Social media is an increasingly important medium for companies looking to get the word out about their brand. It’s not easy. If it were, every company would have a handle on it. Without the right social media marketing strategies, it’s impossible to maximize your social media outreach efforts. Doing social media for business the right way takes time, and it can be an intensive process.
Sure, there are infinite social media marketing tools on the market. However, there are no shortcuts when it comes to executing effective marketing campaigns. Owning an online business is competitive. Without a well-thought-out plan and spending the time to get it right, you risk wasting your time and energy.
Here are some social media marketing tips you can use to get the most from your campaigns:
1. Know the Different Platforms
Assuming you have several social media platforms used in your campaign, approach each platform in a unique way. Make yourself aware of each social media platform and how each has different operating rules, audiences, and cultures. Acquiring this knowledge takes research. Create a separate marketing plan for each platform. Also, you should avoid trying to be too active on too many platforms initially. This may help you avoid diluting the impact of your efforts.
2. Post Consistently
Part of an effective social media marketing campaign is posting content on a regular schedule. This is where most marketers fail. It’s critical that you keep feeding your social media base useful and shareable information as well as regular updates to keep them coming back for more. It is not enough to simply put out one interesting post or announce a sale for the upcoming week. It takes time and effort to support and grow your social presence on the Web. If you’re not providing a steady stream of information, you’re keeping your business from reaching its full potential.
3. Quality Over Quantity
Having stressed constant content, you should focus on quality as opposed to quantity. Create and maintain a social media content calendar and identify the types you’ll post ahead of time. Stay flexible and write about events and provide information in real time. The last thing you want is for your audience to think you’re pushing spammy content on them. Keep in mind, too, that quality content doesn’t have to be lengthy. You’ll be successful in using social media for business if you can provide informative and shareable content each time you reach out to your audience.
4. Work with Apps
When using social media for business, it is helpful to use an app that will manage your social media efforts. The control panels of your social media assets like Facebook or Twitter aren’t necessarily optimized to provide productivity. An app can help your team establish a posting schedule where you automatically share posts. An app can also help you collaborate with every relevant party. Most importantly, an app can help your company optimize its SEO efforts.
5. Use Images
It may seem like a small oversight or even unimportant, but images on a post have an impact and can attract a reader’s attention. Readers cite photos and certain visual elements as a main reason they stopped to look. Posts with images also attract the most shares on average. There are apps like Canva that can easily embed images on posts. The app will size them properly for your choice of social media venues.
6. Use Monitoring Tools
Find the most effective social media monitoring tools to help you evaluate your efforts. Some marketers fail to evaluate the processes that helped them to realize success. Without an evaluation, you may risk losing track of your successful efforts. Every approach going forward should yield the best ROI results. Monitor for the number and quality of followers, likes and mentions, impressions, and depth of responses.
7. Interact with Your Audience
Keep engaging in two-way communication with your audience. The power to interact directly with others defines social media marketing. Respond to their requests and posts. This lets them know that you’re interested in them. Let them become more familiar with your brand at every opportunity.
8. Utilize A/B Testing Where Suitable
Get better at experimenting with A/B testing. As we mentioned, it’s all hard work. It can feel like a grind at times. Just keep in mind that your competition hopes you’re feeling the weight. They’d like nothing more than for you to quit pushing the envelope.
9. Collect Data
You can use your social profiles to collect massive amounts of data. Find out what excites your audience and deliver the goods. What helps them to arrive at a buying decision? What inspires their loyalty? Try to approach your data collecting by running a variety of social media marketing campaigns that allow you to collect information through specific data points. Analyze the data that your brands collect. You can surmise what your data says about today’s marketing industry. This can be helpful if you’re having trouble nailing down what information to collect from your audience.
10. Follow up with Your Audience
Email marketing is one of the most effective means of expanding on your social media campaigns. Companies that can effectively use email marketing strategies generally report an increase of 50% more leads. Create email lists and work on a strategy for each group on the list. Your messages constitute potential sales, so make them count.
11. Keep a Mobile-First Strategy Foremost in Mind
Facebook claims 1.44 billion daily users. Roughly 1.25 billion of those users access Facebook on a mobile device. If you don’t have a mobile marketing strategy in place, you’ve already lost the battle.
There’s a lot to cover when it comes to social media marketing. One of the best ways to grow your company is to partner with a full-service digital marketing agency that can walk you through all the SMM processes that can put your online business on the map.
At Advanced Digital Media Services, our team of social media marketing experts can handle all the hard work for you in managing the social media aspect of your business, while you focus on what you’re best at!
