Do you have an account on social media platforms? Maybe you use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, TikTok regularly, for personal and maybe even for business. Maybe you even spend a little too much time on them. It is one thing to be a user and another to use social marketing strategy to grow your business. Before you get stressed out, let’s break down exactly why social media is important, the benefits and how to use it.
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What is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media is one of the most popular ways to stay interconnected all over the world. It allows us to connect with people who share similar interests, hobbies, and mindsets. Social media also helps us develop relationships, network job opportunities, and promote businesses.
In today’s society, it is almost impossible for one to have a business and not use some form of social media marketing as a component of business strategy. Now most of us know how social media helps with brand awareness, advertisement, and reaching larger demographics,but social media can also be used to effectively market your small business. However, many business owners don’t know how.
Why is social media marketing important?
For all the ups and downs that social media appears to go through on a weekly basis, there is no denying that it is still the best place to find your audience and present them with your business. You can find the people who will be most interested in what you have to offer.
Get the Most for Your Money
Like all marketing projects, you will need to think about how to use your money effectively to bring in customers. However, unlike other methods, social media marketing offers you the best rate of return on your investment. Depending on the purpose of your advertisment, you can see an immediate effect whether that is a boost in the number of followers you have or a boost in the number of conversions you want to achieve.
It can be difficult to measure ROI with social media advertising, though, as many of the outcomes are not necessarily financial, but do show a change in perception of your company and awareness in general. This means that while investment in this area will have a good impact, you may not see any financial results for a while.
Use Targeting to Reach Your Audience
One of the best reasons to use social ads is your ability to target incredibly specific audiences. Facebook is renowned for allowing advertisers to create audiences that can be targeting on things like magazine preference as well as the more generic age and gender. If you are only going to use one social site, mastering the art of Facebook for your business is a good place to start. However, you really should consider other sites like Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to cover all your bases.
Where other means of advertising such as magazine ads may reach a larger audience, you can’t guarantee that everyone the ad reaches will be interested. Using social targeting raises the odds of reaching people who will be interested and though you may reach a smaller audience, you will get a better rate of response and the most for your money.
Split Test for the Best Results
But social ads don’t just leave targeting at that. You can also use split testing to figure out the best way to encourage clicks (or whatever your aim may be) while you are in the middle of your campaign. Unlike the magazine ad which is printed once, the social ad can be released in multiple versions and the most successful will be allocated the most budget.
Because social media sites are so reliant on their advertisers being happy, they all offer you plenty of ways to make your ads work and give you the best return on your investment. Whether this means split testing or offering you greater opportunities to refine your audience there are plenty of ways that you can reach new people this year.
Which social media platform to use?
There are a few different kinds of social media you need to get to know in order to market yourself better online. The main ones that every business should have a presence on are Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
Youtube
A billion hours of videos are watched on Youtube every single day. Besides being the second biggest social media site, Youtube is a search engine. In fact, it’s the second largest search engine, owned by the largest search engine, which is Google.
When people have a question, especially questions that require step-by-step walkthroughs, a lot of people go to Youtube. If your business can help answer certain questions that your ideal audience will likely find answers through videos, then you are organically being exposed to them through Youtube.
We tend to think of Facebook as a way if hanging out with your friends, without actually hanging out with your friends. I know I use Facebook for friends and family far away to say hi, get out my thoughts, and share a few memes with.
As a business entrepreneur, it’s important to know that Facebook is also a very easy and genius way to market yourself into the world. Using this method of social media in a similar way to how you would use a blog is the key to getting yourself out there.
Not just Facebook pages, but Facebook is heavily favouring Facebook groups these days. Facebook groups are said to be able to help people connect. It is usually made of a community of like-minded people, who share the same interests. If you create a Facebook group for your followers and potential customers, it’s likely you can build more personal connections with them.
Aside from Facebook, Twitter is another social media you need to have in order to keep yourself out there in the world. Twitter is different from Facebook in two ways, it has less room for writing and the power of hashtags.
The rst way that Twitter differs from Facebook is that there are a very limited number of characters to write on your Tweet. In other words, this is the perfect place to speak when you don’t have a lot to say.
Twitter allows you to send people little messages about what’s going on in your life or your business. You can’t get into a long description, so of you just received a shipment of the pair of red shoes you’ve been waiting for, Twitter is the perfect place to make that known. You can tweet “Just got the red shoes I’ve been waiting for!”
Instagram has become the go-to platform for a lot of businesses. Instagram is a great platform to do everything that you would want, in one simple place.
Let’s break down Instagram a little bit more. There is Instagram Feed, Instagram stories, IGTV, and the latest edition, Instagram Reels.
Instagram Feed is where you can upload about your products and services, your clients and customers’ success stories, testimonials and other content. Instagram stories is where you can concentrate on connecting with your audiences and creating more personal connections. IGTV is the platform where people can share longer videos, giving more information to customers. Instagram Reels is a new addition to the Instagram world. It is similar to TikTok, showcasing short videos. Businesses can use Instagram Reels to provide quick tips or let audiences go behind the scene to create closer connections.
Pinterest might not be the first platform that pops into your head when you think about what social media platform to go with, but it is, in fact, one of the most powerful platforms to help grow your organic reach quickly.
Unlike Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, Pinterest is a search engine, where a lot of users go to look for inspirations through search. Users on Pinterest tend to scroll through rows and rows of content, sharing and pinning new ideas. Your content can be exposed to new audience quickly through Pinterest.
