Social media marketing is the fastest and most far-reaching brand-building and marketing tool you can use today. However, if a seemingly simple social media strategy is mishandled, it can backfire and potentially cause harm to your business' reputation.
That said, an effective social media strategy is a valuable tool that should play a major role in every comprehensive business plan. You can't track your ROI without setting goals and incorporating them into a strategy. Consider these factors:
- There are more than 1 billion people on Facebook and more than 302 million on Twitter. Those numbers are rising daily, and as any savvy marketer will tell you, it’s easier to go where your audience is than make them come to you.
- Social media gives you the ability to connect and communicate directly with customers (and potential customers) globally. You will be able to quickly respond to their questions, amplify their compliments, and effectively respond to their complaints in real-time.
- Social media sites are free to use, so they certainly fit into your marketing tools budget.
Here are six important steps that will lead you toward an effective social media strategy:
1. Identify Goals
As you know, before you begin any business venture, you should be aware of what you expect to achieve. Identifying your goals is even more important when it comes to social media marketing. This is because these marketing platforms have such a wide variety of possible outcomes. Some of the most common measurable objectives that social media marketers work toward are:
Vanity metrics. This measures the number of fans or followers you have on each platform. These numbers alone can look impressive, but they are not informative enough to confirm social media success. That’s because even if your followers number in the tens of thousands, you might not have any engagement with them, which means your marketing efforts have been wasted.
Mentions. How many people are mentioning your brand on the media platforms? The more your social media campaign generates conversation about your brand, the further your reach is expanding.
Traffic. After you post, how many people click onto your website to learn more about what your company offers? Those website clicks reflect successful marketing. Conversions from those referrals show the ROI of your social media investments.
When employing social media marketing, it is a good idea to maintain flexible goals. For example, one target might be attracting more fans or followers. That will show interest for your social media efforts, but your measurement of success should not end there.
2. Be Everywhere
Today it is not sufficient to maintain a presence on just one or two social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. Using a variety of platforms will give your potential customers a multitude of ways they can access your services and products. The best part of this is you will probably reach a different audience on each platform.
Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn provide some of the most popular places where you can promote your products or services - but the social media terrain is constantly shifting, and new platforms serving different niche audiences are constantly being created.
3. Social Media Is A Publicity Engine For Content
Use social media platforms to share quality value-add content in order to drive traffic back to your web pages. Always remember social media content is a marketing tool which functions to convert online traffic into customers for your products or services.
That said, it is equally important to remember media marketing is a delicate communication tool, rather than a hammer to be used for pounding out the constant selling of goods.
4. Think Small To Grow Big
With so much competition in the social media space, it’s easy to think no small business could stand out among all of the constant background noise. A common mistake made by social media newbies is trying to cater to every possible audience out there. I actuality, social media really levels the playing field and allows small business to compete with the largest of businesses.
A more effective option is a smaller, more focused message that will attract the relevant audience, which will then expand based on word of mouth, as you position yourself (or your company) to be an expert in a particular field.
5. Research Popular Content From Your Competitors
It has long been a smart business practice to know who your business competitors are and what they are up to. The task today is to monitor their online activities. Take note of their online presence and the kind of content that most resonates with their audience.
Pay particular attention to comments their audience makes and find ways for your brand to uniquely replicate your competition's popular efforts, and to avoid repeating their moves that did not resonate well.
6. Dive In
You have developed the strategy; now it’s time to dive in. Put the wheels in motion and start actively working toward the goals you identified at the beginning.
Keep active and participate in the conversation daily. Engage with your followers, because they want to hear from you - in fact, they expect it. The more you keep the conversation going, the more likely you will see measurable results from your social media marketing.
Do you have additional ideas you could share with us? Please comment below.
