Welcome back!

We hope everyone’s having an awesome start to this week. If you’re like most people, you probably find yourself scrolling on Instagram, Facebook, or X at least once a day. Whether you’re catching up with friends or keeping an eye on the latest trends, one thing’s for sure— you’re probably not there for a sales pitch.

That’s why successful brands cultivate online communities that foster genuine engagement, which creates a feedback loop that generates even more traction.

These days, customers have the power— they have endless choices and the ability to see what everyone else thinks before buying. Building a loyal fanbase requires joining the conversation in a way that’s friendly and real.

Let’s dive in! 📲

News

Tools + Productivity

Strategy

Find your people:

As we’ve said before, you’ll be able to implement marketing strategies more effectively simply by barking up the right tree.

Trying to build community with the wrong audience is like throwing a barbecue at a PETA convention. That’s why you need to know which niches find value in your product.

Once you know your audience’s demographic (age, gender, income level) & psychographics (values, attitudes, interests, & lifestyle), you can better focus your brand-building efforts.

A Facebook-specific strategy: joining & contributing to groups surrounding the interests of your customers (with valuable content, of course). FB’s research with users aged 18-25 shows they don’t mind brands posting in groups if they provide real value instead of solely promoting.

A company providing gardening-related products, for example, might drop a helpful tip in the Square Foot Gardening Tips group:

Identifying the influencers and pages your audience already follows & engaging with those accounts (through reposts, comments, & replies) helps you join the conversations your customers are already having.

Even though it takes more effort, creating relevant original content will naturally accumulate more engagement and give you a better chance of going viral.

If your brand caters to young adults and teens, create content using popular TikTok sounds or trends— the algorithm will automatically direct your target demographic to your account.

See how airline Ryanair uses TikTok features and humor to make content for its’ 2.3 million followers:

Build your character:

Choosing a brand voice and sticking with it gives your brand a persona— making your account blend seamlessly into the social media scene. Building a distinct character helps followers recognize your content and feel more compelled to engage.

Your brand persona becomes stronger when you have a unified voice across platforms and types of engagements— from posts to comments to replies.

Wendy’s is known for its’ sassy replies on Twitter, a reputation which it played into big-time:

If you can brighten your customers’ day with humor or feel-good content, you’ll deepen their sense of connection and increase their likelihood of engaging as they would with a friend.

This ties in with last week’s newsletter on content curation— but you can also have the same effect with content creation.

Showing alignment with your audience’s values through the content you put out also humanizes your brand and encourages people to view & talk about you positively.

See how Chewy proves it cares about the fur babies it caters to:

Livestreams can also humanize your brand by attaching it to real faces. Besides providing a way to easily engage with customers and answer questions one-on-one, using the feature to give behind-the-scenes sneak peeks can also boost transparency.

Don’t forget to recognize customers who do end up engaging with personalized responses (in line with your brand voice, too).

Right place, wrong time:

Timing isn’t everything, but when you post can make a big difference in how many people you reach— and by extension, how many you engage.

Most algorithms heavily factor in recency to decide how high posts rank on feeds, so it’s important to share when your audience is most active.

Creating and curating content is time-consuming, so don’t let your hard work go to waste and be buried under a ton of other posts.

If the platform allows, your best bet is to use page-specific analytics to see when your audience is most active. For good measure, though, here’s a breakdown of ideal times by platform, based on a study by SocialPilot.

Instagram: Monday/Tuesday/Friday 9-10 AM, Saturday 8 AM to 12 PM

Facebook: mid-week days from 7-9 AM,1-3 PM, and 7-9 PM.

X/Twitter: on weekdays— 7-9 AM & 6-9PM. On weekends— 11-5 PM.

LinkedIn: mid-week days from 10 AM to 12 PM.

TikTok: according to Buffer data, 4-5 pm mid-week yields the highest reach.

Posting at these times doesn’t guarantee maximum engagement, but being smart about timing (read: not posting at 3 AM) can naturally expose more of your audience to your content.

If you have an international presence, don’t forget to time posts based on zones where the most customers are concentrated.

Now that we have your attention:

Even though we said customers today crave authenticity and genuine interactions, if you’re already providing valuable or entertaining content, you won’t offend anyone with a more promotional call to action.

Include links and direct customers on what to do next— whether that’s visiting your website for more details, subscribing to a newsletter to stay updated, or taking advantage of limited-time offers.

Adidas used the IG product launch feature to direct customers to its’ limited edition shoe in collaboration with Childish Gambino:

Looking Ahead
Never before have businesses able to meaningfully connect with their audience on such a massive scale. While paid ads and sponsorships have their place (we’ll get into that soon), if you’re not using social media the way it’s meant to be used—and the way most people do (read: socially)—you’re missing out.

Building an authentic presence on social media hits several birds with one stone—or maybe a boulder. You boost brand awareness, nurture customer relationships, and gather loads of insights from metrics and data.

Speaking of data, stay tuned for next week when we decode those numbers and turn them into actionable strategies.

Here’s what’s coming up this month:

Social Media Strategy
Week 1: Picking your Platform(s)
Week 2: Content Curation
Week 3: Community Engagement (this week!)
Week 4: Analytics & Optimization
Week 5: Paid Advertising

Stay tuned!

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