As a social media marketer, catering to your target demographic is one thing, but reaching new people requires a lot more effort.
There are over 3.50 billion global social media users. That means 80% of the world’s internet users are on at least one social media platform.
So, any business has huge potential to get its brand message heard.
In this article, we’ll dive into eight unique ways that you can use social media channels to reach new people and ultimately connect with new customers.
8 Ways to Reach People on Social Media
1. Utilise social media groups
Social media groups are a fantastic resource for any brand looking to reach new people. This point can be split into two parts: hosting your own group or joining existing groups. Either way, groups have the power to connect a vast number of people on a particular topic. With the sheer volume of people on Facebook and LinkedIn, groups can get extremely specific yet still host a great number of people.
A few ground rules for any social media group
- Respect the community
- Post relevant content
- Avoid spamming
- Befriend admins
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Adhere to the rules
Creating a Facebook or LinkedIn Group as a Business
How to create a Facebook group for business
- Go to your Facebook business page and click on the “Community” tab on the left of the page.
- Click “Create Group” in the main section of the page.
- Fill in your group name, members, and privacy settings- click “Create.”
How to create a LinkedIn group for business
At the time of writing this article, LinkedIn does not currently allow business pages to create groups. That doesn’t mean businesses can’t host them though, they just need to be created from a personal account.
For example, Hubspot’s LinkedIn group is owned by the HubSpot founder and CTO and managed by the social community manager and the global marketing director. Unfortunately, you can’t hide the names or profiles of the group creators.
- Click on the “Work” panel in the top right corner of your LinkedIn page and select “Groups.”
- Click “Create Group” in the top right corner and fill out the information.
- Brand your group by creating rules and an engaging description. Customise the group profile photo and the cover image.
Source
Once you’ve created your Facebook or LinkedIn group it’s important that you invite its founding members. These people will be the bones of your group and will help to keep it going in its earliest stages.
Nourish your group with engaging, genuine and authentic content, give its members purpose, and it will start to naturally form a community of like-minded people in return.
2. Host special guests with live video
Hosting a special guest is a great way of tapping into a hyper-relevant audience that you wouldn’t have had the chance to reach otherwise. Take time identifying who you’d like your special guest to be and the topic you think that both your brand and the guest can explore together.
Once you’ve done this and secured your guest, the biggest exposure you’ll get for the initiative is before and during the live session. Make sure you create a content plan with the guest that promotes the event to your audience and to theirs- across all social channels.
Create a hashtag for the event too, so you can better track the conversation and the reach of your social posts.
Why should you go live on social media?
Live has been proven to be more engaging than other forms of social content. People tend to engage with it more than they would with other content types. For example, 80% would rather watch a live video than read a brand’s blog.
Live content also gives your brand and your guest a reason to post more often. As you work towards the live event, use the opportunity to build hype and post more regularly than usual.
3. Invest in influencer marketing
Influencer marketing needs to be done at scale. A focused initiative on micro or macro-influencers can only help your business to reach new people on social media.
You’ll need to identify a handful of influencers that are right for your brand and have an engaged following. It’s good to create a campaign with them if you hope to launch a new product or build awareness fast, but evergreen relationships are even better.
Just because you’ve worked with an influencer once doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work with them again. Don’t think that you’ve reached their audience and should move on.
Build relationships with influencers, make them affiliates or brand ambassadors, and continuously tap into their audiences as they continue to grow alongside you.
4. Create shareable quizzes
If you want your brand to reach more people on social then you need to create content that is shareable. Rather than relying on audiences of influencers or special guests, rely on the audience of your audience. Two handshakes away and you have access to a huge amount of people that no doubt have similar interests to your current social followers.
How can you reach these people? Quizzes. Quizzes are engaging, addictive and most of all, shareable.
Create a quiz that is relevant to your product, easy to navigate and gives results that people want to share.
Build on your quizzes even more by creating product recommendations depending on someone’s results. This way you’ll reach new people and have the opportunity to convert them into sales.
5. Use hashtags
There’s so much power in hashtags. They are SEO keywords to social media channels and allow people to find your content better. The social Media platforms that pay specific attention to hashtags are Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and Pinterest.
How to use hashtags on Instagram
Using hashtags on Instagram helps your brand to get onto the “Explore Page.” Once you’re there, your content has a great opportunity at going viral among a group of people with similar interests.
How can your brand get there? Use a hashtag selection tool like Flick.Tech. The tool helps you to find hashtags that are relevant to your topic, widely searched but with low competition. This gives you the best opportunity to rank and find new audiences.
How to use hashtags on TikTok
TikTok hashtags are searched actively and give your brand the best chance of appearing on the “For You” page within the platform. This page is much like Instagram’s explore page but whereas Instagram places emphasis on the people that you follow, TikTok puts emphasis on the content you follow, and hashtags help get your content in front of new eyes.
How to use hashtags on LinkedIn
Hashtags on LinkedIn are incredibly topical. Stay relevant to whatever you are posting about and it will really help your business reach new audiences. LinkedIn has this fantastic feature where if it sees a post doing well under a certain hashtag it will promote that post to your own community and beyond, helping further its reach.
How to use hashtags on Pinterest
There’s no need to get creative or try to be comical with hashtags on Pinterest. Tag as you see it. Like in the example above, keep your hashtagging simple and explanatory; this will help your content be found by those that are looking for it.
6. Join challenges and trends
When we speak of challenges this is specific to TikTok. Dance challenges, video editing challenges, voice-overs, you name it the platform is rife with it. Plus, TikTok’s algorithm means your brand doesn't need to have a huge following in order to gain traction and be seen.
Your content is tested with a small number of people and if it’s received well it will get pushed to larger segments of people until it goes “viral.” The best way of being seen on TikTok right now is latching on to challenges and their hashtags.
Mentioning hashtags brings us on to the second point here. Look at what’s trending and think of ways your brand can jump on the bandwagon. It could see you create your most popular content to date if it’s delivered well and during the heat of the trend.
Handstand challenge featuring @Gymshark
7. Be innovative
Innovation wins credit - @ArielleSays, if you’re creating content that stands out you’re more likely to get your account featured elsewhere.
Manage your social media accounts creatively and post content that no one else has posted. Even if you take up a challenge or a trend give it your own brand spin that is entirely unique to your business.
By doing so, you’ll begin to see your account featured, referenced and shared elsewhere. Which will, in turn, put you in front of new eyes.
8. Partner up
Last on our list, but certainly not least, is partnering up. Businesses are better when they work together. Find partner brands with similar visions to your own brand and a relevant audience. Once you’ve done so, begin to explore ways in which you can work together on a social heavy campaign.
This type of collaboration often comes back to a brand's mission and vision, or is found through a positive initiative. Find businesses that have the capacity to build a great brand awareness campaign with your brand. Reach their audience, pick up positive press and make an impact along the way.
Wrapping it all up
Wrapping it up, I cannot stress enough the importance of staying data-minded in your quest to reach more people on social media. Pay close attention to your social media analytics, learn to read your data and make actionable decisions on the results you find. Identify areas for improvement as well as areas of excellence and repeat them.
Stay agile, creative and reach more people with your social efforts.
