06/10/2021 14:11
Social media is a must for any company these days. It can bring your company a lot of success or doom your company to failure. It’s important to have a strategy when you start social media marketing. It will go a long way in generating leads for your website.
When seeing how an organization like world athletics succeeds at social media marketing. I couldn’t help but be a fan of their page and the athletes who do a great job for their receptive nations.
This is because their posts distinguish them from other organizations in their space. They engage with their audience and have a great community that follows athletics.
You can achieve the same results. With social media, it is easy to market your business and sell more products and services. Social media marketing entails working on various aspects. These include social media automation, content marketing, social networking, and using social platforms.
It can be tricky at first. However, once you get the hang of it, everything falls into place. It works as a great way to reach out to potential clients and inform them about your business.
However, some think that social media marketing is too difficult to deal with. But the reality is that you only need to focus on what’s important. It's actually easier than it seems.
When marketing your company or brand on social media, there is a golden rule: content. You have to make sure that they keep their posts and updates regular and interesting for their followers and potential clients alike.
But why is social media marketing important in your business? What’s involved? And how do you build a social media strategy that works for your business?
In this guide I will go through the what, the why, and the who of social media. Let’s first start with defining social media marketing.
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing is a form of internet marketing that involves promoting products or brands by creating social media accounts and engaging with audiences using these accounts.
The idea behind social media marketing is to build online communities. This is because they enable marketers to target consumers and spread the word about their products.
Social media optimization is becoming an important aspect of a successful business. Because the ways people use social media are constantly changing, you need to constantly tweak your strategy.
This article explores some of the most important aspects of social media marketing.
Marketing is one of the most important factors in maintaining a successful business. Even if you have a good product, no one will buy it if they don’t know about it.
Why is social media Important
Social media is a proven vehicle for connecting with customers and getting new ones. It also includes building a loyal following. It has become a huge factor in modern-day marketing and advertising.
Because of this importance, we must understand what social media marketing is. Also, how it can affect your business. But why do you need to build a social media marketing strategy?
1. Brand awareness
In July of 2021, Datareportal reported that there are 4.80 billion social media users in the world. That suggests almost 57% of the global population is using social media.
Of all internet users, more than 9 in 10 people use social media every month. This is a big number to work with. It shows you why content that matters has the potential to grow your brand awareness.
You can boost your engagement by building meaningful relationships with your audience. Your audience can like, comment, share and repost your content.
In the case of Twitter – retweet. Social media will also boost your website traffic. This is because you can add links that lead people to the specific page you are sharing.
2. Generate leads
Social media marketing has rocketed to the top of the list for most businesses. People are spending time on social networks, rather than TV or other media, and they are looking for content that is relevant to their lives.
Generating leads and customers to your business is essential for small and large companies. Social media has transformed the way we communicate, interact and do business.
So, instead of seeing social media as competition, see it as a wonderful tool to generate leads. And if you’re not using social media to generate leads for your company, then it’s time to start looking at it as a necessity.
Creating a social media account for your business can be scary though. Once you set up the account, what do you do? Do you post about how great your company is? No one wants to hear that. You could share useful content, but will people see it? Let's look at the keys to using social media to generate leads for your business.
Before you begin craft a social media strategy. Do some research on your customers to create a list of the type of clients you are looking for in your business.
Find people who are somehow similar to the clients you are already serving. Find their interests and serve them with helpful content they will appreciate. Social media is not all about pitching your product.
- You can generate leads by;
- Including links to your Website
- Using social media marketing campaigns/ paid ads
- Creating contests for your audience
- Selling products through the Facebook marketplace or create a mobile shop front on Instagram
3. Build relationships
Traditional marketing is dead. Today it’s all about social media marketing. But what does that even mean?
Social Media Marketing helps you build meaningful relationships through social media. On social networks, people are usually connected to family, friends or at least have some kind of interest.
With this in mind, the audience of your brand will be more responsive to your business if you interact with them on a personal level. Social Media is for providing value and building trust. Little else matters.
