Having a successful social media marketing is what you need to make your business grow. If you are trying to achieve social media marketing you must have control of various common challenges. Having enough time, creating well-performing content, and having proper measures of the resulting metrics are all the aspects that if addressed improperly, can tank the plan and leave them with zero outcome. With preparations, companies reach and exceed the payback that got them in about social media marketing. Here is a list of some tips that you can follow that will surely deliver you guaranteed ROI.
1. Identify Your Goals
You have to practice starting your business by setting a goal before having all the plans, even on social media marketing it is the first thing to do.
We recommend you to use the SMART goal setting strategy in creating the baseline for successful social media marketing.
- Specific. Goals must be precise of what is expected of the initiative.
- Measurable. Being able to definitively answer “yes, we hit the goal” or “No, we missed the goal” is a good goal standard.
- Attainable. Make a realistic and achievable goal. Remember not to make overboard expectations.
- Relevant. A social media marketing goal needs to tie in to marketing’s overall goal. Is it to build an audience? Increase website traffic? Strengthen branding? Make sure the goal relates to the bigger picture.
- Timely. Dates and times keep companies responsible to their goals. Stay on track by breaking up a large project like this into mini-goals that each have their own deadline.
2. Identify Your Audience
After setting the goal which is “why”, now you have to identify “who” your audience and participants will be.
Three pieces of information that offers insight towards your audience.
- Review happy clients. Study their industries, demographics, and their goals closely to understand who you should be targeting.
- Nail down pain points. Know what question does your product answer. And how does it make your buyer’s job easier. Only by thorough understanding of these can an organization show their value.
- Survey customer support. Engage to the people who are on the front lines. What are the questions they hear most often? Knowing this shows you the direction to take in the content that will most likely engage and interest your targets.
3. Select the Best Platforms
Now, you have to answer “where”
Facebook is the social media giant. LinkedIn is also great for businesses. But neither may be the one companies should focus on.
- Who needs the product or service? The offering is a key to the platforms you should choose. If you are selling directly to consumers then Facebook is the best platform for you. If you are targeting a younger audience, using Snapchat or Instagram might be a better choice. If you plan to market with other companies then LinkedIn could be your golden ticket.
- Where are the competitors? Put your investigative hat on to figure out which tactics your competitors are using. Study their presence, and look at their followers. It’s not required that you be on every channel they are on. It is important to know your competitors to better strategize your plans and moves.
4. Employ a Qualified Manager
You need to have the support of a seasoned and well experienced social media manager. One of the flaws companies usually make is selecting a person who have the lightest schedule or the cheapest rate without knowing if they really fit the job or if they are really capable of accomplishing designated tasks.
- Strategic thinking. Candidates should undergo a discussion for a short and long-ranged goals and companies should look into them closely. The person should be knowledgeable on how to lay out posts, how to choose content, and how to engage with followers in a way that builds toward success.
- Organizational skills. Step-by-step strategy is a must in social media campaigns. They need to have control on their time and of their calendars as well.
- Branding expertise. They may not be the “face” of the company, but they are definitely the “voice”. It is important for the social media manager to have a deeper understanding about the company brand, to possess good communication skills and to exhibit professionalism at all times in all situations.
5. Deliver Consistently
- Write content. Always keep the targeted buyer in mind when sharing content.
- Curate content. Posting related industry information and articles written by others are some ways to fill the social media calendar.
- Listen. In order to know what to share or post you need to have your ears open for what your competitors and targeted audience are interested and what they are talking about.
6. The Influencers
Nowadays, before a buyer would resort to buying the product, they are interested with, they will have to view first the reviews of that particular product or service. In other words, reviews play a great role in influencing the buying signal of the customers. And there are some people who have already established their credibility when it comes to review of products or services, those we called “The Influencer.” The recommendations of these “Influencers” matters a lot to most of the consumers.
It is important to have an idea of who these people are. These people who would take a time out to make a review of your product or services. These
people who have already established large numbers of social followers.
Network. Reach out to and build relationships with these dynamos to reach more targets and further expand the branding message.
• Extend an offer. Be prepared to answer the “what’s in it for me” question. Maybe they could join you at a trade show, or promote themselves on one of your webinars. It’s important to show how you bring value to them as you foster these relationships.
