The use of social media is a great way to grow a business. This allows businesses to connect with their customers, gain exposure and traffic and sell their products and services.
Customers are likely to spend lots of time on social media, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
Social media is a way for your customers to interact with you and with other brands. Social media influence on purchasing decisions is not new.
You’re losing out on a cost-effective and efficient way to reach the ideal customers.
Any business must have a strategy for social media.
1. Start with a Plan
Set goals and objectives for social media. What are you trying to achieve with social media?
How can you get more people to your website? As many people as you can within your target audience? Raising the profile of your business? Social media marketing can do all of this and more.
You can audit your social media efforts if you already use them. Create a calendar for social media that helps you to post the correct content on the right channels. Use 80% of the content you create to entertain or educate your audience, and 20% to market your business or sell products.
2. Choose the Platform that is Right for You
It’s not necessary to be active on all social media platforms. It can be hard to decide which social media channels you should use. It can be helpful to know where your audience is spending their time on the internet. Join these social media platforms after doing some research. It is not worth posting on Twitter if your audience is mostly on Facebook.
3. Know Your Audience
Are you aware of your target audience and their location?
You must first understand your audience in order to grow it. How old is the audience you are targeting? What is their age, where they live, and what are their preferences? You can then revisit your social media strategy and refine your targeting once you have a clear idea of your ideal customer. You will be able to meet your prospects wherever they are.
4. Build Trust with Customers
Does it suffice to run regular ads and post on Facebook? Unfortunately, it’s not. Social media exists to make people social.
Social media is a dynamic place. Many brands come and leave, but those that inspire trust and interaction with consumers- stay.
How can we inspire this type of engagement? Encourage the creation of user-generated content. Customers can review your business by asking them to do so. Create videos to let your audience see the person behind the company. Speak to your customers. Ask them questions and listen to their answers.
5. Paying for Social Media Advertising
Ads are one of the fastest and most effective ways to reach out to your target audience. You can increase traffic to your site and conversions. Retargeting ads can help you grow your social media page or engage previous prospects.
Social media advertising that is paid for is efficient, cost-effective and measurable. You can see which ads work, how many people view them, who clicks on them, and where they are from. If your ads are not performing as you expected, you can optimise them instantly.
6. Social Media and Websites Can Work Together
Did you know that social media is the main driver of traffic to websites? Social media is a key component of many strategies for increasing website traffic. You will improve your website’s SEO if you link to social media profiles.
Promote your blog content via social media. Embed a sharing tool for social media to encourage your visitors to share the content of your website. Consistent interactions mean better customer experiences, which in turn means more traffic for your website.
7. Go Visual
Visual content is one of the best methods to attract attention on social media. Information that includes an image or a video is more likely to be remembered. Images in social media posts are more likely than plain text to receive more likes and remarks. It is better to show than tell.
72% of consumers choose videos over manuals when deciding on an purchase. Visual content that is easily shared. Use images, GIFs and infographics. An animation or promotional video can help your content and social media channels stand out.
Stock photos are good, but you should always hire a professional graphic designer or photographer to create content specifically for your business.
8. Brand Recognition
The ability to recognize a brand is what allows a consumer distinguish it from other brands. It is an important element in building brand recognition.
Your customers should be familiar with your business so that they can consider it when making a purchase decision. Your social media presence should not look the same as everyone else’s if you want your customers to choose you. Do not just post a link or a photo and call it good. Invest in increasing brand awareness.
Organise giveaways, and offer discounts. Take feedback from customers seriously, and use your analytics to improve your social media marketing strategy.
9. Add A Strong Call-To-Action
It is important to know what you expect from your audience when it comes to social media. You may want users to “Read more”, “Sign up” for a mailing list, “Download” a file or go to a landing site.
A call-to-action encourages people to take action to achieve a goal.
CTAs encourage your customers to interact and engage with your content. You can get a faster return on your investment if you encourage your audience to interact with you.
Add a powerful CTA to your social media platform and you will get more business. CTAs can be tailored to the platform of social media. Make the benefit of clicking on “Read more” CTA visible. What will your reader gain if they click the “Read more CTA”? What value can you offer your readers?
10. Quality over Quantity
Writing quality, useful content is the key to social media. The social media space is noisy, and consumers are bombarded by content from other brands. Spend more time creating high-quality content, rather than posting just because you feel you have to. More postings will not necessarily increase brand awareness. It’s all about the quality. Your work is wasted if your social media posts fail to entertain, educate and provide value.
