When it comes to social media marketing, the possibilities are seemingly endless.
Not only are there a variety of different social media platforms-Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.-there's an even larger variety of campaigns and content you can use in your promotion. The variety available is good news, given that successful social media marketing requires innovation, change, and uniqueness.
However, many brands struggle to come up with creative social media campaigns that spark the interest of their audience. As we all know, when your social media gets dull, outdated, or forgotten, your customers are far less curious about your brand and what you have to offer.
As it happens, 30% of the world is using social media in some form, so if you're not actively participating, you're missing out.
To ensure that you're fully leveraging all of your content marketing assets, here are 7 different ideas for social media campaigns.
1. Original Content
Original content is probably the most crucial type to promote on social media, since it drives traffic directly to your website. In addition, content that is unique only to your brand gives your customers a reason to visit your social media pages and to share your content with others.
Create a full social campaign promoting any original content asset you have, and make sure to stretch out any campaigns for evergreen assets over a long period of time - even months if relevant.
Examples of original content include:
- Blog Posts
- eBooks
- White Papers
- Videos
- Infographics
- Templates
- Data Sheets
- Presentations
- Podcasts/Audio Files
- Case Studies
Original content doesn't have to be difficult or highly complex, the key to creating original content is sharing ideas, insights, or research that you've come up with.
2. Curated Content
Easier to use than original content, curated content only requires time and effort to research. Basically, curated content is any article or other asset from around the web that relates directly to your industry or niche. To use curated content effectively in your social media, you need to find competitors, researchers, and news sites that share content that informs your company goals and services.
For example, if you own a small shoe store that sells the latest high-fashion styles, you would want to share curated content from fashion bloggers, magazines, and fashion industry experts.
The goal of curated content is to find trending news and information that you could share with your audience to illustrate your expertise and insight into the high-fashion shoe industry. To make it easier, you can set up Google News Alerts or use Feedly to search for relevant industry keywords daily or weekly.
3. Company Culture
Beyond sharing news and insights about your industry, social media marketing is most successful when you humanize your company. Customers prefer purchasing from brands they know and trust, and one of the best ways to build trust is to start by building a relationship.
In fact, 70% of respondents to a survey conducted by BRANDfog stated that they feel a brand is more trustworthy and honest when the C-Suite gets involved in social media engagement.
You can show your customers who you are and what you offer by sharing photos, videos, and stories from company events, trips, and meetings. By doing this, you invite your customers into your inner circle and build brand transparency. It can be as simple as taking pictures at every event and sharing them online.
Make sure to email or tag employees in your posts, so they can share them with their unique audiences and spread the word about how great and positive your company culture is.
4. Company News
While sharing the fun side of your company is important, it's just as vital that you talk about what your company offers. Social media marketing offers the perfect opportunity for you to share press releases, product launches, and to welcome new hires.
You can also share promotions or deals exclusively to your social media audience or prepare your followers for special events such as Black Friday deals.
Adding company news to your social media marketing campaigns is simple. Place a single individual from each department within your company in charge of sharing news with your social media team:
- Your HR department can share new-hire information.
- Your product department can share new and changed product information.
- Your marketing department can share images from in-store promotions.
5. Recruitment Efforts
Social media marketing doesn't just have to be about your customers; it can be about finding potential hires for your company. An often overlooked campaign in social media is recruiting. If your company is looking to hire new employees, use social media as your outreach tool.
Share your job ad online and encourage your social media followers to apply and share your listing with their friends. It's a great way to expand your reach and gain access to new talent. It also shows that you value your social media audience and their input.
6. Webinars
Apart from "static" content assets, any webinar you're hosting can definitely get a boost in registrants if promoted on social media. Don't wait until the last minute; launch a month-long campaign to encourage your community to sign up.
Also, create a hashtag that's unique to your webinar, and include it in your email marketing and on the slides of the presentation. Encourage your team and attendees to share posts using the hashtag in real-time tag to make the webinar as engaging as possible.
Once you get close to the day itself, create a sense of urgency with your social posts by using language such as, "Last chance to join our webinar tomorrow" or "Our webinar starts in just 1 hour from now," to make the posts more engaging and less automated-feeling.
After the webinar, you can also create an additional social campaign promoting the landing page that hosts the video recording of the event.
7. Events & Conferences
Similar to company news and culture, you can use your social media marketing to setup and promote events and conferences. Through social media, you can encourage event attendance, spread the word, look for sponsors, and gather ideas for speakers and topics.
Whether you're attending an event as a sponsor, or hosting your own event, remember to incorporate a hashag into all of your social posts. This is a great way to gain visibility for your posts from the event organizers, other attendees, and even influencers who are attending.
Apart from the posts leading up to the event, make sure to also share photos, videos, or any interesting quotes from the event itself, and tag the relevant parties. Afterwards, you can write a recap of the conference as a blog post, and share it across your social networks as well.
Social media marketing doesn't have to be boring. There are a myriad of ways you can use your social media to share information and get in touch with your customers. Give these seven campaign ideas a shot today and watch your social marketing efforts take off.