Social media is an excellent method for marketing your business. Having a large following on the right platforms helps consumers discover your brand. Today, there are over 3.5 million active daily social media users. It’s an invaluable asset to raise brand awareness and connect with audiences. Using the platforms your audiences use and engage with leverages social media to attract more leads and drive sales.
Here are some social media marketing tips to help you develop a successful strategy.
Remain Consistent
Consistency is essential to get the most from your social media marketing efforts. It's not enough to post every once in a while. Be consistent and pay attention to how your competitors are engaging with the same audiences as you are. Consider that while 57% of consumers follow brands to learn about new offerings, 47% follow to stay updated with the latest company news. You're missing out on a massive opportunity if you don’t use social media regularly to update your audiences with company news, blog posts, or other content.
Developing a schedule and having a dedicated social media manager posting regularly ensures your posts are timely. In the process, you can keep in touch with consumers and make sure your brand stays on their minds. Aside from frequency alone, social media consistency also refers to messaging and overall branding. Ensure the language, creative elements, and general branding efforts are aligned across all platforms and with the rest of your marketing. Doing this will help build trust and recognition while attracting more loyal followers.
Engage with Your Audience
Don't simply post content on your pages and let it take root on its own. Instead, actively engage with the users interacting with you. Reply to any comments on your posts with an appropriate response. You can also hold contests to encourage users to create their content, such as hashtag contests on Twitter or TikTok.
People resonate with brands they see as effective communicators instead of entities solely interested in making sales. Engaging with audiences in different ways makes your brand personable and shows that you care about your audiences’ opinions and input.
Create Content for Your Target Audience
Create and share content that appeals specifically to your audience for it to resonate with them. From blog posts on your website to exciting industry news or other relevant news items, be sure to share them based on your audience’s particular interests. Learn more about what they like by figuring out which platforms they use and seeing what competitors do to reach similar audiences.
Incorporate popular trends into your social media strategy so that it feels like a natural extension. Social media platforms make it easy to target audiences based on various specifications, whether you're creating campaigns through Facebook Ads or LinkedIn's all-inclusive Campaign Manager.
Cross-Promote on Different Platforms
Many businesses want to find the platform their audiences often use and stick with it, whether it's Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or another platform. However, focusing specifically on one platform severely limits your campaign’s overall reach. Expand your campaign to take advantage of multiple platforms.
It's equally inefficient to use all platforms at once, but using two or three connects with more of your target audiences. Some of your customers might be professionals who spend more time on LinkedIn. Other audiences might be on Facebook. If you're targeting younger audiences such as Gen Z or younger Millennials, TikTok and Twitter are popular options. If you have digital ads or content, you would like to push, alter, or make multiple versions to share audiences on their respective platforms.
Utilize Different Types of Content
You have many types of social media content to promote your brand. Image and video ads increase brand awareness for new audiences and build brand recognition. You can share blog posts discussing engaging topics and establish your brand as an industry thought leader. To get some audience input, you could create fun polls or surveys that encourage people to engage directly with your brand. You can also launch contests that inspire social media users to create content featuring unique and creative uses for your products. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok allow influencers to endorse your products in engaging videos of their own to direct some of their audiences to you.
Ultimately, there are many ways to use content to appeal to audiences and gain a loyal following.
Have Social Links on Your Website
Give people many opportunities to learn about your company's social presence. Mention links on other channels, TV advertising, and include links on your website for new visitors. Include buttons featuring social media icons in your website's main footer, or encourage people to follow your profiles on your contact page or another area of your website.
Using social media marketing to your advantage is an incredibly cost-effective way to build your brand. Promoting on multiple platforms, using different content, and knowing how to cater to your target audience helps make the most of your campaigns. You’ll situate yourself to stay ahead of competitors and stay top-of-mind among prospects and customers alike.
