Social Media Marketing Strategies to Drastically Improve Your Efforts

Did you know social media is the number one daily activity among Americans, topping time spent on email and Google?According to Fast Company, marketing with social media 93% of marketers use social media to promote their business.Social media is BIG and only getting bigger. If you are not marketing on it, you are likely missing a large chunk of your target consumers.As a product of the Mark Zuckerberg generation, it is easy to understand why people are so obsessed with social media; for marketers, the potential to grow their business via these networks is endless. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ – these are some of the prime networks every company, big or small, young or established, needs to have an active presence on. It is now inexcusable for any business that wants to thrive to not be tweeting!And now we are being exposed to more and more social advertisements. As I complete my morning ritual of sipping coffee and scrolling through my Instagram feed, I now notice sponsored ads appearing in between filtered pictures of scenery and food. It is impossible to visit one’s Facebook news feed without popping into a few compelling ads along the way.
Once you optimize your social channels for success, you will not only gain loyal brand promoters, social media marketing software but you will begin capturing leads and converting visitors into customers.For those of you who have let your social channels develop cobwebs and cockroaches over the past year, here are six social media strategies to take control of your social channels and give them a much needed facelift in the New Year. We all know that social is a key part of modern marketing, but how do you get started? How can you be sure that your efforts on social are strategic, and that you aren't just "marketing at random"?To be successful on social, your social marketing strategy needs to include high-level objectives, as well as specific, granular action items. In other words, you need a social media tactical plan. Key objectives and action items for your blog, social networks, videos, photos, and presentations.The number of hours your company will choose to devote to each facet of social marketing.How your goals might differ on networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and more.The most important, testable metrics for your social campaigns.

Create a Game Plan & Stick to It

If you have no execution strategy, your content is likely going to fall through the cracks. how to use social media for marketing Set a limit on how many tweets you have to publish per day. This number can be adjusted as needed, but having a number you have to hit, even something as small as four tweets per day, gives you a benchmark and a goal at the very least.Investigate how often your competitors are posting and conduct industry research to see the ideal amount of content to publish per day on each channel. You want to be active, but not overly active. Compile all content in an easy-to-read editorial calendar. Google Excel Docs is a good place to start. Set up a weekly, shareable publishing calendar, then separate by social channel, and provide columns for co-workers within your content team to provide their feedback before posting. Plan ahead, but continue making additions as necessary, for example if a great PR hit is published cover this in a timely manner even it was not on your original posting schedule.Look into social media management platforms, like Hootsuite, Buffer, and TweetDeck, to help schedule posts ahead of time, monitor and manage your social feeds, and access performance analytics.
Every piece of your social media strategy serves the goals you set. You simply can’t move forward without knowing what you’re working toward. social media marketing courses Look closely at your company’s overall needs and decide how you want to use social media to contribute to reaching them.I suggest you choose two primary goals and two secondary goals to focus on. Having too many goals distracts you and you’ll end up achieving none. Goals aren’t terribly useful if you don’t have specific parameters that define when each is achieved. For example, if one of your primary goals is generating leads and sales, how many leads and sales do you have to generate before you consider that goal a success?Marketing objectives define how you get from Point A (an unfulfilled goal) to Point B (a successfully fulfilled goal). You can determine your objectives with the S-M-A-R-T approach: Make your objectives specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.You’ll undoubtedly come up with several personalized goals, but there are a few that all companies should include in their strategy—increasing brand awareness, retaining customers and reducing marketing costs are relevant to everyone.

Treat each channel as an individual entity

Each social channel needs to be treated as a separate entity. social media marketing b2b There can be content that is spread across all channels – for example if your business was recently acquired by a global company, this is likely news you want to share across the board, but you should adjust your strategy depending on the audience for that channel.For example, LinkedIn tends to have a more business-focused audience looking for in-depth, educational content, compared to Instagram, which is likely to have an audience looking for engaging visual content. Pay attention to your follower demographic on each channel to publish content that appeals to them. And I’m not going to lie, I’ve fallen victim to several of these ads, and been captured and clicked through to their site, sometimes even converting – shameful, I know.But before diving into paid ads it is important to build out your social channels with rockstar content, quality customer service, and eye-catching visuals.
Using our previous example, if your goal is to generate leads and sales, a specific marketing objective may be to increase leads by 50%. social media marketing for small business In order to measure your progress, choose which analytics and tracking tools you need to have in place.Setting yourself up for failure is never a good idea. If you set an objective of increasing sales by 1,000%, it’s doubtful you’ll meet it. Choose objectives you can achieve, given the resources you have.You’ve taken the time to refine your goals so they’re relevant to your company, so extend that same consideration to your objectives. If you want to get support from your C-level executives, ensure your objectives are relevant to the company’s overall vision. Attaching a timeframe to your efforts is imperative. When do you intend to achieve your goal(s)? Next month? By the end of this year?Your objective of increasing leads by 50% may be specific, measurable, achievable and relevant, but if you don’t set a deadline for achieving the goal, your efforts, resources and attention may be pulled in other directions.