We have been active in the social media marketing space since 2015 – you might say, relatively newcomers compared with many other businesses who were early adopters!
We have found the benefits of social media marketing to be huge in creating an awareness of our brand, promoting the ‘real-life human’ side of our business and allowing us to build up a group of followers to share tips, strategies and ideas with.
The other benefits of social media marketing is that it is among the cheapest forms of marketing. For just a few dollars you can target and reach a large audience.
Whether you want to use social media simply to provide information to your prospects and customers or go far beyond that and use it to provide customer service and generate sales, you need to know what it takes to run successful social media campaigns.
Here are some of the tips we have discovered over the past 5 years about social media marketing:
- Don’t be afraid of it – jump in and try it!
You will learn as you go. Initially, become familiar with the different social networks that exist. Not just what they are, but how they work, which brands use them and how they use them to communicate. You don’t necessarily need to join every social network, just the ones that make the most sense for your business and are the most likely to connect you with your target audience. To find out which social network is worth using for your business, check the ones your competitors use that seem to attract the biggest audience and the most engagement. Alternatively, find out the demographics of each social networking site and join the ones that attract the target audience you are after.
- It is not traditional marketing
Effective social media strategies include using social media to join prospects in conversations and develop relationships with them, not communicating to persuade a prospect to buy.
- The ‘hard-sell’ approach doesn’t work here
Social media represents a fantastic opportunity to get close to prospects but be careful you don’t get greedy and try to sell too aggressively. One of the main benefits of social media marketing is that as relationships with your leads develop, sales usually follow.
- Be easy to find
Use social media usernames that are descriptive, stimulating, keyword rich and easy to remember.Your social media branding should be aligned with your existing branding on your other touch points such as your website. Social media branding includes banners used (also known as headers) and should all be the same across all your social networks. You should also include links to your social media profiles on your other touch points such as website or newsletter. Plus, your bio should not just be your job title. Instead, it should be a few sentences about how you or your business helps people and underline your major achievements.
- Informative content is king!
Focus on your content and post new material regularly, otherwise you will lose the interest of your audience. Include advice, information and anything that will involve your audience and make their time worthwhile. Make sure the information is truthful and accurate. Effective social media strategies include publishing content that people care about. Just like if you were at a social gathering, the more interesting, entertaining and insightful you are, the more popular you will be. Avoid being “one-dimensional” with your content, at all costs! Your posts should be an equal balance between company announcements, commentary on industry-related events and responses to existing conversations.
- Be real and immerse yourself in your content
Be authentic and don’t be afraid to humanise your brand by showing pictures of real life moments of your team and yourself. Brands with effective social media strategies capture and display behind-the-scene pictures and attract more audience engagement.
Your posts should make people want to read them, click on the links, share them with their networks and spark conversations. It could be little-known interesting things, short term special offers, contests, intriguing announcements, humour, etc… Successful social media marketing campaigns are the ones that create the most buzz and engagement.
By following the social media marketing tips that we have learned in our short 5 years above, we’re confident you’ll start experiencing results almost instantly.
Give us a call today if you have questions about how you can use social media in your business.
