Maintaining your online presence is just as important (if not more so) than having an online presence to start with. If you don’t add new content people will lose interest.
If you don’t respond to messages people will think you don’t care. So, keeping your content fresh and relevant and staying engaged is a crucial part of maintaining your online presence. Here are five tips on how to do this.
1] Blog posts
If you have a blog post it is, of course, important to keep it updated. A great way to do this is to set a schedule for when you will publish new content. Making this schedule known to your readers and customers will put them in the know and also keep you accountable.
Having a regularly updated blog is a great way to maintain a strong online presence. The fresh content you promise your readers and customers gives them a reason to return to your site, improving your SEO ranking.
2] “Duplicating” material
You shouldn’t always post the same content on all platforms, but sometimes it is useful and even advantageous to upload the same content onto different platforms or to create a single ‘story’ but have it play out over all the platforms you engage in. Using video is a great way to do this. There are great online video makers available to help you with this.
If you do decide to sometimes place the same video on various platforms it will ensure that your content is seen no matter which platform your customer makes use of.
If you have one story playing out over multiple platforms it will draw customers to the other platforms where you can engage with them more and make them aware of your overall online presence.
3] Content on social media accounts
To reiterate: keeping the content updated is very important. Your social media account has to be active, interactive and relevant daily. New posts/content can be pre-scheduled and automated on many platforms which makes it easier to always have new content uploaded.
It can take time to make and upload quality content so plan your content ahead of time and set out a schedule. If you decide to make all your content for the coming week on a Monday, for example, you can schedule the prepared content and focus on other important activities for the rest of the week.
Remember to focus on variety and quality as well as quantity and don’t get stuck in the rut of just doing the same thing over and over on all platforms.
4] Actively engage your audience
Content may be king but engagement is the glitz and glory that makes the king matter. If you fail to engage, connect and build or foster relationships with your online customers, you cannot gain and maintain their trust.
Make this engagement easier on yourself and pick a certain time every day that you will dedicate to engaging with your customers online – reply to questions and comments on your posts, check out the posts you were tagged in and leave a comment or like, post-Q&A sessions and do not ignore complaints and criticism.
If you are taking a hiatus from engaging like this because you are going on holiday or have other obligations, for example, make it known, say when you will be back and schedule prepared content to be shared.
5] Add value
Value-added posts on social media is a great way to make your customers and audience feel valued and appreciated and also draw some attention.
Running a promotion or a social media giveaway that will truly add value to your customers lives will add to the trust you are building with them. It might help you score some brownie-points too if the post is run responsibly and fairly and customers receive what they believe they will.
