If you’re a business leader, you probably don’t like social media. Sure, you have accounts on LinkedIn and Twitter managed by an assistant or a member of your marketing team, but you’re not personally too active there. You don’t have many subscribers, but you don’t mind; you have more to worry about than who is reading your tweets.

Too many leaders shy away from social media because they see it as “baby talk” or a waste of time that has no place in their already busy days – but social media is an important part of branding, content marketing, and meaningful content distribution.

Here’s how to grow your audience and promote your brand without being consumed by social media:

•  Set ground rules

I’m surprised by the fact that less than half of B2B marketers don’t use social media guidelines. Social media trends make platforms ever-changing, and you can’t use them effectively if you take a holistic approach to all stores. Start by identifying the platforms your audience uses the most, then familiarize yourself with the best practices for those platforms and think about how you can engage with them authentically. Best. You don’t want your posts to be formulaic, but reminders and instructions will help you interact quickly and efficiently across the platforms you use.

• Create a social calendar

You’re planning important deadlines, client meetings, and family events—your social media posts are no different. A strong social following is based on consistency, so use your editorial calendar as a starting point. Does your team have a major content project planned? Want to highlight any upcoming industry events? Speed ​​up your regular publishing schedule and also get a distribution strategy for these events on your social calendar. This keeps social media top of mind and keeps your audience engaged.

• Use the right hashtags

Unless there’s an accidental opportunity to use generic hashtags, resist the temptation to run popular but unrelated campaigns. Instead, before sharing an article or blog post on social media, use a tool like TagCrowd to analyze it and generate word bubbles based on the content. Then use RiteTag to evaluate your potential hashtags and identify any you may have missed. (Bonus points if your brand keywords overlap with trending hashtags.)

• Follow it carefully

When you first build your audience, you may be inclined to follow anyone who likes or retweets your messages. Be smart about who you follow and use hashtags and social search tools to determine who else is part of the conversation in your space. Also avoid spam accounts and bots. People will recognize the fake accounts in your subscriber list and they will see it as a desperate and staged game to increase your subscriber count.

• Engage your followers

Society is not passive. To get the most out of it, you need to build relationships. Reply to people when they share or comment on your work, and respond to direct messages (relevant, not scary). Also share high-quality content from other influencers. Your followers want to know what you’re reading and what you think about industry events; They’re not just there to watch you showcase your company’s latest product. Social success comes from both advertising and engagement.

• Setting standards for social growth

Use content delivery tools or custom content software to track the performance of your posts. Collect data on the types of posts and content that inspire the most likes, shares, and comments, and which platforms drive the most engagement. As you learn what interests your audience, shape your content and social strategy around those interests to better meet their needs. Adjusting as you do will also help you grow your social media following because you can offer more of what your followers love. Participating in your company’s content distribution strategy doesn’t have to be time-consuming or stressful. By simply committing to accountability, scheduling posts, and tracking performance, you can increase your business’s influence and reach. Your brand will grow as you help it get exposure and that will be reason enough to shake off your aversion to social media.