1. Know your brand.

Social media helps marketers showcase their brand in a conversational space while maintaining control over the narrative. Ask yourself fundamental questions such as:

• Who are you?

• Who is your audience?

• What does your audience care about?

After determining the answers to these questions (and many more), you will be better positioned to utilize the proper channels and speak to — and with — your audiences on social media.

2. Be intentional.

We’ve all seen brands that step outside of their lane on social media. This is often due to a strategy, or lack thereof, of simply posting content and seeing what sticks.

On the contrary, posting with purpose means posts have a goal and contribute to the social media and overall marketing objective. Social media marketers can craft more intentional posts by first asking questions such as:

• What type of content is important to my audience? Quick tips? Inspirational visuals? In-depth articles? Something else?

• Is my Facebook audience interested in different content than my Instagram audience?

• What time of day is my audience most active and engaged on social media?

3. Leverage trends.

For this topic, trends can be broken into two different categories: content trends and social trends.

Content trends refer to the type of post (e.g., reels, panoramic carousels, polls in Instagram captions). In contrast, social trends refer to the actual content users are creating (e.g., trending songs/audio, memes, creative transitions).

If you’re considering leveraging a social trend, think back to who your brand is and how to post with purpose. Because social trends are always changing, capitalizing on what’s trending can be tricky unless you have a dedicated team who knows the ebb and flow of the social landscape — and how to use the trends of the moment to the brand’s advantage.

Here are two tips to save time and effort:

1. Just because a trend is viral doesn’t mean it is relevant to all brands. Consider whether it will resonate with your audience.

2. Most trends die just as quickly as they arise. If you’ll need more than two weeks to create and approve a trending post, it might be better not to activate it at all.

I recommend investing ample time in following content trends. Once these trends become the norm, they tend to be adopted by the field as social media best practices, so it’s beneficial to stay ahead of the curve.

4. Follow best practices.

Just as a builder can’t build a house without a solid foundation, a company must adopt some basic social media best practices to see a return on their efforts.

Some examples of the groundwork include:

• Establishing the brand as a Business Page

• Sizing images and reels appropriately

• Setting up Instagram Highlights

• Adding a Link in Bio or LinkTree

• Writing a creative and concise bio

And that’s just the first few steps. After setting up a social presence, the real work — community management (aka, interacting with followers and building a community) — begins.

Even something as seemingly simple as Meta Business Suite setup can be daunting, but an experienced social media partner can help position brands for success. The basics may be the least sexy part of social media, but if you miss the mark here, little else matters. A successful social program requires dedication, and even with 30 minutes onstage, my IBS presentation barely scratched the surface.

If you’re on the fence about investing in the amplification and measurement of your social program, consider that most of your audience is already there: In 2024, there are an estimated 5.17 billion total social media users worldwide.

That’s an immense opportunity for you to meet and connect with your audiences where they are.

It’s a huge miss if you don’t.

Knowing how to do social media marketing effectively should be a priority for brands in the home and building category and beyond. If you’re ready to amplify your social media game and need a partner, contact Wray Ward.