Social Media Marketing is one of the best ways for a business to reach its target customers. In today's world, if you aren't on social media, then you may as well not exist. That's because social media has become a place where people go to interact with businesses and vice versa.
But the question still remains, how does a business succeed at anything, let alone something as big as Social Media Marketing? The answer is simple: By being present on social platforms and connecting with potential customers. This will help you build meaningful relationships.
4. Learn from your competitors
Social media marketing works by helping businesses to reach out to their customers and getting new customers. It extends to even the consumers that buy similar services or products.
A business can create a social media account that they can use to promote themselves. They also do this by providing information that will be useful to their readers.
It’s also a great way to keep track of what your competitors are doing. You can have information relating to what they are doing, and what people are responding to. You can also use competitor analysis to ensure your brand is unique from competitors.
But, How do you market on social media?
1. Do research on your target persona
When you research your customers, you are creating a foundation for your social media strategy. When you know who your customers are, you will create the right content for them.
2. Decide which platform you will use
There are a number of platforms to look at, Facebook, Instagram, Linked Youtube, and Twitter being some of the biggest to consider.
Each platform has a different set of audiences, linked in for example is a social platform for professionals. It allows people in different professions to connect. About 80% of the people on linked in are decision-makers. That’s a great place to close deals.
3. Create unique content
Content curation is important. Use video, GIFS, photos, and blog posts – to drive your audience to your website. Also, create posts that are sponsored to increase reach. When people engage with your content, engage with them also.
4. Schedule your posts
Post scheduling is a great way to give yourself time to plan ahead. You can create and schedule content for as far as a year with the right strategy. This will give you time to manage your social media and engage with your customers.
5. Analyze your results
Analytics are important. They give you a full picture of what is really happening in your profiles. Different tools are available to monitor your social media profile and pages.
Some are within the respective social media accounts. You can review reach, likes, engagement within these tools for example;
You can also use Google analytics – a great way to measure your social media and website metrics.
Social Media Marketing Tools
A number of businesses can make use of social media to boost their business. But, what they lack is the time to do it. That’s why social media tools play an important role.
These tools are an essential part of digital marketing. They allow users to measure the performance of their pages and content.
What to expect with social media tools
With social media tools, you can do social media management, social advertising, and content creation.
Posting platforms
Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are sites where people post content other people read. These tools allow you to share their content on social media instead of using the platforms. Popular tools include Agorapulse, Buffer, and SproutSocial.
Content creation and curation
These tools make it easy to create videos, slideshows, or GIFs for Facebook or Twitter posts. Drum Up, and Content Gems are just some of the sites out there.
Social advertising
This includes Facebook and Twitter Ads that allow you to promote your content to specific audiences.
There’s also a host of tools to help with publishing, scheduling, monitoring, and competitive analysis. To simplify things further think about the Hootsuite or SocialPilot.
Understanding social media metrics
Social media metrics provide valuable information about the effectiveness of a campaign. Additionally, You can use metrics to optimize social media campaigns, measure performance, and recognize trends.
Social media metrics include:
- Reach – The number of people who have seen any content associated with your page
- Engagement – Engagement includes likes, comments, and reply’s to social posts
- Followers – The number of people following your profile
- Impressions – The number of times a post from your profile is seen happens usually during scrolling
- Profile visits – The number of people who opened your profile
- Mentions - The number of times your profile has been mentioned by your audience in their posts.
- Video views – The number of views video pots get
- Tags – When your audience adds your profile name and/ or hashtag to their post
- Reposts – When your audience posts a piece of your content on their profile
- Shares – When a member of your audience gets something from your profile and shares it with their network.
Getting Started with Social Media
I
t may seem difficult to get started with social media. But, considering the billions of people on social media today one can make themselves known. Social media make it easier to connect and engage with potential customers and current ones.
Start working on your business' social media strategy today to boost your business and conversions. You can always start with creating a website to get more conversions.