Are you in charge of getting your company’s social media marketing up and running? Using social media to grow your business, generate leads and build a brand may make sure feel like running and hiding. But there are steps you can follow to improve your chances of success, which will help you take advantage of everything social media has to offer.
Whether you’re just getting started or have been active on sites like Facebook and Twitter, but haven’t had much success, here’s a few tips to give your marketing plan an overhaul.
1. Create a Social Media Plan
So many businesses make the mistake of blindly jumping into social media marketing without a strategy or plan. If you start without a plan, you’ll last a few weeks before you forget why you’re there in the first place. Why are you on social media? And what social media platform features your target audience? You’ve gotta know your audience and understand what motivates them.
Consider the channels that have the most importance based on your brand’s goals. Avoid overcomplicating a strategy with too many targets and objectives. Often the simpler the plan, the better.
2. Post consistently
Figure out when your audience are online, then schedule your posts around those times. Got an international audience? Make sure you’re sticking to times that work for them. Once you’ve got this sorted, post consistently. It may sound strange, but posting at a similar time each day and week will work in your favour – your audience will start to expect your posts and will embrace them more if they are seeing them regularly. If they only see one every now and then (when you remember to post) they’ll stare at their screen with a perplexed expression and unfollow you straight away. Get your audience used to seeing you in their feed.
3. Make it good
Content really is king. So don’t publish something just for the sake of it – make sure it’s quality content. This means:
- Relevant to your audience
- Helpful
- Entertaining
4. Use a social media management tool
You can’t be online ALL the time. But you need to be pushing your content at the best times for your audience. Social media management tools such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and Schedugram, make it a lot easier to manage all your content and make sure you don’t miss anything. They can also produce reports for you automatically, which helps you understand what you’re doing well and what you need to improve.
5. Use more videos and images
These days, effectively conveying your brand on social media through images and video is the challenge for most businesses. So don’t be afraid of using tools such as Canva and Magisto to craft photos and videos that show off your brand. Unsurprisingly, Instagram gets the most engagement of any of the social media platforms so if you’re not on IG? Get there quick.
6. Give People a Reason to Follow You
Why should people follow your business? Why is it worth their time to read your captions and double click?
Consumers have thousands of choices to follow, so you really need to stand out. As part of your value proposition, make sure you give them a good reason to follow and engage with you. To do this, put together an avatar of your customers (based on your buyer’s profiles) and create pains points for each of them. Now solve their pain points in your social media posts. Voila, people will love that you are sharing valuable content and will continue to stick with you.
Need more tips and tricks? Discover more about Monarch Institute’s online marketing courses here. Or call one of our friendly consultants on 1300 738 955.
