As more and more people dive into the world of online networking, businesses can’t help but see the appeal of social media marketing. After all, what better place to reach a wider audience? Not only does this allow you to take your business to a national or even global platform, but you can also cut back on the overhead expenses of putting up physical locations. But is social media marketing really a bullet train to business success?
Year after year, social media platforms log a 9 to 21% increase in their active userbase. In 2021, social media user statistics have grown 13.13%, leading to a total of 4.48 billion worldwide. Every day, 1.9 billion users log in to Facebook, 500 million into Instagram, and 206 million into Twitter, while YouTube boasts 2 billion users.
As much of a dream as it is, simply putting up your brand name and logo on Facebook doesn’t guarantee prosperity for your business. If you want to take full advantage of the perks of social media, you need to know how it works and how your business best fits into it. To guide you, here are eight essential steps you need to follow to take the social media marketing world by storm.
1. Map Out Your Market
Diving into the marketing waters headfirst without a clear view of your target audience is one of the first mistakes most businesses commit. Whether online or on-ground, carelessly building a marketing strategy can only lead to disappointing results, foiled plans, and a whole lot of dollars wasted. If you want to maximize your marketing investment, the first step is to know who you want to sell to.
An easy way to do this is by building a profile of your current customers. Who are they? Where do they come from? What age group do they belong to? What are their interests? What other groups or communities are they involved with? Once you answer these questions, you can build a sketch of the potential customers based on their traits with your existing clients.
Another way to get to know your customer base is by reverse-engineering your competitors. By studying the trends and topics your rival brands cling to, you form a more definitive characterization of your market. Observe the tone and design of competitors’ profiles and websites. Take note of the kind of content you see on their social media pages. Knowing what makes your audience tick is the key to meeting and exceeding their expectations.
2. Select the Right Platforms
Once you know your audience, the next step is to find out where they usually hang out. Pay attention to what type of content grabs the attention of potential customers and find a platform that best suits them. Suppose you have a brand that can market well through creatives and visuals; you can explore Instagram, Pinterest, or YouTube. If you have a very niche-specific product or service, you can consider more specialized platforms like LinkedIn or Reddit.
Analyzing demographic groups is just as important. For instance, based on popular research, 69% of adults in the U.S. use Facebook, while only 22% use Twitter and 27% use LinkedIn. However, 51% of college degree-holders in the U.S. have active LinkedIn accounts.
Consider user activity for each platform. If you use many video-form ad copies for your brand, it is essential to note that 85% of Facebook videos are watched on mute. On Instagram, 80% of users follow business brands. Around 40% of users on Twitter have purchased products from influencers’ tweets.
3. Establish Your Brand
With all the benefits of bringing your business into the world of social media, an increasing number of brands and companies jump into the wagon every single year. In 2021, 94% of companies are already on Facebook, while Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are crowded by more than 50% of U.S. marketers. To make your business a success, you need to stand out.
Establishing your brand is not just about picking the right colors and creating a beautiful logo. Your potential customers must be able to relate to your business on a personal level. Since you are only introducing your brand through two out of five senses – sight and auditory – you need to personify your business.
Your brand must include your values, philosophy, and personality. Explain what it means for your customers to meet you face-to-face and see or experience your brand or product through your content and design. Tell them what you stand for and what you hope to achieve. Once your customer base knows what sets you apart from your competitors, they are more likely to engage with you and become loyal clients.
4. Demonstrate Your Relevance
After you have successfully made an impression on your potential customers, you must make sure that they remember you. It will not happen overnight. It will help if you put in the work to constantly be visible and relevant to the lives of your target market. The most straightforward strategy for social media is to mix up your content.
Don’t bore your audience with a bombardment of ads and marketing posts. The more you overwhelm your page or feed with self-advertisements, the quicker potential clients lose interest. People need to know that you are more than just about bagging customers and making money. Keep in mind the question, “How can I improve the lives of my clients?”
