21 Ways To Build Your Social Presence (Like The Pros Do)

Want to learn how to build your social media presence like the pros? You’re in the right place.

The stronger your presence on social media is, the easier you’ll find it to achieve your marketing goals.

But the brands and influencers with the biggest social presence don’t get there by accident. 

They follow proven strategies to boost their visibility, increase engagement, and stay relevant in their niche.

In this post, we’ll break down exactly what those strategies are so you can start building your social presence like the pros.

What does ‘social media presence’ mean?

Your social presence is how people perceive your brand on social media. It’s what makes you stand out in a crowded space.

Many people think building a strong social media presence is just about increasing visibility—growing your organic reach, engagement, and followers. While that’s a big part of it, there’s more to it than just numbers.

It’s also about cultivating a distinct brand identity through the content you share and the way you interact with others. Your presence isn’t just seen—it’s shaped through your brand’s social voice and personality.

1. Set SMART goals

Before you start working on your social media strategy, it’s important to set out exactly what you want to achieve. 

A vague goal like ‘grow my social presence’ isn’t going to cut it—you need specific, measurable targets to guide your efforts and make it easier to track progress.

That’s where the SMART framework comes in: All your goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Here are a few examples of what your SMART goals might look like:

• Reach 10,000 TikTok followers by the end of the quarter
• Generate 500 qualified leads through Facebook Ads this month
• Increase my social share of voice (SSoV) from 5% to 10% by the end of the year

2. Know your audience

To build your social presence, you first need to know who you’re trying to reach.

Again, we’re aiming for specificity here. ‘North Americans’ or ‘Young people’ isn’t going to cut it.

You need to know as much about your target audience as possible, including:

• Their demographics (age, gender, location, etc.)
• What social media platforms they use
• When they’re most active on social media
• What problems they have
• What kind of content they enjoy/engage with
• What their interests and hobbies are

All of this will help you to guide your social media posting and ad targeting strategy. Once you’re clear on who your ideal audience is, you can craft content that stands the best chance of reaching and engaging them.

Social media analytics tools like Social Status can tell you more about your current social media audience, which you can then compare to your target audience to make sure you’re reaching the right demographics.

3. Be present everywhere (but focus where it matters)

There are a lot of different social media platforms out there. Being present on all of them will help strengthen your social presence and provide more ways for customers to reach you.

If you haven’t already, now’s the time to secure your brand accounts on every major network—Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter (X), to name a few.

It’s also smart to register on new and emerging platforms early. For example, Threads and Bluesky only launched in the last couple of years, but they’re growing fast.

Try to use the same (or a similar) handle across all platforms—ideally, your brand name. If that’s unavailable, opt for a close alternative like @officialbrandname or @realbrandname.

That said, while you should claim your spot everywhere, you don’t need to be super active on every platform. Instead, focus your efforts on the ones that best align with your audience, goals, and content style.

For instance, if you’re a B2B brand looking to reach industry professionals, LinkedIn should be your priority—but you should still have a presence on other networks like Facebook and Instagram.

4. Create a content calendar

If you want to build an effective social media presence, you need to stay active—that means showing up consistently with engaging content.

The easiest way to do this is by creating a content calendar with a social media scheduler like SocialBee. 

A scheduler allows you to plan, create, and schedule posts across multiple platforms weeks or even months in advance.

Simply choose your publishing date, create your content, select a time, and hit schedule—your post will be automatically published at the selected time.

The great thing about using a content calendar is that it gives you a bird’s-eye view of your entire strategy. You can map out everything ahead of time, helping you stay organized and ensure your content is cohesive, balanced, and aligned with your goals.

5 – Follow the 80/20 rule

Most social media users don’t want to be advertised to—they want to be informed, educated, or entertained.

As such, the bulk of the content you post to your socials shouldn’t be advertising your products or services. It should be engaging content that offers real value to your audience.

I’d recommend following the 80/20 rule here. 80% of your content should be value-driven, and the other 20% should be promotional content.

SocialBee’s content categories feature can help with this.

It lets you bucket your social media posts into categories (e.g., promotional, memes, UGC, etc.) and create a separate posting schedule for each category, ensuring a balanced mix.

6. Experiment with different content formats

Not all social media content performs the same—different types of posts work better on different platforms and with different audiences.