• Monitor. Watch what the influencer posts about your brand, and make certain it’s cohesive to your image. If they tried your product and was not satisfied with it, it’s best to know this up front. Always communicate with influencers and pay attention to what they say, so there aren’t any nasty surprises. And this will be your opportunity to make the necessary improvement in your product and/or services.
Additional tip: For Instagram, if you want to increase your reach when collaborating with influencers, use Instagram Stories. This has been voted as the 2nd most popular format when it comes to influencer Instagram marketing. It actually reaches 500 million users every day and is proven to be 15 times faster compared to other kinds of feed.
7. Grow Your Audience
Be visible. The more eyes that see your message, the more results you enjoy. The social media manager needs to work on increasing followers across all the social media channels which is considered relevant for the product or service.
• Current customers. Make sure current happy customers follow your social media. Keeping in touch with your current customers plays a great deal by giving them new product updates, new content, and industry information. These are all valuable to customers. Doing it well, and the message could prompt them to buy again.
• Content fans. People who run across and digest your content are primed to follow you. It’s vital to encourage them to like and subscribe to your blog, and make it easy for them to follow you for future updates. Substance in contents are great ways to increase followers.
• Paid ads. Organic is awesome, but some companies also opt for paid advertising to grow their volume of followers. Ads are great ways to reach your buyers that would otherwise never come into contact with your message.
8. Engage Your Audience
For social media marketing to be successful, you need to find ways to increase engagement with your followers and the ones you want.
• Respond. Social media management is not a one-way street. Respond personally to new followers, answer questions and address issues fast, and comment and like other posts. Be open to suggestions and feedbacks too for future improvement.
• Tag. If there are followers you know are interested in a particular piece of information, tag them with your post. Showing personal touch like this helps drive the quality of your social media efforts. This move will also show that you personally value your customers.
• Link. Depending on your goals, include links in your posts. This is an easy way of guiding them of what they need to do. Otherwise, followers don’t know what you want them to do next. Link to blogs, your website, or other calls-to-action (CTA). Encouraging consumers to take action is key in developing successful social media marketing. Thus, making your promotion and advertisement interactive.
• Use hashtags. These are neon signs of the internet that help your message be more discoverable. Help the audience cut through the enormous amount of noise with valuable hashtags. Decide in advance on a list of hashtags that the business will use.
9. Measure Your Results
Close the loop by holding the results up to the goals you set and see how they compare. Otherwise, you won’t have any idea which strategies are paying off and which are not.
It is very important to review your performance often. This will help you to strategize, improve and be more enticing to your targeted and regular customers as well.
• Followers. Total up the number of new followers each social media platform received, and compare this number to the goal. Interesting social media platforms consistently add new followers.
• Likes/shares/comments. It’s positive if you are receiving retweets, shares, comments, and likes. It is important that you measure the amount of engagement the audience has with the posts. Note which type of content gets the biggest responses.
• Clicks. The success of social media marketing depends on the ability to draw more visitors into the sales funnel. This is where the metrics start to show how social media efforts did, or did not, start moving the sales needle. See if there are many clicks to your blog post or website. Ashford student portal and Note if followers take that next step.
• Downloads. This is up as a success if your audience responded to your posts by going to landing pages and downloading high-value content like eBooks and white papers chalk.
• Leads. Ultimately, successful social media marketing increases the number of qualified leads for the company. It all comes down to this. This is the metric that tells you the most about your efforts. Be patient. It takes time to nurture strangers into leads, even with fantastic content and consistent posting. But they will flow in eventually if you have done it right.
10. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Metrics show you where you have been, and they also map out where you need to go. Companies need to take the metrics they gather and use them to improve their message. Note the content that create more engagement. See what pattern of posts gaining more attention on certain days, or particular times of day. Take note of the content that does better across one platform. Use this data to edit and hone your strategy. By observing these factors, you will see greater results from social media marketing efforts.
Successful social media marketing poses a variety of challenges to businesses, and it’s easy to take the wrong turn and end up with less-than-thrilling results. It’s also common to start out excited, and get burned out and lose commitment in the middle of your efforts.
It is understandable that establishing a business takes a lot of effort, patience and perseverance. Most often than not, you will come to experience failure before you enjoy the fruit of your labor. On the other hand, it is through these hard times, if you will have the positive attitude of pursuing your goal, that you get to become much stronger, more determine, more creative and more success-driven person.