Building your Social Media Presence in the Philippines

Hi! You must be wondering how to build your brand’s social media presence. You came to the right place, because in this PopStar Blog, we have gathered some established tips and tricks when it comes to leveraging social media—Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—to increase your brand’s visibility and engagement. But let us first have a background as to what social media presence is and why it will matter for your business. What is a social media presence? Social media presence is a brand’s visibility across different social media platforms—your Facebook pages, TikTok account, Instagram feed, and YouTube channel—helping your brand make a mark in the digital realm. It reflects your brand’s image and values. The question is, are you doing it properly? So you want your audience to get your message? Then curate your content properly and maximize every element, from texts to visuals to consistency. Be intentional. Show why you’re unique and why they should trust you. Why does it matter? Did you know that, as of January 2023, there were about 84.45 million social media users in the Philippines? This is equivalent to 72.5% of the total population in the country alone. Wild! So if you want your brand to increase its visibility, what better platform to do that than online? Every social media user’s feed is a representation of their interests and preferences. It means that you can use this as an advantage to tailor your brand image, values, and content to resonate with your target audience. Get their attention! Make them aware of your presence by showing them that you have the product or service they need. Doing so can lead to an improvement in customer perception. PopStar Tips to Establishing an Effective Social Media Presence 1. Establish Clear Objectives (SMART Goals). Do you know the saying, if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail? That’s right. Just like in any social media venture, you have to be clear. Understand what you want your brand to do, the reason for that, and how you’re going to achieve it. As we mentioned before, you have to be intentional. Set your SMART goals—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. By doing so, you allow yourself to keep track of everything, ensuring you won’t lose focus. 2. Understand your audience. In addition to the questions you have to answer before starting anything, who are you doing this for? Determine your people. Do your research to know their preferences, interests, online behavior, etc. This will make it easier for you to think of content that will surely engage them. 3. Showcase Authenticity Who doesn’t love a behind-the-scenes glimpse? If you notice, whenever you’re watching a movie, people tend to stay throughout the credits to watch bloopers. This creates the feeling that the actors they watched are humans too. Similar to brands, you should humanize them. Be authentic. Show the audience your brand story, from how you started to how you’re doing. Be genuinely open to their inquiries and interact in a friendly yet professional manner. This will make them realize that you are trustworthy, leading to a well-established connection and loyalty. 4. Foster Meaningful connections. Connected with tip no. 3, having meaningful connections can take you anywhere. Having a massive number of followers is indeed great, but it doesn’t necessarily ensure high conversion rates. So focus instead on creating genuine connections by responding to comments, answering queries, and initiating conversations with your target audience. As cliche as it is, quality is better than quantity. Make your community active first, and then everything else will fall into place. 5. Plan with a Content Calendar We mentioned before that you have to be consistent with your efforts, but we also admit that it is not that easy. That’s why planning is crucial, and you can do this by creating a content calendar. Plan ahead of time. Don’t settle for badly curated content just because your time is constrained. Utilize a calendar and set phases like planning, pre-production, implementation, and evaluation. Of course, there will be sudden and unexpected challenges along the way, but with everything planned ahead, you can easily adjust your plan and strategies without having to start over. 6. Utilize Automation the Right way. Now you might be asking, “But I thought I needed to be intentional?” No need to worry! Your content and craft are still up to your hands to make them genuine and intentional. The only thing you’ll have to automate is the process of posting them. Once your content and calendar are set, start automating posts. Yes, you heard it! You don’t have to manually post content on a specific date and time. Use what your chosen platform already has. This saves you precious time and gives you an opportunity to work on other important things. For example, with your Facebook page, you can use its built-in Meta Business Suite. Upload your post and schedule it for publication. What’s good about this is that you can sync it with your Instagram page. It’s a very productive way of hitting two platforms with one post. 7. Provide Value with sales. Coming back to the tip of being intentional and humanizing your content, don’t just focus on sales pitches. Be informative, and make the information as valuable as possible—tips, advice, industry insights—that can answer your target audiences’ pain points. 8. Embrace Visual content. First impressions matter. So get your audience’s attention. Give them eye-catching images, infographics, and videos that will help enhance your message effectively. Visuals like these can help your brand personalize your content more while also helping your audience understand things even with just one look. And what’s fun is that you have tons of visual editing tools to choose from! From the user-friendliness of Canva to the more professional but vast features of the Adobe Multiverse, you can create visuals fit for your audience. 9. Keep it consistent. We mentioned it with the other tips, but we’ll say it again and again. Stay consistent! You want to stay relevant, so be consistent with your postings, but keep your content valuable. Then actively reply to comments and messages on your page. With this, you can keep the engagement with your audience ongoing. 10. Leverage Trends It’s the world of social media! It’s a battlefield to stay relevant. So keep up with the trends. Read about current events. Then use them at your disposal. As long as it is relevant to your brand, use these trends to convey your message. Or better yet, create your own trend! But that’s another topic we’ll discuss on a different PopStar Blog, so make sure you’re tuned in! 11. Monitor and adapt. Metrics, metrics, metrics! Make use of them! Analyze the performance of your posts. Does it reach your audience? Does your audience like it? Is it reaching the goal that you set for it? Remember that data is your friend. The numbers on your screen will help you improve your strategy—what needs to stay, what needs to improve, or what needs to go. 12. Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment. There are tons of platforms, formats, and approaches to choose from, so you don’t have to worry about running out. Be brave enough to try them out! Experiment. See what will work for your brand and audience. Final PopStar Tip: For a brand like yours that’s making its way to building a social media presence in the Philippines, you’re on the right track! Remember, most Filipino social media users make up a significant portion of the country’s population. This is to your advantage! So follow the steps we mentioned and make your brand stand out with authentic and valuable content tailored for your audience. Set clear objectives with SMART goals, understand your audience, and foster meaningful connections through genuine interactions. Planning with a content calendar and leveraging automation for posting will ensure consistency and efficiency. Add visuals to avoid boredom. Keep up with trends, or be the trend. Metrics are your friend! By following these PopStar steps, your brand can flourish and build a loyal and engaged online community. Trust us, it’s worth it! Send us a message  or contact our Team at  contact@pop-star.me  for more information on how PopStar can help your influencer marketing here in the Philippines.