That’s why you should aim for a diverse content mix. Experiment with different formats to figure out what kind of posts resonate most with your audience, then double down on what works.

Formats you might want to try out include short-form videos (Reels, TikToks, YouTube Shorts), long-form videos, image posts, carousels, text posts, live streams, and interactive content like polls or Q&As.

7. Optimize your content for discovery & engagement

Successful social media presence building involves ensuring the content you share reaches as many people as possible.

One way to do that is to optimize it for discovery. Including relevant keywords and hashtags in your captions and alt text will make it easier for your target audience to find.

Social media algorithms also prioritize content that drives engagement in social media feeds. The more engagement your content gets early on, the more the algorithm will push it to new audiences.

That’s why you also need to optimize your content to maximize engagements and draw out more likes, comments, and shares. 

For video content, that might mean starting with a strong hook that draws viewers in or ending with a CTA that prompts them to engage. 

It might mean including a question in your post to bait out comments or posting something controversial that sparks debate.

8. Post at the right times

When you post is just as important as what you post. 

Sharing social media content when your audience is most active helps ensure immediate engagement, which signals to the algorithm that it’s worth showing to more users.

There’s no universal ‘best time’ to post—it all depends on your audience. Fortunately, tools like SocialBee can pinpoint yours.

It tracks your content performance over time to figure out when your followers are most likely to engage and uses that to suggest optimal posting times personalized to your audience.

Of course, this will be more accurate if you feed it more data, so experiment with different time slots and refine your schedule based on what works.

9. Craft a unique social voice

Your brand’s social voice is what sets you apart from your competitors.

Using a distinctive tone makes your content more recognizable, memorable, and engaging—all of which contribute to a robust social media presence. 

Your tone should reflect your brand identity. It could be witty, sarcastic, professional, empathetic, inspirational, fun… whatever best reflects the brand image you’re trying to cultivate.

Try to keep your tone consistent across social channels, but there may be cases where you need to adapt it based on your goals and audience. For example, you might be fun and casual on Twitter but serious and professional on LinkedIn.

Beyond tone, it’s also important to develop a consistent visual style—colors, fonts, and themes should align across your posts. A social media style guide can help keep everything cohesive.

10. Be authentic

Authenticity is key to building a strong social presence.

People find it easier to connect with brands that feel human, not overly corporate or robotic. So, be real and speak to your audience like friends rather than customers. 

Show personality through your content and actively engage with your audience in a way that feels natural to humanize your brand.

11. Engage like the pros

It’s called ‘social’ media for a reason—people use social media to connect with others and interact.

So, it’s not enough to just post content. You need to regularly engage with your audience and build a community around your brand by responding to comments, DMs, and mentions. 

The more you interact, the more connected and valued your followers will feel—and the more likely they’ll be to engage with you on future posts (which boosts performance).

All that said, replying to all your comments, messages, and DMs is a lot of work. 

You can streamline the process by using Pallyy’s inbox management tool. 

It provides a unified social inbox through which you and your team can manage all interactions across multiple networks in one place.

12. Don’t forget outbound engagements

We’ve talked about the importance of replying to inbound engagements (comments, messages, DMs), but let’s not forget about outbound engagements.

Don’t just wait for your audience to interact with you—be proactive about it and go to them to build your social presence.

A great way to do this is to show up in the comment section of viral posts in your niche to reach new audiences.

You can also try engaging directly with people in your target audience to get their attention, such as by liking or commenting on their posts or following their accounts.

Social listening tools like Brand24 are useful for this sort of thing. 

They can tell you when people mention your brand or competitors on social media, allowing you to identify opportunities for outbound engagements and jump into important conversations. 

Plus, they’re also useful for tracking brand sentiment and mention volume—two important metrics to keep an eye on when you’re aiming to build your social media presence

13. Use new platform features

Social platforms tend to prioritize their newest features in the algorithms, so using them early can give you a visibility boost. 

For instance, when Instagram first launched Reels, accounts that posted them saw significantly higher reach than those that stuck to regular posts. 

Likewise, when TikTok first rolled out Carousels, creators who published them reported significantly higher reach and engagement.

Stay ahead of the curve by testing new tools as soon as they roll out. Early adoption can help you get ahead.