Meticulously map out your social media content to include facts, trivia, current event insights, and tips. Informative posts add value to your customers’ lives. Use statistics and trending news or feature articles to tell your audience what their current or potential problems are, then tell them how your products or services can solve those.
5. Study Your Analytics
Much to the dismay of most marketers, not all types of seemingly engaging and enticing social media content pique the interest of target markets. Regardless of the number of hours spent on a creative post or product feature, there is no assurance that you will reach potential customers. Some brands learn this the hard way.
Most social media platforms have tools to reveal user engagement on your posts. If you have a business account on Facebook, Facebook Analytics can give you a more comprehensive report on the demographic of people who interact with your content. Pay attention to the types of content that garner the most engagement.
You also need to learn the best schedule for posting on different social media platforms. Statistics show that 9 AM to 1 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays work best for Facebook. For Instagram, 11 AM to 2 PM on Tuesdays are gold. Some studies also reveal the best social media posting schedule per industry – finance, technology, healthcare, and more. These numbers are easily accessible on the Internet and will allow you to update your market and audience characterization constantly.
6. Experiment With Content
Updating your character sketch of potential clients means that you also need to rework your content. Does your audience appreciate extended captions on social media posts? Do they like minute-long videos? If not, try using more concise write-ups. If you don’t see a lot of interaction on those posts, explore static images or looping videos instead.
Improve what works and change what does not. If you notice that you get several new page likes or follows every time you release a highly informative post, then slowly increase the regularity of that type of content. If you see that it seems to have a more negative than positive effect, pedal back a little until you find the optimal frequency and schedule.
Do not expect to master every aspect of your audience’s attention and interest. Getting in the right groove on social media platforms may take days, weeks, or months. Even then, you might need to recalibrate your content strategy after a year or six months. Although it sounds like hard, nonstop work, the effort of understanding your audience gets easier over time. Trends can change almost instantly, and you must always stay on top of it.
7. Engage With Your Audience
Marketing is not just about sealing a deal and collecting payments. It starts from being acquainted with your potential clients. Note that the more your potential clients get to know you, the more questions they will ask. One golden rule would be – never leave any question unanswered. Let your market know how much you care about giving the highest-quality information, products, or services.
Use social media platforms to build intimate connections with your audience. Listen to each of their concerns, clearly communicate the answers, and provide extra information. Your clients need to know that you are willing to go above and beyond for all their needs.
Think about building a robust customer support system. Invest in staff members who are highly skilled in dealing with clients. As much as possible, assign one customer service agent per social media platform. It means that there is always at least one person accountable for taking queries and assisting potential customers on every platform. This step allows you to secure leads and close client deals quickly and in a more organized fashion.
8. Conduct Follow-Up Marketing
Speaking of leads, keep in mind that social media marketing is only one step of the ladder. It would help to think of ways to drive audience and traffic from social media platforms to your website. Potential clients are not clients until you seal the deal. Supplement your social media marketing strategy with other forms of online marketing. Make sure that you are exhausting all means to pursue leads.
As much as is acceptable, add links to your website on content releases. Include internal hashtags on your posts. You may also link accounts on one social media platform to another to increase engagement and traffic. When potential customers visit your website, this is a sign that they are becoming more ready to buy your products or services and being trusted clients. Influencer marketing is also an effective way to gather more website clicks and visits.
Once you have driven traffic to your website from social media platforms, you can also explore taking other routes, like email marketing. Prompting visitors to sign up for a newsletter or a subscription for exclusive content and discounts offers them a chance to keep in touch with your business and engage more closely. More importantly, this is an opportunity for you to build a pool of long-term clients and regular sales and deals.
In a Nutshell
There is no doubt that social media is an El Dorado of opportunities and success in business. If you believe that you are a serious marketer – with a significant vision for your brand and an even more earth-shattering product or service to share with the world – there is no reason for you not to open your business to the world through social media. If you want maximum gains and minimum losses, follow the eight steps laid out above for the best return on investment you could hope for.
Try these steps and let us know how they work for you. You may also reach out to us here at Lauer Media should you need to consult with any of your social media or digital marketing needs.