Linkedin is one of the best social networking groups to become involved in if you are a business entrepreneur or of you have your own small business. Linkedin is like having your little black book of business associate and their little black book of business associates…all rolled into one neat little package.
Linkedin allows you to tell the world about yourself and your business in a professional manner. Think of it as a type of resume anyone can follow.
Why Your Social Media Strategy Is Not Working
Social media is supposed to be the definitive content marketing channel solution, right? But many business owners are discovering it’s easier said than done. Here are a few reasons your social media strategy is not working.
1. You’re not advertising
Yes, social media is free, whereas traditional advertising can cost lots of money. But even so, you have to realize that social media engagement with organic posting is inherently weak—people are overly bombarded by the items in their feed. With social media ads, you can target specific users and secure a noticeable spot in the feed, yielding more click-through action.
2. You’re hacking too much
Despite the seductive words of internet gurus and content marketing professionals, there is no get-rich-quick solution to social media content marketing. Building a solid presence takes time, patience, and quality material. You can try all the backend hacks you want, but the social media venues have watchdogs to monitor that activity. If they deem it shady, it will reduce the health score of your profile, making it harder for you to market.
3. You’re not interacting
It’s called social media for a reason! Even monolithic mega-giants like Disney and Coca-Cola have social teams that interact with users making comments on their pages and forums. If you’re going to build brand loyalty on a social media platform, you have to interact with your followers by commenting on their posts and pictures, and responding to their comments and likes.
4. You’re not using data
There are plenty of programs out there that can help you mine user data, which can help you better refine your target audience. This type of software can help you understand who interacts with your brand, and what demographics are potentially most interested in what you have to offer. Without leveraging that info, you’re kind of just shooting in the dark.
5. You’re not making good content
From pictures to textual posts, what grabs attention on social media is good content. Learn about what will get eyes to stop and click on a link, and if you can’t figure it out, employ someone who can.
6. You’re doing all the work
You heard it right…the best social media marketing comes about when other people market your product or service. Your brand ambassadors can collectively reach out to a wider audience who is already in love with their posts and appreciates their unique style. Moreover, someone else touting your product or service gives it a seal of approval you just can’t fake on your own.
How to Use Social Media Marketing
Building an online social media presence from the ground up can be a daunting process. There are so any things to consider: which platforms, what content, who’s my target audience? To ensure you don’t miss a thing, consider the following when building your online brand as you develop your social media presence.
1. Consider different platforms
The platforms you choose to use will depend entirely on your business and what you hope to achieve. There are numerous options to pick from: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube and more. You don’t need to use all of them; in fact, it’s probably better to select a few and use them well rather than spread yourself too thin. Looking for something interactive? Maybe try Facebook or Instagram. Wanting to remain strictly business-oriented? Use LinkedIn. Do your research and decide on what platforms will best serve your purpose.
2. Develop strong, consistent profiles
Setting up accounts on these platforms is easy. Crafting them to represent what you want them to is the difficult part. The profiles for each platform are extremely important is this is a representation of your brand and what you are promoting. The biggest tip: make sure your messaging is consistent across ALL profiles. There’s no point promoting one thing on Instagram, only to state another on Twitter. This is the easiest way to undermine the strength of your brand.
3. Be consistent
To use social media effectively, you must remain relevant. This includes posting regular content that is engaging and relevant to your target audience. It might be worthwhile developing a social media plan of when and what you will be posting to ensure consistent messaging and a range of topics. Track the success of posts to see what generates the most traffic and interaction, including comments and likes.
The simple fact is that social media provides a massive platform to access a global audience. But many social media managers have different messages on various platforms. No company ever really engages in different branding messages to different audiences, though they might use different means of getting the message across. The overall tone, quality, and branding need to be the same across various social media platforms. You can experiment with the content, just not the tone or the brand, which need to be uniform at all times. Along with consistency of brand comes consistency of posting frequency, as mentioned above.
4. Interact with your audience
If people are leaving comments and engaging with your posts, respond! This is the best way to truly engage your audience and ensure they keep coming back. It doesn’t have to be much, a simple acknowledgement of their post or a thoughtful reply, but it shows that your page is active and appreciative of its followers.
Building a social media presence is a long-term task. It can seem difficult at times but make sure to persevere and you will see the benefits. There are a range of considerations when building an online brand, but always keep in mind that consistency is key.
Tools to help with social media marketing
To help you build your social media marketing presence and grow your followings, here are some tools to help you get started with posting on social media channels. They are great tools that have additional functions to help you better analyse your results.
- Tailwind – An amazing Pinterest and Instagram tool, helping you schedule photos & videos with auto-post, with incredible hashtag suggestions and analytics tools. One amazing tool is the Tailwind Tribes, a great way to grow your reach quickly and find collaboration opportunities.
- Later – With Later, you can visually plan, schedule and analyse posts for multiple social media channels including Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. Later allows you to rearrange your posts easily and provide great analytics.
- MeetEdgar – Edgar saves you time by managing the content on all of your networks. Edgar uses machine learning to read through your content and generate quotes for your social media updates, including your Facebook page, Facebook group, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts.
- SmarterQueue – SmarterQueue is an all-in-one social media management tool, and you can discover high-quality content, and you can add it straight to your queue and help you gain more engagement. You can use SmarterQueue for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.
Social Media Marketing is an important aspect of every online business’s online marketing effort. Understand why social media marketing is important, the benefits and apply these methods and tools to help you figure out exactly how you do social media marketing effectively.
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