Social media is here to stay. We are a long way past social media only being for the young, early adopters, and big business. Today social media is the norm and it should be part of the marketing strategy of every business, no matter what size. If you are not using social media, you are at risk of being out of touch. We want to help your business get seriously social with these ten helpful tips.
But before we do, let’s look at the statistics recently released by Social Media Today who state “Social Media users in Australia are some of the most active in the world, with a total of around 60% of the country’s population an active user on Facebook, and 50% of the country logging onto Facebook at least once a day.”
Social media offers a mechanism for consumers to gain social validation and social connection to your brand. Traditional marketing was more about the monologue, having one-way conversations coming from advertising. There isn’t any interaction with billboards, TV, or newspaper advertisements.
Modern marketing is all about connecting with your target market through quality content and fostering direct conversations with them. Engaging in dialogue with people is about creating a two-way, value-adding conversation with people who are interested in what you do. It’s about helping your followers, friends, or connections, listening to what they have to say, and letting them know about useful, relevant information.
Here are 10 ways to help you get seriously social:
1. Know your Target Market
Social media users are a diverse bunch, representing all age groups, genders, hobbies and tastes. Knowing your target market is critical to understand what type of images and voice to use in your content. The more intimately you understand your target market the easier it will be to reach them.
2. Select the platform that is right for your business
Don’t be overwhelmed by the options, you really only need to focus on one or two platforms.
Make a decision on which platform to use based on what is right for your business and which platforms your target market uses. By knowing which platform they use, how they use them, when they use them, and why they use them, you have a greater probability of reaching them. With this knowledge, be sure that your business posts are meeting the needs of your target.
3. Stop counting likes, friends, followers, connections
The number of people who are following your page isn’t as important as the message you are trying to convey. Concentrate on the community you have and care about what you are doing for them. The most important metric is engagement.
If somebody goes to the trouble of connecting with you on a social post through a comment, the least you could do is respond. It’s not only etiquette, it helps you build one on one engagement with that person. I mean imagine if you were at a party and a person came up to you and asked you a question and you did not respond, just completely ignored them. That is rude, right? It’s the same on social media.
4. Write original content
Get busy writing, share knowledge, add value for your connections, and become an “expert” in your field. Original content on your social media is what will set you apart from your competitors.
However, be sure to always keep in mind what you are wanting to achieve from your content. It needs to reflect your brand identity and brand voice.
Most importantly it should offer value to your target market.
5. Use Images / Video
Whoever coined the phrase, a picture is worth a thousand words, was ahead of their time. Be clever about how you use images and other media, your social audience will appreciate your efforts.
Video is an extremely popular medium. As you can see from that table above, over 15 million Australians are visiting YouTube every month. Movement on social media helps to capture the attention of your audience. I read something recently, it said: “content will always be king, but digital video content is the jewel that sits on top of the crown”.
6. Be consistent
Approach social media methodically and with the same care as you give to the rest of your business success. Be socially responsible and reliable for your followers. Post when your audience is online, consistently, but not too often on the same day. Social validation comes to those who produce content who are reliable, consistent, and engaging.
7. Think long term
Results don’t come overnight. You need to invest at least 6-12 months of consistent, relevant content to see any returns. Understand why you are on social media through the development of a strategy.
Stick to the plan, be consistent, be reliable, be interesting to your audience. Behave like a best friend would.
8. Run tailored campaigns
You can focus your attention on the people you most want to target by selecting preference-based profile information and online interests with social media advertising.
Social media advertising is a relatively inexpensive advertising medium that enables the capabilities of finitely targeting your audience, unlike traditional media. Tailoring campaigns to your desired market will save your business money and offer a greater return on investment if executed strategically.
9. Measure Results
Social media marketing metrics offer outstanding insights into consumer behaviours which allows you the opportunity to adjust social media campaigns in real-time. The ability to control your costs and measure your ROI makes social media advertising very appealing for many businesses.
10. Join Communities
Joining groups or developing your own is an excellent way to further engage a loyal following. Connect with like-minded, similar communities who share similar interests. Creating a community is very important in the social media space. If you start your own community it’s important to guide the group and continue to foster interest and collaboration amongst members within the group.
In conclusion…
While there are many more social media tactics that a business can engage to follow best practise, these ten strategies will go a long way towards your success on social media. Of course, we recognise that social media is only one element of the marketing mix, and social media in isolation to the rest of your marketing armoury is simply not enough, however, it is a very important component.
Social media can consume business owner’s time and is often the first thing that is neglected during busy times, which results in negating all the social validation that has been built due to inconsistency. There are many tools and tactics that can be engaged in business to ensure that your social media activity isn’t interrupted when the business starts to get busy, however, this a whole new topic and will need to wait for another day. In the meantime, if you want to know more, please get in touch with us at here.
We love supporting businesses, so they win. Because when you win, we win.
