What are you doing to keep your social media marketing activity fresh, ethical and successful?
I assume you want to make the most of your hard work on social media. In order to do so, you have to be constantly in tune with the advancements made on the different social platforms. You need to return to the basics for a refresher from time to time.
This article addresses 3 social media basics, which you should return to regularly as a way to ensure a successful approach to your social strategy and implementation.
Etiquette and Ethics
You'd be surprised, but this category is a great challenge for some social users, even experienced ones. Sometimes, businesses aren't aware or have forgotten the ethics and etiquette of social media activity. It can be even harder when these rules change over time.
Here are a few of the rules and guidelines you should keep in mind when you publish on social media:
- Don't just broadcast your own materials and promotion. Instead, share relevant content from other sources along with your own.
- Consistently interact in real time with those who communicate with you. Social media automation can be a blessing and a curse, so don't use it for 100% of your activity.
- Never link multiple social accounts together to share the same content on all platforms. Instead, create custom content that fits with the different platform designs.
Further resources on this subject:
A PR Pro's Guide to Social Media Etiquette (Cision)
Common Social Media Etiquette for Businesses (Hootsuite)
Custom Platform Preferences
As you're aware, all social media platforms are designed in a unique way, and as a result, you should create custom content for each of them. Oftentimes, businesses take shortcuts and publish tweet content on other platforms without adjustments. This looks very sloppy and should be avoided.
What works for one platform may not work for another. Keep in mind that the platform(s) you're using has features available for you that can help you reach your target audience, but confusing the different social media can not only limit your reach. It can potentially push your audience away and damage your brand image.
Further reading:
Social Media Platforms 2015 Research (Heidi Cohen)
Target Audience Preferences
The last category I have for you is especially important for your business. If you don't continuously research your target audience and their preferences, you won't be able to successfully reach them with your social media marketing activity.
Some of the things you should understand are:
- Who are your ideal customers based on the products or services you offer?
- Where are they most active on social media?
- What are their needs and interests, which you can address?
To effectively reach your target audience, you need to create social media personas for them. When you have these personas set up and update them regularly, you'll have a better chance of developing a higher success rate and ROI from your social media activity.
Additional resource:
Marketing Personas: The Complete Beginner's Guide (Buffer)
Summary
These are 3 social media basics you need to review frequently and update accordingly no matter how experienced you are. We can all benefit from the occasional refresher. When you do this, you increase your chances of a higher success rate or ROI on social media.
Are you having trouble seeing the benefits of social media marketing? Try improving upon these basics. You'll never see an improvement if you maintain the status quo, so use these tips to build a better, stronger social media marketing strategy.
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