Not using social media for your online courses and reaping its benefits sounds crazy today. Especially knowing that today more than 3.5 billion people are using social media regularly. It means that almost half of the Earth’s population can be reached with your social media ads. Add that an average user has 8.6 social media accounts, and your opportunities will have no limits.
Okay, the importance of online presence is now evident. But how to stand out in a crowd of hundreds of thousands of Instagram accounts? How to make your course account eye-catching and content engaging when everything unique seems to be invented long before?
Online coaches and course creators are changing the lives of thousands of people worldwide. Now it’s their time to change their attitude to social media and enjoy the benefits it can give them if they haven’t done this already.
Here are some proven tips and hacks that have already transformed dozens of online coaches and course creators’ accounts.
Tip №1. Analyze your competitors
It’s the first thing you need to do before planning your posts on social media. Choose at least 30 competitors, better 100, and take a look at what they do. You don’t need to search for competitors’ accounts manually — use specific tools to make this job easier.
For instance, you can use Competitors App or Mediatoolkit to compare your content and ideas with those existing in the social media accounts of your competitors. Choose the best practices from their accounts, make them even better, and implement these improved ideas and trends into your content plan.
Tip №2. Be yourself
This might be the most important hack. However, it’s one of the most difficult ones. It’s very challenging to stay YOURSELF in the world of one-size-fits-all approaches and businesses. But that’s almost the only way to success.
Today, your personal brand, or your personality, almost equals your business. People don’t want to see and use something impersonal. They want to know your life’s ins and outs and your brand and see not only your successes but also your vulnerable sides.
So, the perfect choice is to blend these two things — personal and business — to attract more people and show them the real you.
Tip №3. Start with one (or two) social media accounts
There is no need to try to be present in all possible social media channels.
Choose one, or maximum two channels and concentrate on them. Also, we recommend choosing those platforms that suit your business goals. For instance, if you post many videos, Youtube might be a better option than Twitter. Also, you can add other social media so people can find you. It can be a blog with strong SEO or Instagram posts with well-thought-out hashtags that lead your target audience to your product.
Multitasking usually works not so great as people want it. Monotasking is often a better answer.
Tip №4. Be consistent
Social media is not only about visuals and great texts. It’s important to understand that the social media world is mostly about algorithms. The number of likes, comments, interactions in Stories, the regularity of your posts — all this influences your ranking.
Thus, it’s super important to engage people so that they interact more with your page, which will help algorithms realize that you have great content and your page is worth being shown on the Explore page.
Draft a content plan with regular posts not to have a “from-time-to-time” Instagram feed. Such a strategy is not a winning one. You need to post regularly, so the algorithms see that you’re an active user, and your posts are shown to the users.
Tip №5. Make it engaging and add Call-to-action
This hack relates to the previous one. You need to create engaging content, so the algorithms see that your content is worth to be seen by people. The more you engage people, the more your page is approved by algorithms. The more the algorithms show your account to users, the more they interact with you. So, this becomes a vicious circle.
Today, it’s not enough to have 100k followers and call it a day. Now you need to make them active and keep them engaged in your brand story.
One of the ways to make your content engaging is to add a call to action. Call to action invites your users to take the action that you want. For example, buy your course or join your webinar. However, a call to action is useless without a thought-out offer. You always need to have something to offer users. An offer should be a win-win for both of you. The offer should make them closer to the action you want them to take in your sales funnel. For example, you can offer them a free tutorial or a considerable discount that is active for the next 24 hours.
Understand that an offer helps to engage your users and bring them closer to the final step in the sales funnel.
Tip №6. Visual part is still important
Even though we claim that social media is about algorithms, visuals still matter. It’s great to develop a unique branding, so the colors are firmly associated with your product. For example, SWEAT is a vivid example. Now when you see bright pink color in the fitness domain, the chances are that you immediately think about Kayla Itsines and her app.
We recommend designing a unique style for all your social media accounts. Also, it would be great to align them with your app or desktop course version color scheme. A lot of online course platforms allow branding and choosing your color scheme. For instance, Gurucan, a platform to create your white-label app and online courses, offers you to create your own color scheme for the mobile app and desktop version, even on the standard price plan!
Of course, you need to create nice looking visuals to attract more people. Think outside the box: try videos, GIFs, cinemagraphs, or infographics. Don’t use stock photos — it seems impersonal and often unnatural. Try to create content that will distinguish you from others.
Tip №7. Collaborate with influencers
Influencers today are the kings of content and people’s trust. More than 50% of Gen Z and millennials say they trust influencers when promoting the brands and products.
Thus, it’s a wise strategy to collaborate with influencers and make a part of their audience yours. You can find relevant influencers via such tools as SocialBakers or TrendHero — they will help pick the right people to promote your online courses.
You can create giveaways with bloggers that will promote your brand to a new audience and increase your engagement rate.
Tip №8. Be a part of a community
One of the most underestimated hacks is to be a part of the community. Be there where your audience is. It can be participating in Twitter chats, commenting on popular people’s posts, or creating posts around third-party content. You can also ask your target audience and potential consumers questions and give answers to the questions they ask.
Be like water: adjust to the realities, go where your clients are, and always try new ways to be a part of the community.
Tip №9. Use Stories. Or any other new features.
500 million people use Instagram Stories every day, which is one of the reasons you need it. Most people switched from scrolling posts to scrolling stories. It’s a faster and easier way to consume content.
Moreover, when a social media channel introduces some new feature, the algorithms (again!) promote those accounts that use it. Thus, the next time Facebook or Instagram introduces something new, don’t think twice and become an early adopter. It’s your chance to attract a new audience.
Now IG Reels is a trend, so it’s high time to discover it and reach new audiences on a global stage.
Tip №10. Analytics is your fuel
Analytics, if it’s used wisely, is now just incomprehensible data and numbers. It’s the fuel for your growth.
Analytics gives you powerful insights into the best content to post, the best time for posting, who your audience is, and where it comes from. You can adapt your content plan according to the data you see in analytical reports. This will make your social media strategy even stronger as it’s based on real information, not some imaginary facts.
Creating a working and surefire social media strategy is not an easy task. However, these tips are going to help you start your exciting journey into this world. You can’t tell for sure what will work out for you, but you can always try and adapt your strategy in the process. Because, as we know,
“The hardest part is starting. Once you get that out of the way, you’ll find the rest of the journey much easier.”
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