Social media marketing, little by little, crept into our life until it became the focus of our lives. Social media marketing is a great way to get your brand’s name out there, create an online presence, and develop relationships with your customers. But it can be hard to know where to start if you’re not aware of the social media marketing tips.
How to get more likes on Instagram? How to increase followers on Twitter? What are the best social media platforms for businesses? These questions are common among marketers today.
People worldwide use social media, making it one of the most effective ways to find new consumers, generate sales, raise brand awareness, and establish trust among prospects.
There are thousands of social networks, each with its own rules and regulations. Some allow you to post pictures and text, while others only let you share links. Some platforms are free, while others charge a fee every time someone views your posts.
If you’re not using social media to promote your business, you miss out on many opportunities. Are you looking for some tried and proven social media marketing tips for your business?
With so many options, it’s important to choose the right one for your business. If you’re wondering how to use social media for your business, look no further than these 10 essential social media marketing tips to get started.
So, Without further ado, let’s get started.
Social Media Marketing Tips For Your Business
1. Create a Specific Strategy for Each Social Media Platform
Just as you prepare other aspects of your marketing plan, you should have a specific and conscious plan for each platform you use. Each platform has nuances and best practices for generating engagement.
Your brand may not be present on all platforms, but for your posts to be targeted, you need a specific strategy for the platform you’re using. Make sure you can answer questions like:
- Why am I using this platform?
- Who will it reach on this platform?
- What types of posts work best on this platform?
- How are my posts exclusive to this platform?
- Why are you spending time there?
Answering these questions will also help you develop your strategy for your platform. When you’re just starting out, prioritize the quality of your content over the number of posts and websites you use.
For my instagram handle, I create a strategy which involves curating videos as well as posts that helps my audience.
For most businesses, tiny businesses, tackling a new strategy across five different social networks often results in mediocre work with little to no results.
2. Learn About Your Target Audience
Now that you have your strategy in mind, let’s take a look at the audience.
Without the support of your audience, your strategy will come to nothing. Aligning your social media strategy with your audience is a must.
Your audience will help you discover everything from the social media platforms you need to be on to every ounce of content you create. Still, wondering why your audience should be the center of attention?
Here’s the answer.
Defining your audience’s questions, concerns, and problems is important. For most businesses, one of the biggest is connecting with the right audience. To find your ideal audience, you need to know your target audience and what social networks they use.
Your target audience will be the main source of your leads, and they will help you determine the types of social media marketing strategies that will be most effective for your company.
For example, if your target audience is mainly composed of individuals who are 18-35 years of age, then you’ll want to prioritize social media channels that are geared toward that age range, such as Facebook and Instagram. If your target audience is composed of individuals who are 35-55 years of age, you’ll want to prioritize social media channels geared toward that age range, such as Twitter and Pinterest.
While you may be tempted to choose the most popular channels or trends currently in use or choose the channels or trends your friends are using, make sure you choose your target audience first. Be strategic in choosing the channels or trends for your brand.
Once you know your target audience, you’ll be better equipped to help them. They want to work with companies that care, not just a faceless brand. Therefore, this is an important social media marketing tip for creating a social media strategy.
3. Engage With Your Audience
One of the most important things you can do to improve your social media marketing efforts is to engage with your audience.
Start by being personable and being friendly with your followers. You’ll need to keep in mind that your followers are also customers, so you need to be willing to interact with them. Whenever you feel the urge to ignore your follower’s comments or messages, remember that you’re missing out on an opportunity to build business relationships with these individuals.
You can also give your followers helpful content consistently. If you can provide your customers with valuable content regularly, they’ll feel more inclined to follow your business and be more likely to purchase your products. Engaging with your audience is a social media marketing tip that you should always preach.
4. Build A Solid Foundation For Your Marketing Efforts
While you can use many effective strategies and tactics to market your business via social media, you must have a solid foundation for your marketing efforts.
You should always have a social media marketing plan. Even if you’re certain that you know exactly which channels you want to use, and even if you have a clear vision for the type of content you want to post, you must put together a social media marketing plan.
When you don’t have a social media marketing plan, you’re essentially flying by the seat of your pants. You don’t have a strategy for how you’ll engage with your audience, which can lead to content that’s not as engaging and lead to your followers becoming disinterested in your efforts.
5. Make Your Content Sharable
For your content to be shared, it must be relevant, engaging, and of interest to your readers; ideally, they would also like to read. This can be achieved by incorporating keywords, relevant topics, and length while also making sure that your writing is easy to read.
You can post short, quick updates on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, while Reddit and LinkedIn are better platforms for longer, in-depth posts.
6. Use Video To Captivate Your Audience
Video is one of the most effective social media marketing tools when used correctly. You can use video to create brand awareness, build a strong presence on all your channels, and increase your social media engagement levels.
Below is an example of how Warby Parker used a fun and engaging video tweet to let his followers know they were hiring.
What makes video so engaging? It’s the ability of video to effectively communicate through the human eye, creating a captivating story that draws the reader in and keeps them hooked. Your audience will spend more time on your social media channels and trust you more as a brand.
7. Create A Social Media Calendar
Create a Social Media Calendar A social media calendar helps you post the right content to the right social channels at the right time. You must include a plan for your content mix. Start 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.
You can find numerous templates online to write your calendar. You can use the SocialPilot calendar or other social media scheduling tools to schedule your content calendar. You can place images, schedule your posts to multiple social networks, and more from a single dashboard.
8. Build a Strong Presence On All Your Channels
You can make the most of each social media channel by building a strong presence on all of them. This will help you develop relevant content and create a more comprehensive marketing strategy. Moreover, you can use each channel to target a different group of people, while being mindful of the competition.
9. Don’t Just Talk About Your Product; Show Your Audience How It Works Too
Social media creates an engaging, social experience for your followers. This can only be achieved by integrating your product and providing a glimpse of how it works in real life. You can build trust by showing how your product solves their problems, making them feel heard, and helping build brand advocates.
10. Track And Refine Your Performance
When executing your social strategy, it’s important to keep track of what’s working and what’s not. You can then adjust your efforts and improve results. The analytics tools above give you a great picture of your social efforts and can help you track the metrics that matter most to you.
Once you have an idea of how your strategy is performing, it’s time to start looking for ways to improve it. A/B testing allows you to make small changes that will increase your success over time.
Conclusion
Social media is all about connecting with your potential customers, and the best way to do that is to tap into the wealth of information that social media channels have to provide. You can use social media to not only build a rapport with your clients, but you can also use social media to increase your sales, generate leads, and boost your brand image.
The main thing to remember when marketing your business via social media is that you need to be consistent. You also need to be strategic in what channels you choose to prioritize. Engaging with your audience and building a solid foundation for your marketing efforts will help you reach and engage your target audience, and it will help you drive more leads and sales for your business.
A robust social media marketing strategy doesn’t involve rocket science, but it requires planning, research, and discipline to stick to the plan until you see results.
In conclusion, you must understand that successful social media marketing campaigns are not a result of a one-time effort; it is a product of continuous learning and a little creativity. The technology industry is rapidly changing, so your social media marketing strategies and tactics must evolve with the changes.
So what are your thoughts? Let me know what social media hacks you use the most. Share the ones you are excited to use.
Stay tuned to learn more about social media marketing tips to get your brand wheel spinning.