How to Market Yourself on Social Media: 6 Tips For Beginners

A quick Google search for "how to succeed at business" will give you thousands of results. (Well, more like 382,000,000, but who's counting.)

Skimming through most of the top results will leave you with a few lasting impressions of what you need to succeed: a clear position on your product or service, consistency in the actions for marketing yourself on social media, and a way to reduce the number of decisions you have to make on a daily basis.

‍But how do you prioritize clarity and consistency while ALSO reducing the time you spend on decision-making?

‍Super glad you asked! (You totally asked, right?)

Let’s talk about how to market yourself on social media to build your business.

Learn how to market yourself on social media

One of the most important ways to promote your business, once you have found your positioning and niche, is with social media.

There is a bunch of conflicting advice out there on how to use social media to market yourself. It can be confusing and overwhelming.If you want to learn how to market yourself professionally on social media, try these 6 simple strategies.

1. Try out automation

Ask any computer engineer and they’ll tell you that if you’re doing things more than once, you ought to find a way to automate it. If you can reduce the number of times you interact with something (make decisions about it), you reduce the brain space spent on that thing.

Remember Steve Jobs and his black turtlenecks? He wore one every day because it reduced his need to care about what to wear every day. That brain space was then freed up to work on bigger problems - like fitting every single Spice Girls song into something the size of your back pocket.

As a business owner, you have a lot of things to think about, yourself: writing blog posts, working with clients, creating products, making sales, doing your bookkeeping, watching cat videos - the list goes on.

‍So while you may not want to go to the extreme of wearing the exact same thing every day, there’s no denying the effectiveness of automating what you can.

‍One place to automate things is with your social media. For example, you could use a tool that regularly posts and recycles your best updates, so you can then focus on other aspects of your business.

But how do you avoid going complete Black Turtleneck, and maintain an active presence in your social media accounts?

2. Use live broadcasting

Want to remind people you're a real, live human? Take advantage of social media’s live broadcasting features!

You could do a regular Q&A session with your fans, talk about a product you’re promoting, or just connect on a personal level with anyone who tunes in.

By getting on a live video, your fans will feel connected to you, and they’ll also get clarity about who you are and why they should hang out with you more.

Check out this post for more ideas on using Livestream features on social media.

3. Take advantage of groups

Social media groups are a great way to get in front of new audiences without feeling like you’re hard-selling your business.

You may think that Facebook groups are dead, but you’re wrong! There are still millions of Facebook users who use groups to connect with like-minded people and get information about topics they’re interested in. Learn how to create and get people to join your Facebook group here.

LinkedIn groups can also be an excellent place to flex your non-automated muscles. Find a topic you love and a group you want to come back to again and again, and make your real-life presence known.

4. Regularly Share Content

It's essential to maintain open communication with your followers while avoiding oversharing and appearing desperate.

Consistency is key to building a strong online presence. Regularly post content, engage with your audience, and maintain a cohesive visual style. Consistency reinforces your brand identity and builds trust among your followers.

Craft engaging and valuable content that showcases your expertise, personality, and passion. Use a mix of text, images, videos, and other media formats to keep your audience interested and coming back for more. Share industry insights, behind-the-scenes glimpses, success stories, and valuable tips that resonate with your audience.

I understand how time-consuming it can be. This is where Edgar, your trusty octopus, comes to the rescue! With Edgar by your side, you can efficiently plan and schedule your posts in advance, saving you time and effort.

When you get your social media scheduled and your updates rotating automatically for you in the background, you can all of a sudden find time to focus on the other strategies!

You can focus on delivering valuable insights and connecting with your audience while Edgar takes care of the posting logistics. It's a winning combination that ensures your social media strategy stays on point and your brand remains consistently active.

5. Host a webinar

Webinars are a way to make connections with your audience outside of social media platforms - and they can have fantastic returns.

While most people use webinars to promote an upcoming product launch, you can also try strategies like hosting a “pitch free webinar” that gathers people together to teach a topic and share what you know.

The great thing about hosting a webinar is that people often share the upcoming event with their own audiences, so you might even see your connections grow over time!

6. Create Instagram Stories

Want to know how to promote yourself on social media when time is limited? Make use of Instagram stories.

When Instagram built Stories into its platform, marketers responded in droves. These ephemeral photos and videos have been used to promote new services, get personal with followers, and show off just about anything you can imagine, from daily meals to funny moments around the office!

More than 500 million Instagram users check their Stories every single day. The popularity of this feature isn’t showing any sign of slowing down.

In fact, a decent number of users prefer checking their Stories to checking their main feed - so try making your own Instagram stories to catch their attention! Here are some ideas to get you started.

How do YOU show up on social media?

It IS possible to balance live interactions with automating and recycling your content. In fact, automating your updates is how you give yourself the time for quality, live interactions!

‍Automating your social media isn’t about turning you into a nameless, faceless robot - it's about doing more with the time you have.

‍How do YOU interact with your audience in a non-automated way? How have tools (like Edgar) helped you free up time to connect personally?