The key to success in social media is not to be everywhere at once or to be the loudest in the room but to be present where your buyers are.

In my last article, I wrote about mistakes to avoid in your social media marketing strategyin which I called out that social media has evolved to be a cluttered and noisy sea of content muddled by competing social networks, brands, and people that are all vying for the same thing–reach and attention.

Seemingly, every channel you tune into these days there’s a guru streaming live on Facebook, a YouTube video that’s sweeping the internet, a sponsored tweet sandwiched in between that of your friends’, and someone snapping randomness while pushing you to follow them on Instagram.

Knowing that organic reach is virtually dead, how does one stand out and get seen or discovered? Below are five key tactics to implement right away.

1. Focus on Community over Content

While creating live video and short-form content on social media has become the new norm, adding more content to an already noisy ecosystem isn’t going to help you stand out any more than the next brand. Instead, engage in meaningful dialogue with those who are actually consuming your brand’s content, even if it’s a small number by comparison to your business page followers.

Consider “high-value followers” who you want to cultivate relationships with in order to build advocacy. These are fans of your brand who consistently comment on posts and like your content. Your priority should be how to gain more of those.

2. Build Micro-Communities

The best way to stay in touch with your most engaged fans is to group them into a Twitter list as seen in the example below. Using a tool like IFTTT will make it easy to crawl Twitter and add your super fans to a spreadsheet anytime someone @mentions you.

Also, try Facebook groups as a channel to maintain a dialogue with a smaller, niche audience. Facebook groups have seemingly replaced LinkedIn as a means for industries to converge and network online. As a brand, you can use Facebook–or even Slack–to host a VIP-like community with a smaller number of engaged fans The point is, you don’t need to have thousands of people seeing your content in order to be successful on social you just need the right ones.

3. Don’t Re-purpose Content

Re-purposing content is often referred to in the marketing community as “Thanksgiving leftovers” and a tactic to gain as many eyeballs across channels on one piece of content.

However, it’s also a losing proposition as every social network has variances in size specifications which affect how content is displayed. Also, you risk making your audience on one platform feel less important if you’re giving them what they could see on say Snapchat natively vs. Facebook.

Instead of re-purposing content, force yourself and your company to create content that is native to each channel incorporating features such as hashtags (Twitter, Instagram), live video (Facebook and Instagram), or Bitmoji’s and facial filters (Snapchat).

4. Facebook Ad Re-targeting

Knowing that social media has become a “pay to play” medium, Facebook’s ad targeting is incomparable to any other form of online advertising today. By creating custom audiences on Facebook you can put video or static image ads in front of your most engaged fans.

As seen in the example below, create custom Facebook audiences with the Ads Manager platform based on engagements on your page within a set period of time. For this demonstration, I chose to put ads in front of anyone that has engaged with my Facebook page within the last 90 days.

5. Post Content Across Time zones

One of the biggest missed opportunities by brands is the fact that most only post to social media during traditional business hours when in reality social media is open 24/7 and never goes to sleep.

Furthermore, if you want to grow your social media presence on a global level then you need to post content even when you are physically sleeping or closed for business. A tool like Buffer can help you schedule content throughout the day–even up to multiple posts within an hour–in order to stay relevant and top of mind on an active platform like Twitter. The example below shows how Buffer optimizes your posting schedule automatically based on Twitter data which shows when your followers are most active.

In closing, these are five keys to success which should help you stand out on social media vs. sinking into a black hole of content along with countless other accounts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carlos Gil is an Entrepreneur, Brand Marketing Executive, Start-up Founder and Public Speaker with 8+ years leading social media marketing and strategy for global brands. Carlos’ work has been featured by, or seen in, CNNMoney.com, Mashable, Inc. Magazine, Social Media Examiner and is a recurring speaker at industry events such as SXSW and Social Media Marketing World.