Social media is one of the quickest and least expensive forms of marketing. That’s why it’s become increasingly important for the marketing of your business. Every month there is an average of 3.78 billion active users across all social media platforms. Utilizing social media to market your business will add to your company’s success.
How to Start
The most challenging aspect of diving into social media for your business is knowing where to begin. You want to start by identifying your target audience. These are potential and existing consumers, stakeholders, and whoever your business wants to reach. Take a look at the demographics of your business. Identify the age, gender, and characteristics of your existing consumers. Think about the gaps in your public and how you can attract them using social media.
You’ll want to research your competitors. Take a look at their social media channels. Dive into their comments. See what’s worked for them and what consumers don’t connect with. Observe how they interact on each platform. Compare competitors’ platforms against one another. While observing your competitors’ social platforms, ask yourself, “how can I make this better?” Taking the time to dive into this research will give you inspiration for YOUR company’s social media.
You’ll want to identify and set realistic goals for your social channels as a company. The most common of these goals is to increase brand awareness or engagement. Other social media goals could be lead generation or sales. Whatever your social purpose may be, it needs to be measurable and achievable.
Strategy
In order to achieve your social media marketing goals, you need to have a strategy. This strategy must be well thought out AND implemented. Something to consider is creating visually appealing content that matches your brand identity.
Short videos are one of the best forms of visual content. It gives viewers a sense of FOMO, fear of missing out, which draws them to your brand.
Experiential Events also help boost social media. You can connect consumers to your digital platforms through QR codes and hashtags.
What to Post
You want your platforms to express the personality of your business. The ultimate goal is to gain the trust of consumers. If they trust your company, they’ll trust your product, which will increase satisfaction and consumer loyalty.
It’s essential to make sure you’re not using social media to outright promote your business. Instead, use your platforms to demonstrate your company’s values, share helpful information, and build up those around you. Doing this will add value to your channels, naturally promoting your business.
To be entirely successful through your social media marketing, you need to do more than post. In addition to the content you create, you’ll want to “humanize” your social accounts. Your accounts need to have an active presence. This includes responding to comments, answering questions, following relevant accounts, and overall platform engagement.
When you’re using social media, something to think about is how to keep your business at the TOP of consumers’ minds. You want consumers to think of you as the first thought, first choice, and first preference compared to similar companies. Being consistent in posting and engaging is an easy way to keep people’s attention. Being consistent will constantly remind your consumers that you exist.
How you Know it’s Working
After putting effort into marketing through social media, how will you know if you’ve been successful? The answer is analytics. Your company will always want to track KPIs or key performance indicators. These include reach, clicks, engagement, hashtag performance, likes, and sentiments.
If these indicators aren’t doing as well as expected, it’s okay. Social media marketing is majoritively based on trial and error. Due to the nature of social media, it’s easy to adapt your strategy and try different things to obtain the best possible results. You’ll always want to ensure you’re getting the highest ROI, or return on investment, so don’t be afraid to pivot your strategy to find what works for YOUR brand and YOUR target audience!
Social Media in Action
An excellent way to utilize social media is through out-of-the-box events. In conjunction with marketing vehicles, including social media elements will only boost your brand. Lime Media is a great resource that uses experiential marketing to highlight social media platforms. In case you aren’t convinced, take a look at this case study to see how PINK used hashtags, current trends, and an “insta worthy” aesthetic to promote their company.
Time to Get Started! Don’t be afraid to get started! Social media marketing is very forgiving. You can always delete a post and try something new. As long as you’re staying true to your brand, the options when using social media for marketing are endless!