If you’re a business today, social media is not only a great marketing tool but some may even say it’s a crucial one. After hearing this and seeing social media potential, a lot of people make the mistake of simply creating a social media account and not cultivating an audience nor continuously create content. Leaving the marketing opportunities obsolete, that’s why we’ve broken down the bite-sized tips any brand can follow to grow their social media presence right away.
Start Off SMART
In short, brands should set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
An example of a good SMART goal for social media marketing would be something like “We’ll increase our Twitter response rate by 25% by the end of the first quarter.”
Specific: “We’ve specifically identified the social channel (Twitter) and a metric (response rate).”
Measurable: “The response rate can be measured from the Sprout Social dashboard.”
Achievable: “We didn’t make an outlandish goal of say, a 100% increase in 10 days.”
Relevant: “Our goal will have an impact on our overall social media presence, making it very relevant.”
Time-bound: “The goal has to be met by the end of the first quarter.”
Assigning the social media efforts a concrete purpose helps you avoid the trap of posting aimlessly.
Know Your Audience
Pro-tip: “everyone” is not an audience.
Maybe it’s prospective customers. Perhaps it’s industry players and influencers. Either way, breaking down your audience will help you figure out the following:
- Which social media sites you’re active on
- Your posting schedule
- The type of content you publish
- Your brand’s voice
- The information in your profiles
Many brands spin their wheels because they don’t post content that speaks to a defined audience. Spend some time looking at your audience personas, understanding what their challenges are and what brands they already love via social. This sort of competitive analysis can help you understand how your own social media presence can stand out from the crowd.
Help First, Sell Later
Although social selling is indeed on the rise, rarely should your social media presence be about the “hard sell.”
Sure, if you’re in eCommerce it makes sense to push offers and deals to your followers. What’s more important, though, is answering the questions of followers whether through replies or content marketing. If your followers ask a question, you should respond in a timely manner. And if your followers seem to be buzzing about a particular problem, you should craft content that speaks directly to it. By offering solutions to problems instead of just pitching your products all the time, you’re proving your company is an authority and potentially earning a lifelong customer.
Track and Analyze
When people complain about the lack of ROI they’re seeing from social, there’s a good chance they aren’t taking social seriously.
Just like we’re often knee-deep in Google Analytics data, marketers need to treat social with the same sort of scrutiny. There are tons of analytics tools out there to help you identify your top-performing content, performance trends, and essential break down your social media presence by the numbers. These data points can help you treat social media less like a guessing game and more like a science.
Money Talks…
At the end of the day, we wouldn’t mention social media promotion without the great advertising channel it provides while there’s still plenty that can be done organically, Facebook’s updated algorithm and new business features being rolled out Instagram signal a clear need for businesses to experiment with ads.
It’s not just ads that deserve your attention, though. Looking at the recent boom of influencer marketing, paid relationships among social movers and shakers is becoming more and more common. The good news is that both social ads and influencer marketing can have an insane ROI. Between laser-targeting on Facebook or tapping into hyper-engaged influencer audiences, a paid strategy certainly has its time and place depending on your business’ social goals.
