Energizing your brand’s social Media

Once an unconventional aspect of marketing, social media has quickly become integral to businesses of all sizes. Even with this new reality many can struggle in their effectiveness to manage their strategy. In an effort to ensure you are doing the most with your social media you must first ensure a strong foundation is laid. Here are some tips to help create a strong social media presence for your business:

Develop a plan

Take the time to create a social media plan right upfront. This ensures that all your social efforts support specific business goals. This is key so you are able to measure your results.

• Set social media goals and objectives. Create goals that follow the SMART framework. They should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Base your goals on metrics that will have a real impact on your business. For example, aim to acquire customers or raise your conversion rate, rather than simply generating likes.
• Research the competition. How are your competitors using social media? Being aware of what others are doing is a great way to reduce your learning curve. Competitive analyses can help you learn what’s working and what’s not.
• Conduct a social media audit. If you’re already using social media, now’s the time to take a step back and evaluate your existing efforts. As part of your audit, look for impostor accounts that may be stealing your online thunder!
• Find inspiration. You’ve looked at what your competitors are doing online, but what about other businesses? Be inspired by the success of businesses in all industries.
• Create a social media calendar. This helps you post the right content to the right social channels at the right time. It should include a plan for your content mix. Try starting with the 80-20 rule. Use 80% of your content to inform, educate, or entertain your audience. Use the other 20% to promote your brand or sell your products.

Decide which platforms are right for you

Don’t make assumptions about where your audience spends their time online. Your instinct might tell you that if you’re targeting millennials, you should skip Facebook and focus on Instagram and Twitter. But the data shows that 84% of millennials still use Facebook. However, depending on your business type Instagram may be more effective. It also does not need to be an either-or situation. Innovative business leader Jimmy John Shark suggest that for businesses focused on B2B sales Linkedin may be a good fit for your objectives.

Know your audience

One reason using social media for business is so effective is that you can micro-target your audience. But first, you need to know who your audience is.

Start by compiling data on your current customers. Then, dig deeper with social media analytics. You’ll start to develop a solid picture of who’s buying from and interacting with you online. With this information, you can create customer profiles for the types of users that interact with your brand and understand more of what motivates them to either engage or purchase from your brand. Use that insight to drive new creative concepts and communication messaging strategies. With TheMarketingheaven.com’s likes you can better reach and a better audience.

Expand your audience

Once you have a clear picture of who your audience is, you can further develop your social media plan and how you can reach more people that fit your audience profile. Investing in content that appeals to your audience as well as campaigns to get more attention to your profiles are sound tactics that work. Remember that quality is better than quantity when looking to expand your audience. Do not get discouraged if you have a small audience by comparison, rather focus on having users that engage and generate business over having some larger figure for your profile.

Build relationships

The unique benefit of social media marketing for business is that it empowers you to talk directly to customers and followers. You can build relationships over time, rather than asking for a sale upfront.

More than 40% of digital consumers use social networks to research new brands or products. Part of that discovery is getting to know who you are as a brand and what you stand for.

When people engage with your organic content or ads, it’s great to engage back. This helps to build trust and form a loyal following. As fans share and like your content, you rise in the social algorithms and gain new, free, exposure. You also nurture relationships that can develop into sales over time.

You can also build relationships with other entrepreneurs and influencers in your niche. Think your business is too small to work with influencers? Just remember that not all influencers are created equal and must be a good fit for your business and your audience, not just someone you think is cool.

Engage, engage, engage

The sheer number of social media marketing options for small business might seem overwhelming—but you don’t need to do it all. It’s more important to create quality content on a couple of key channels than it is to have a presence on every single network.

Above all, be sure that your social posts offer value. If all you do is pitch and sell, there’s very little motivation for people to follow you. Remember, social marketing is all about building relationships. Be human. Be honest. Post great content.

Engage your audience constantly. Ensure your operation is organized enough to respond to enquiries, complaints and issues should they come in from your users. Brands that are responsive and engaging tend to perform better and see better conversion rates as users trust these brands more.

If you need more guidance and assistance with your social strategy and content strategy. Contact us for a free consultation. https://trend.media/contact/

Still not sure what is the right fit for your strategy? Check out our recommendation tool to help guide you on the best platforms and solutions for your business click here now