Social media marketing has long become one of the most important assets businesses use to reach out to and get feedback from their audience. As a matter of fact, the social media landscape has become so expansive and varied and the strategies you can use in this environment so numerous, it is very easy to get lost. Course-correcting from these deflections may cost you a lot of time, money and effort.
So, let’s cut this problem in its root and take a look at some of the things you should do, and the ones you should absolutely avoid when doing social media marketing.
Do: Explore different media types
To cut a long story short, people like variety. Even though you might have a killer content strategy and already produce interesting images and videos, you should reach out to new audiences by trying to create interesting infographics and animations. According to a recent survey, 40% of businesses declared that original graphics they used for marketing purposes performed the best and drove the most engagement, out of all common visual formats they used on their social media platforms.
Don’t: Use one size fits all strategies
Although relevant social networks have a large amount of audience overlap, overlooking the fact they target different sensibilities and operate in a drastically different manner is a huge mistake. Even the people who have multiple accounts on multiple platforms choose to share different things with their audience depending on the platform. So, do your best to create or repurpose content that will be relevant for each platform rather than sharing the posts across the board.
Do: Get to know your customers
Your social media posts should be tailored not only to fit the specific platforms but also to target your intended customer base. Remember, customers don’t truly care about your company. They care what your company can do for them. So, do thorough market research, learn what are the problems your customer base is currently facing and try to provide applicable solutions. The posts in which you are going to market your business should take no more than 20% of your content.
Don’t: Overlook the importance of analytics
Doing social media marketing without having someone to harness the rich pool of data you are creating is no different than throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. For instance, your content may spark enough interest and drive traffic to your website, but if you don’t actually generate sales, or the cost of acquisition of each customer is too high, you will need to make some adjustments. Be sure to hire professionals with experience in social media analytics to get the best feedback.
Do: Interact with your customers
Common social media interactions (at least in the context of social media marketing) rarely go past the point where the followers make a comment and ask a question and get a generic corporate answer. The opportunity to have a live conversation with your prospective clients and get first-hand feedback should be used to a much greater extent. Therefore, you should create content that will drive the conversation and take a bigger role in a comment section. The customers will like to know that you care what they’re saying.
Don’t: Connect with everyone
The fact that someone started following your profile doesn’t mean that you have to follow them back. The point of social networks is to connect with people that can somehow benefit your cause. Before you start following someone and lend the credibility of your business to that person/organization, you have to take into consideration that party’s reputation and ask yourself how such representation will reflect upon your brand. Also, taking time to build relationships with parties that can’t benefit your business can only waste your marketing resources.
Do: Have a checklist
Having a clear agenda can benefit all aspects of your business, social media marketing included. Following simple instructions and timetables will help you eliminate issues like grammar errors, and dead links, and allow you to get tangible, first-hand info on how your marketing strategies are unraveling. In order to harness this approach to the fullest extent your checklists should contain goals and milestones you should achieve in the set time period.
Don’t: Use dissonant voices
As we already mentioned your company should adjust its content for different marketing platforms. However, you have to make sure that your social media team is using the unified brand voice across all channels. People need to know they are interacting with your company regardless of the channel they use for communication. Letting your marketing team let loose and lean too heavily on the sensibilities of each social media platform, can only hurt the image of your brand.
We hope these few considerations should help you get a clearer picture of the things that can help your business establish a strong presence in the ever-evolving world of social networks. Taking out your marketing efforts from the safety of paid commercials into the environment where people truly have an opportunity to interact with you can be tricky. You have to watch your every step.
Guest post courtesy of Diana Smith
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