How to Add Value Through Your Social Media Presence

add value through social media

One important lesson to be learned from Gary Vaynerchuk is that you have to throw a few jabs before you come in with the right hook. But what exactly does that mean in terms of social media? Well, it means that you need to provide value to your audience before you start making your pitches and asking for sales.

Delivering value helps people discover you. It gets them to start liking you. And ultimately, it builds a trusting relationship, which is something you’ll need if you want to make money online.

Now more than ever, it’s so important that you’re focused on how you can add value through your social media presence as opposed to selling all the time. Otherwise, you’ll risk putting people off. That’s why I wanted to share a few ideas you can use moving forward!

How to Add Value Through Your Social Media Presence

Adding value is all about knowing your target audience and what they’re interested in so you can best serve them and their needs. Once you’ve established how you can help, it’s time to deliver. Here are some ways to do that:

1. Share Informative Original & Curated Content

Let’s start with one of the easiest and most obvious tips to add value through your social media. And that is to make sure you’re sharing links to informative (and relevant) content. This can be your original content since you’ll want to direct more traffic to it. However, it can also be great content that you’ve curated from other sources. The key is to make sure it’s something your target audience will find appealing.

Here’s an example of a tweet I shared after published a brand new post. I also like to “pin” recently content on my profile so it gains more attention.

This is the kind of content you want to make sure you’re filling your social media queue with. It gives people something interesting to read, watch, or listen to. Whenever you publish something new, schedule a few posts about it. And if you come across a blog post, YouTube video, or podcast episode that you love, spread the word to your community. Don’t forget to tag the original creator as well!

2. Post Something Motivational That Will Inspire Them

Something else you can start adding to your social media queue? Motivational messages and quotes! You really can’t go wrong when it comes to sharing something uplifting and inspiring. Take some time to scour the web for quotes you love that you think your community would enjoy as well. Just make sure you double-check that they’re legitimate and attributed to the right person.

Then, you can create a simple graphic to go along with the post. (Canva is a fantastic tool for this.) This will stand out in your feed and really grab attention. Posts like this will be appreciated by your audience, plus they’re highly shareable.

3. Make Sure You’re Solving Their Biggest Problems

Another thing to consider is whether or not the content you share online is actually solving the problems your target audience deals with. Once you know what their biggest pain points are, you can create and share content that addresses it. This is so important if you want to add value through your social media presence.

Post links to your original content and curated content they would find helpful. Share tips and tricks that you know would help them out. When you serve your community, it builds a loyal, trusting relationship and it attracts more people to you over time.

4. Host a Q&A to Answer All Their Burning Questions

There are a number of ways you can host a Q&A session. You can go live on the platform of your choice. You could have people tweet you questions using a specific hashtag and reply with your answers. Or if you’re on Instagram, you can have people submit questions through the “Questions” sticker on Stories. It all depends where your people spend the most time!

Gary Vaynerchuk went live every morning for Tea With Gary Vee to answer questions and give back to his community.

The great thing about hosting a Q&A is that you can start answering questions in real-time. Plus, it encourages people to get involved and they’ll see you as someone who really cares about their online community.

5. Go Live to Share Tips, Tricks, & More

Speaking of going live, it’s one of the best ways to add value through your social media presence. Use your live videos to share your expertise and answer questions. If you find that you really enjoy creating live content, why not make it into a weekly series where you go live at the same time each week? It gives people something to look forward to and it will position you as an authority in your field over time.

Check out this post on Twitter video for some ideas!

6. Create Tutorials on How to Use Your Products

If you’re a business owner that sells some sort of product, it would be smart to share how-to videos and tutorials via social media that explain how to use it. Another option would be to answer frequently asked questions about your product. Consider how your social media presence can become a resource for potential and current customers to address their needs, so pay close attention to any customer service feedback you get.

Or if you’re a food blogger, create a how-to video for your most recent recipe post!

7. Give Your Community Exclusive Access to Content & Giveaways

You can add value through social media and show your appreciation for your community when you give them something exclusive. For example, you could create a downloadable resource and share it specifically with those who follow you on Twitter. Or you could do a Q&A series every Friday on Twitter and only on that platform. It gives people a reason to follow you there when you offer something they can’t get from you anywhere else.

Not only that, but giveaways also show how much you love your community and their support. Host giveaways featuring some of your favorite things, but have people enter them through social media. Again, it encourages people to follow you and rewards those who have been around for a while. You could even do exclusive social media discount codes for your products and services. Allow yourself to get creative with this!