Over 46 percent of the Earth's population uses the Internet. Today, a lion's share of that Internet usage is done through social media networks. As such, marketing campaigns must have a social media component to succeed. However, despite this, many social media marketing campaigns fail. With this in mind, below are seven tips that can give your company's social media strategy a serious boost.
1. Create a Marketing Plan for Your Social Media
One mistake many companies make is using Twitter and Facebook accounts without any concrete marketing plan in place. This should include a plan for all the social media networks you wish to utilize. It should also include defined objectives and goals. Lastly, it should have a means of auditing the success of your campaigns. With a firm plan in place, you will be more likely to profit from your social media presence.
2. Place a Strong Emphasis on Engagement
One of the keys to a successful social media marketing campaign is engagement. Engagement isn't possible with many forms of advertising, but it is with social media. Be proactive and interact with other social media users who mention your brand. Also try to react to customer questions in a timely manner. Customer feedback on social media should be forwarded to the correct people in your organization.
3. Monitoring Is Also Important
Another key to utilizing social media correctly as a business is monitoring different social media platforms for how your company, brand, products and services are being discussed. This information can be invaluable. You may gain direct insight into how your company and products are perceived by the public at large. Implement social media management software such as HootSuite to allow you to more easily track mentions of your company and products.
4. Keep Your Social Media Updates on a Schedule
While you want your engagement with users to appear spontaneous and genuine, you should also be posting updates on a regular basis. If your account goes days without an update, you are not using your social media correctly. You also need to schedule your updates for the correct times. Do some research to find out when your target demo's peak times for social media usage is.
5. Realize that Users Grow a Following by Following Back
There's one unwritten rule of social media. If someone follows you, it's polite to follow back. While you don't need to follow everyone who follows you first, you can use this courtesy to your advantage in reverse. Follow social media users who mention you or re-blog your content. They are likely to follow back. This is especially important to do in the beginning to grow your following.
6. Use Social Media to Edge in on Your Competition
More than likely, all your competitors are already using social media. With that in mind, it's a good idea to track their accounts. This can give you good intel and present you with openings to develop a competitive advantage with social media engagement. Adding your competitors' followers may also allow you to lead some of them back to your own social media accounts.
7. Use Social Media to Drive People to Your Business
Overall, you should be using social media as a tool to drive people to your business and convert them into paying customers. Whether your business is brick and mortar or e-commerce, you need to be using tactics to get social media followers to purchase your products or services. To do this successfully, you'll also need to be tracking click through rates of links posted on social media, the use of coupon codes published by your social media accounts and more.
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