With 2021 paving the way to a digitally-centered world, social media has taken center stage in almost every facet of human life.
Highway billboards, Cable TV commercials, and old-fashioned in-person lead generation strategies are being rendered obsolete. Businesses that are currently thriving are hopping on board the social media train.
Gone are the days when businesses could get by without championing a strong social media marketing strategy. Continue reading this guide to see how you can get ahead of the curb!
Champion Your Brand, Spread Your Brand
Don’t even think about social media advertising before perfecting the why of your business model. Get your brand down to a science by:
- Aligning your philosophies and ethics with those of your ideal consumer
- Brand your business with a logo
- Have a catchphrase that your ideal consumer can get behind
- Match value with good storytelling
Once you have an ethically sound business with a compelling story at your disposal, it’s time to move toward increasing your brand awareness on social media sites.
Set a brand awareness goal and do as much research as you can on each social media website. Each social media service has its own specialization:
- Facebook, Linkedin, and Google Plus are great for social networking
- Twitter and Tumblr are useful for microblogging
- Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest are for photosharing
- Youtube, Facebook Live, and Vimeo are best for video sharing
Most social media sites have their own social analytics tools preset so you can track your goals by watching for these metrics:
- Average view count per post
- Average read time
- Followers
- Content engagement
- Shares and mentions
There are even plugins you can download to your business website that connect your social media sites and drive traffic directly to them. Hootsuite, BufferPublish, and Later are great SocialBoosting examples.
Convincing Your Audience
The social media marketing giant Hubspot says you must produce content that educates, informs, entertains, or inspires to improve your brand awareness. Users and potential leads can sniff out insincere promotional material from a mile away.
Make sure your content exudes value. Contrary to popular belief, your goal isn’t to sell your product. Your goal is to create a service your customers will want to buy. Nobody will so much as touch your products if they don’t trust your business.
An effective social media campaign has a personality that people like and a goal that people can get behind. Remember, you aren’t a machine. You’re just as human as everyone else. This means you have the innate ability to empathize with your audience. Pay attention to their needs and wants, and act accordingly!
Some fun ways to interact with your audience include:
- Tiktok marketing: Create quick, clever, and funny video spurts
- Instagram marketing: Take pictures to tell a story about your business
- Facebook marketing: Setup a FB page and write compelling posts
- YouTube marketing: Create engaging, funny, inspiring, educative videos
- And more: The options are endless!
Many businesses make use of poll and survey applications pre-installed on these websites to interact with their audience. This is a great way to determine what your audience’s needs and wants are. It’s also a great way to show them that you care about them and value their thoughts and opinions!
Your Social Media Marketing Strategy Begins Here!
The internet is chock full of useful information on social media marketing. Keep absorbing everything you’ll need to know to perfect your social media marketing strategy by digging deeper.
HubSpot and LinkedIn have some of the greatest social media marketing courses on the internet. Hopefully, this article inspired you to springboard from social media awareness to social media marketing professional status!
