Nowadays, It doesn't matter whether you run a business on the internet or not, you need to create online visibility to run a successful business.

Your business has to find a way to reach as many people as possible in the most cost-effective way.

And social media presents a veritable opportunity to do exactly that.

However, the problem is, many entrepreneurs today don't know how to go about creating the right influence or visibility on social media platforms.

Leveraging Social Media for Business

I've seen several profiles of people taking wrong approaches in creating online visibility for their business.

Cases such as spraying contents across social media platforms and hoping that something sticks.

Heck, some even use unrelated hashtags to promote their business contents, which rarely attracts the right kind of leads; sometimes leading to what I call "irk views".

So, what's the right approach?

How can a small business start attracting the right social media following and grow their online influence?

How can a relatively unknown business become a viral internet sensation?

The answer lies in employing the right social media strategy.

Now, that can be quite ambiguous. The right social media strategy could mean different things to different people.

To some, it could mean just showing up every day on social media and interacting with people.

To others, it could mean spamming the comment section of every other social media post with adverts of their products.

But like they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The right social media strategy will consistently deliver the right results.

So, if you are not seeing consistent results with your current social media content strategy, then it means that your strategy could be wrong.

There are a lot of strategies out there that you can employ in creating visibility on social media, but first, let me tell you what is not a good strategy.

Hoping that something works out somehow somewhere is not a good strategy.

Telling your friends to like your social media posts every other time is not a good strategy.

Jumping on unrelated trends on social media because they appear popular is not a good strategy.

Commenting on popular posts or advertising under posts made by celebrities is not a good strategy.

So, what then is the right strategy to employ in creating online visibility that will benefit your business and likely make it go viral?

Employing the Right Social Media Strategy

It all comes down to having a holistic view of how you want to present your business to the public and the kind of engagement you want to create for your brand.

Simply put, you want to utilize the speed and reach of social media to make customers fall in love with your business and help you make it go viral.

You could call it brand seduction.

You could even see it as making an effort to acquire a sea of internet fans that swear by your products or services.

My point is, there must be a deliberate plan to your social media strategy.

You want to use the right names, be on the right trends, post the right things, and attract the right leads.

So, how do you go about this?

Firstly, you must understand that everything you do online revolves around content, and your content must be purposeful and cover almost every aspect of your business.

Your content should be selling your products or services.

Your content should be trying to attract new leads.

Your content should be providing social proofs for your products or services.

Your content should be telling your brand story.

Your content should be providing answers to customer questions and addressing feedback.

Your content should be projecting your competitive advantage.

Your content should be in alignment with the expectations of your customers.

Your content should be soliciting engagement from your audience.

Content Range for the Right Social Media Exposure

I've come up with five touch points to guide your content in order to have the most social media exposure and engagement.

It is obvious that without knowing your content range, it will be difficult to design content to fulfill specific aspects of your social media strategy.

So, here are my five content ranges for creating social media visibility for your business:

Industry Authority
Visual Proofs of people/products/services
Social Validations
Competitive Edge
Customer Guarantees

Let's look into each of these content ranges.

Industry Authority

This is the first level or the simplest form of creating social media visibility for your business.

It is as easy as demonstrating that you know your business.

You want to show that you understand the business terrain, the trending products in your industry, your customer needs, and your expertise to satisfy customers.

There are several ways businesses do this, such as:

Writing a blog post
Shooting a video documentary
Organizing a webinar or masterclass
Releasing periodic infographics about relevant industry data
Posting industry breaking news

You can see that these are all different types of content; images, videos, text.

It should be obvious by now that you can't achieve social media visibility without the right mix of content.

And that is high quality content.

Savvy businesses looking to demonstrate industry authority have a healthy schedule of these types of content which they post on their social media platforms.

Some even post these contents as adverts to quickly reach more of their target audience on social media.

Visual Proofs of People, Products & Services

Humans are visual by nature.

They may enjoy it when you talk the talk, but they want to see you walk the walk.

Savvy businesses use visual proofs to create trust with target leads and bond with their customers.

With visual proofs, you have the chance to show potential customers the people behind the business, the actual products and the uniqueness of the services you offer.

This can be achieved mostly via video contents tailored to showcase the inside look of the business.

These types of contents are instant magnets for attracting loyal customers who feel like they personally know you and understand how your business works.

Businesses can show visual proofs in different ways such as:

Posting a video tutorial on how to use a particular product
Posting a video walkthrough of how they deliver their services
Doing a live AMA with the founder or owner of the business
Having a website that showcases the faces behind the business
Live streaming a product launch

These are just a few, but you could come up with a lot of ideas if you take the time to study what other businesses are posting online.

The goal is to open up your business to potential customers so that they are able to easily relate with your business offering and engage with you.

You don't just want to be everywhere, you want to be visible and close to the hearts of your target audience.

They can see your business online, they can engage with your business, and they can trust your business.

That's visibility.

Social Validations

Apart from having limitless access to potential customers, social media also helps you crowdsource validation for your business.

