With 3.6 billion people currently using social media globally, social media marketing is a significant factor in helping you achieve your digital marketing goals.
A well-executed social media strategy boosts brand awareness, increases traffic to your website, and increases your conversion rates. It also promotes customer satisfaction and reinforces brand loyalty.
With this in mind, below are social media strategies anyone can implement to help you achieve your marketing goals.
1) Set Clear Goals
The first step to executing a solid social media strategy is defining your goals. Goals inform the decisions you will make to achieve your desired results such as choosing the appropriate social media platform and the content to post.
Some of the goals you may consider depending on your business is building brand visibility for startups, increasing sales, and retaining clients. With a clear set of goals, you will know what to focus on when developing social media campaigns.
It also makes it easy to track and monitor the performance of your campaigns. This is because they provide a basis upon which to measure progress.
2) Select Social Media Platforms that Bring the Most Value
There are numerous social media platforms to choose from ranging from Facebook, and YouTube to TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn. To get the best out of your social media marketing, you need to explore all these sites and only select the platforms that give you the most return on investment.
Factors to consider when choosing a social media platform include your target audience, type of content, and the nature of your business. If your target audience is young people, for example, consider TikTok and Instagram. Facebook, on the other hand, is excellent when targeting the older demographic.
A B2B business will benefit more from LinkedIn while a B2C business will do well with Facebook and Instagram when seeking visibility. Remember to always go where your target audience is.
3) Incorporate Videos
Videos are engaging and your audience is more likely to share them compared to written content. What’s’ more, social media platforms like Facebook have algorithms that favor video content give them more exposure compared to texts and images.
Use live videos for broadcasts or when addressing commonly asked questions regarding your brand. You can also post how-to videos concerning the product or services your offer, as well as customer testimonials. When creating videos, ensure that you tailor them to the platform you will be posting on with regards to length and depth.
4) Make Your Content Shareable
Making your content shareable increases your visibility and brand awareness as it reaches a wider audience. You can make your content shareable by ensuring that it is unique, appeals to the emotions of your target audience, and addresses their needs.
Other than creating high-quality content, you can use social media plugins such as Novashare and Social Snap that make it easy to share content on social media platforms.
Also, include noticeable and mobile-friendly share buttons in your content as most users access social media via mobile. Ensure that the share buttons do not distract the readers and that they are in a strategic position. This way, those who do not go through the whole content can easily access the share buttons and use them.
5) Be Consistent and Engage Your Audience.
When using social media for marketing purposes, consistency is key as it ensures that your followers do not forget you. You can achieve consistency with the help of a content calendar that details when and how often you should post.
Also, include the type of content to post on your calendar for each day as it helps you avoid repetition. Engage your audience in conversations by replying to their comments, answering their questions, and giving them suggestions with regard to your brand.
This gives a human side to your business and earns you loyalty from your audience. Keep an eye on trending topics, hashtags and events, and capitalize on them if it aligns with your brand for relevance and shareability.
6) Track and Monitor Progress.
Tracking and monitoring your social media campaigns helps you know what works, and what you need to improve on. Some helpful metrics that can help you measure your performance include the number of clicks and interactions, views and engagements on Instagram stories, impressions, and retweets on Twitter, and even the number of sales.
There are numerous tracking and monitoring tools you can use depending on the metrics you are measuring. You can use Buzzsumo to track engagements and Hubspot to analyze the impact of your social media strategies on your revenue. Google Analytics on the other hand lets you know what social media platform brings you more traffic.
As social media continues to shape customer behavior, the above strategies will help you position your brand success in the digital space. You only need to keep track of current trends in social media marketing and implement what fits your business.
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