Introduction
In our present world, when it comes to business you cannot ignore the power of social media marketing. Almost everyone knows that marketing on social media is important for their business, but very few understand how to do this effectively for their business growth.
This has made social media that known goldmine that many works in but come out with no gold. So how do you mine properly to get the real gold in this goldmine – social media.
The first step is to understand what social media is and why it is such a powerful tool.
Social media, or social networks, are platforms that allow users to connect via posts and comments. These platforms are designed to foster community and discussion among users, which makes them perfect for marketers who want to reach potential customers online.
Leveraging Social Media for Your Business
Marketing on social media is a high-leverage activity. It does not matter if your business is online or not you can use social media to expand your reach and grow your brand tremendously.
What this means is that it can be done by anyone, at any time, and in almost any location.
It is low cost, which means you don’t need to spend a lot of money on equipment or training for your employees—you just need their dedication to the cause. Finally, social media marketing is low risk; if something goes wrong with your campaign (and let’s be honest: it will), you can simply make changes or start over again without having lost anything other than a little time and effort.
The ideal question now will be, how do I tap into the power of social media marketing, and how do I ensure I am doing it right for my business? Let us explore those in the next part of this article.
To begin;
1. Make a plan
Define your goals
What do you want to achieve? Do you want more people to visit your website? Do you want more customers or leads, or are you interested in brand awareness? Whatever your objective is, it must be SMART and aligns with the information and content on your social media accounts.
If a goal is too vague, for example, “I just want more engagement” or “I just want to grow my page as much as possible,” it will be harder to measure whether or not you have achieved that goal when measuring growth against other metrics like traffic and conversion rates. It may also make it hard for you to define success if there isn’t a measurable outcome tied back into it (like the number of followers), etc.
Define your audience
What does your ideal customer look like? Are they male/female? Are they young/old? Do they live in one region or another? How many years of education do they have under their belt? How much money do they make per year (this can be an estimate)? Where do these potential customers hang out online and how often do they use each platform (Facebook vs Twitter vs Instagram etc.)
All of these are very important questions that must be answered if you are ever going to run successful marketing campaigns on social media.
2. Showcase your brand personality and values
Defining your brand personality and values is a crucial step to creating a social media marketing strategy that attracts the right people.
As you create your business’s style guide, think about how you want your company to come across on social media:
- What does your brand stand for? Are you all about having fun and joking around, or are you more serious and professional?
- How do you want the world to see this in action? Are there specific events or topics where it’s appropriate (or not) to use humor, or are there other times when it’s better suited toward serious discussion?
- Who will be best served by these different approaches? Your customers should easily relate to your content. Remember that sharing an inside joke is probably not going to work well with clients who don’t know anything about the context behind it. Similarly, posting only links related specifically to business growth might get boring for someone who wants more than just business-related content from their feed.
3. Create unique visual content
It’s important to create visual content that is relevant, consistent with your brand and social media channels, and aligned with other marketing materials.
Try creating original images or videos that are unique to your business. If you’re a fitness studio, for example, you could post photos of healthy dishes in the studio kitchen or videos of exercises being performed on equipment. You can also make a collage out of stock photos from stock photo websites like Pixabay or Unsplash (which are free) and insert them into an image editor like Adobe Photoshop to create an original piece that looks professionally done without spending a lot of money.
4. Produce quality written content
- Include images and videos in your posts whenever possible. This helps make your posts more engaging to readers, who are more likely to share that content with their friends and followers on social media.
- Use a consistent tone of voice in your social media marketing efforts—don’t go from formal to casual or vice versa without warning! Your brand’s personality should shine through in every single post you create, regardless of the medium, it appears on (social media, website copy, etc.). This voice must be unique to your business; if it sounds like everyone else out there, why would anyone choose to follow you?
- Stay true to the language used by customers within a particular market segment that’s relevant to your business—for example: do people say “YOLO” or “OMG” when they talk about life experiences? If so, then use those terms appropriately when communicating with them online! That also means avoiding jargon unless necessary; again: why would others want anything from someone who doesn’t understand them?
- You can employ professional content writers like those here in Effe Towers, or any other content writers to help your business content marketing strategy, and also create highly engaging social media content.
5. Manage relationships with customers and prospects
You can’t do social media marketing without being transparent and authentic, but there are other important elements to keep in mind as well.
You need to be helpful, friendly, and approachable. Be generous with your time and knowledge; respond promptly to questions and comments from both customers and prospects. It’s also important to be positive about what you’re doing—social media is a great way to share positive news about your business!
Above all else, don’t forget to respect your audience by remaining respectful of their privacy (and not hitting them up for personal information).
6. Create a community of potential customers and clients
Create a community of potential customers and clients, as well as trusted partners and influencers in the industry.
To build an engaged community, you need a consistent stream of content to share. Sharing valuable information with your followers regularly will keep their interest and the conversation going.
To create a community, you must start by building relationships with people in your industry who have similar goals and interests as yours. You can do this by joining groups on social media channels like LinkedIn or Facebook where people are already engaging with each other about topics that interest you. Once there, participate in conversations by answering questions and contributing your insights into the topic at hand. The more you engage with others through these platforms, the stronger your network will become over time; especially if someone sees how helpful or knowledgeable you are in specific areas that align with their goals.
When it comes down to managing online communities (like Facebook groups), make sure they’re run well so they don’t get out of control—especially if they’re large enough where there could be problems related specifically to moderation issues such as spamming other members’ posts/comments, etc.
7. Build trust through transparency and authenticity
Trust is an important factor in the success of your business. It’s what will help you retain your customers, attract new ones and build loyalty with them. Trust also has a positive impact on other aspects of your business by creating brand awareness, increasing brand loyalty, and improving sales performance.
But how do you earn trust from your audience? One way is to be authentic and transparent about who you are as a person or company—and then consistently bring this authenticity into all of your marketing efforts.
You can build trust by sharing stories that illustrate who you truly are as a person or company—and why people should choose to support what you offer over another competitor’s service or product. Your stories need not be elaborate or complicated; they simply need to highlight some aspect of who you are personally or professionally that might resonate with potential customers. You could also include links where people can learn more about how the products/services offered through each page would impact their lives positively in some way (e.g., “Find out how our new widget will save users money on energy bills”). Just make sure that whatever story is included relates to those things which set it apart from other businesses/products online before visiting any given webpage because Google has been known for penalizing sites whose content doesn’t contain anything unique relative to its competitors within their niche market space.”
8. Align your social media marketing with your overall goal
A successful social media marketing strategy aligns with your overall goals for your business and is sustainable over time. You can’t just create a Facebook Page and expect it to lead directly to more customers or clients. A great social media strategy takes some thought and planning, but if you put in the effort now, you’ll reap the benefits later.
You should start by asking yourself one question: What do you want your audience to know about your brand? Answering this question will help guide all of your efforts as you build out an effective social media campaign.
Conclusion
Social media has become an essential part of how businesses engage with customers. It’s a way to build a brand and community, as well as a way to market your products and services.
If your business hasn’t tapped into the incredible power of social media marketing, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to grow and expand your customer base. But don’t worry, this is where you come in, we can help get you started!
We will design your social media strategy and create a lead generating and conversion system for your business.