It is only fair as a small business that if a customer from a particular social media platform patronizes your business, that you publicize that sale so others can see that you are worth buying from.

It is called social media for a reason. People want to have what others have and they want to be seen doing what others are doing.

That is the underlying reason why trends are formed and why things go viral, so why not use it to your advantage?

The plan is to elicit emotion and trust in target customers and show proof of how your product or service is helping customers meet their needs.

If that's the case, then the validations have to come from the customers themselves.

This could be in the form of:

Written reviews on shopping sites or Google pages
Video recommendations where customers are using the product or service
Voice notes from after sale conversations
Screenshot proofs of repeat customers who enjoy using the product or service
Reviews of customers who patronized your business after watching the review of another customer (viral effect)
Reviews of customers who switched from a competitor after using your product or service
Images of people actively using your product or service

Show enough social validation and you'll leave no doubt in the minds of your target customers.

These things are easy to do, all you have to do is ask your customers and they'll be happy to do it if they enjoy your product or like your business.

I'm baffled when I see struggling businesses online trying all the wrong strategies but somehow forgetting to get social validation.

Social validation is the building blocks with which you can build a solid online reputation and create visibility for your business, so why not do it?

Competitive Edge

The first thing you'll most likely notice when you take your business online is that you're not the only one offering that product or service.

There's competition, and they may even be better, more experienced, or more established than you.

Now, the question you should be asking is how can you design your social media content strategy to show your competitive edge?

How can you present your brand as a worthy alternative that is worth following?

Remember that the goal here is to get visibility for your business online and increase your chances of going viral.

Without being different, you'll be swallowed up by the noise from the competition.

And then, you wouldn't even have a chance of converting followers to customers.

Simply put, nobody will notice you until you prove that you're bringing something unique to the table.

You won't get noticed until you provide an alternative source of whatever your target audience is already craving for.

So, how do you achieve that?

Well, there are many examples in the digital space if you care to notice.

Over the years, many small businesses and startups in Nigeria have used online content to demonstrate a competitive edge and used that to grow their visibility online.

Piggybank, now Piggyvest designed their content strategy to show that they can be the digital version of a piggy bank, and they went viral in the early days.

Kuda showed that charges were unnecessary inconveniences for digital bank customers, and this helped them go viral.

TundeEdnut became a viral influencer when he started offering news updates and entertainment on Instagram when everyone else posted about their new fashion.

Remember that the red apple is always the most noticeable in a crate of green apples.

By designing your social media content around your competitive edge, you stand a better chance of carving a niche and attracting an audience that is excited about your unique offering.

Customer Guarantees

After you excite your target audience and show them how your business could improve their lives, you have to provide assurances that you'll do what you say you'll do.

Your final social media content strategy should be about building trust with target customers by offering guarantees.

While you could build trust by accumulating social validations and showing visual proofs, providing guarantees is the absolute icing on the cake.

And it helps to push your target audience one step further in engaging with your business online.

So, how do you offer customer guarantees?

There are ample examples out there if you really take a look:

Freebies for followers who engage with specific contents on your social media
Discounts for early birds or customers who follow you on social media
Freebies for customers who review your product and post their feedback online
Money back guarantees for products that fail to meet customer expectations
Free repairs for faulty products purchased within specific timeframes
Compensation when you fail on your business promise

Guarantees can come in the form of promises or assurances that you'll do something if your target audience fulfills their end of the bargain.

And this works quite well in encouraging your audience to get their foot in the door in terms of engaging with your business online.

Once you get them engaged, it's far easier to convert them to real paying customers, get them to review your product or service, and make your business go viral.

Making your Business go Viral Online

The concept of going viral on the internet is almost always misunderstood.

I've seen people try all sorts of tactics in a bid to make their content go viral without first factoring how much visibility they've achieved.

I'd say that there's no content strategy that is guaranteed to make your business go viral online.

Online virality is a complex mix of many factors such as popularity, engagement, quality, shareability, and luck.

You could post the best documentary in a high interest area and nobody would take a look. Then, you get thousands of engagement on a 30-second video of you just goofing around.

Nowadays, people even hop on trends in a bid to go viral, but that's actually a stale move because the trend itself is what is going viral. So, you most likely won't go viral inside a viral trend.

There's just no one single formula for going viral, but you can actually improve your chances by doing a few things right.

Your best chances for making your business go viral is to improve your visibility by designing a content strategy that engages your target audience on all fronts.

You simply need to focus on getting a lot of social media exposure by having a social media content range that reaches and engages potential customers in the best ways possible.

Engage your target audience with content that positions you as an authority in your industry
Show visual proofs of the people behind the business, then the products or services in your offering
Curate and post the most positive reviews from current customers in different formats
Post contents that project your business as a unique one different from the competition
Offer guarantees that encourages your target audience to engage with you on social media

You could make a proper social media research on your target audience to help you understand what makes them tick and inform your content strategy going forward.

The goal is to make your content strategy fit for your target market and have a wide range of content types to engage your target audience in different ways.

Then, you can create a lot of visibility for your business online and have the chance of going viral.

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