14. Run contests & giveaways

Giveaways are an easy way to boost your brand presence on social media. 

Depending on your goals, you can use them to quickly grow your following, increase brand awareness, and boost engagement.

I like to use SweepWidget to build giveaways as it’s super simple and supports 90+ entry methods across 30+ platforms.

Just choose a prize, decide how you want people to enter, and publish the contest to a hosted landing page. Then, promote it on social media.

Make sure to choose your entry methods based on your goals. 

For example, if you’re trying to grow your following, require entrants to follow your profile or page. If you’re trying to boost engagement, require entrants to like the post or tag a friend in the comments. You get the idea.

15. Leverage trends

Jumping on trends is one of the fastest ways to grow your social presence. 

Using trending sounds, posting viral memes, taking part in popular challenges, commenting on current events, and generally tapping into what’s hot will help you to stay relevant and reach a wider audience.

The best way to stay on top of trends is to follow influencers in your niche. Some networks—like TikTok—also have a trending page, which is worth keeping a close eye on.

16. Share user-generated content (UGC)

Sharing content posted by other users is a powerful way to build trust and engagement. 

I’m talking about content like reviews, testimonials, success stories, and customer photos/videos of your products—anything that shows your brand in a positive light.

Not only does reposting UGC show your audience that you value their thoughts and opinions, but it also serves as powerful social proof.

When potential customers see real people using your products or talking positively about your brand on social media, they’re more likely to see you as credible and trustworthy.

One way to curate UGC to use in your social media marketing efforts is to run a photo competition.

For example, Apple’s #ShotOniPhone campaign encouraged users to share their best iPhone photography on social media, with Apple then reposting the best submissions.

Not only did this cleverly showcase their product quality, but it also helped to generate a buzz and foster a strong community.

17. Invest in paid promotions wisely

While organic growth is essential, running strategic paid social media ads can amplify your reach and accelerate the growth of your social presence. 

The key is to nail your targeting options and optimize your ads to maximize ROAS (return on ad spend).

For example, Airbnb uses retargeting ads to re-engage users who browsed listings but didn’t book as they browse social media. This keeps their brand top of mind and helps to drive conversions.

If you do choose to run ads, make sure to A/B test to compare different creatives and messaging. Also, consider retargeting your website visitors or previous customers to get the most out of your ad spend.

18. Collaborate with others

Collaborate with other social media accounts to expand your reach and tap into new audiences.

Collabs can take many forms—co-branded content, Instagram takeovers, sponsored posts, or even cross-promotions with complementary brands. 

Make sure to choose partners who align closely with your brand values and share a similar audience. 

19. Keep an eye on your analytics

Measure your performance over time to identify what’s working, what’s not, and where to adjust your strategy.

You’ll need a good social media analytics tool for this. I’d recommend Social Status as it’s one of the only dedicated social analytics tools on the market and offers the deepest insights.

Key metrics that will give you a sense of the strength of your social presence include average post reach, average engagement rate, follower growth, mention volume, and social share of voice.

20. Cross-promote your socials on other channels

Cross-promote your social media accounts to drive more followers and engagements.

For example, creator @MrBeast integrates each social media channel he uses seamlessly. 

His YouTube videos promote his Twitter (X), TikTok, and Instagram accounts, while his Twitter teases upcoming content on YouTube. This multi-channel approach keeps his audience engaged across all platforms.

You should also promote your social media accounts on other brand channels.

Leverage your website, email signature, blog content, and even in-person locations (QR codes, receipts, packaging) to direct people to your social media. The more touchpoints, the better.

21. Utilize employee advocacy

Your team can be one of your best assets for building your social presence. 

Try encouraging employees to share your content, engage with your posts, and promote your brand organically through their personal accounts, and you might see a big uptick in reach and engagement.

Some social media management tools—including Hootsuite and Sprout Social—offer employee advocacy features that make it easy for teams to share pre-approved brand content.

Final thoughts

That concludes our guide to achieve the best social media presence possible.

Use the tips in this post to guide your social strategy, but remember that growing a strong presence takes time and consistency—it won’t happen overnight.

Keep posting great content and engaging with your audience. Experiment with new ideas, measure your social media performance, and keep refining your strategy based on what works.