Only when you know what works on this channel, should you (if necessary) move on to the next one.
But the motto “Focus” doesn’t just apply to the channel, it also applies to your topic. Trying to cover everything will ultimately cover nothing properly. Therefore, decide on your focus topic and reach exactly the people who are interested in your core topics. Often, niche topics work particularly well.
#3: Content is King
Content – what is it exactly? Content means substance. Good content means providing your customers with content that adds value to them. Solve your customers’ problems with your social media posts. A fatal mistake many make is simply posting anything. Something that doesn’t offer any value. Because then your followers will eventually become annoyed by your posts and unfollow you. Don’t just post pictures of yourself, but posts that offer your customers tangible value. This is how you build trust with your target audience.
#4: Make a plan
Make a plan – this means: Define how often you want to post, collect content ideas, produce the content, enter into an editorial plan when you want to post what, and schedule these posts (as far as possible) in advance. This can be done, for example, with Facebook’s Creator Studio or Hootsuite. This way, you don’t have to worry about new posts every day, as it’s all automated. However, you should still take the time to interact directly with your target audience. This means: If someone comments, like the comment and respond to it. If someone writes to you, reply.
#5: Use free tools
There are countless free tools for creating and scheduling social media posts:
- Canva, for creating graphics
- Storrito, for scheduling stories
- Facebook Creator Studio, for managing Instagram and Facebook
- …
It’s worth trying these out. Of course, these programs often also have a paid version, but especially at the beginning, the free version is often sufficient.
#6: Analyze the numbers
After you’ve started, one thing is particularly important: Track the numbers! For this, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the metrics of the individual social media channels and consider which metrics you can use to measure your goals. For example, if you want as many people as possible to come to your website through social media, look at which posts get the most clicks. If you want as many people as possible to see your post, then look at the reach. If you want to find out which post provides great value to your target audience and what really interests them, look at which posts are shared, liked, or saved the most. This way, step by step, you’ll find out what works and can align your next planning accordingly.
Lastly, the most important tip: Just get started! It definitely makes sense to make a plan beforehand, but it doesn’t have to be perfect! You’ll make the most progress by trying things out and refining your strategy step by step.
Have fun posting and experimenting!
