What’s the most effective social media strategies
Social media strategies that boost conversion, increase engagement level, and foster a strong relationship between publisher and audience are every publisher’s dream. Every business needs an effective social media strategy, including yours.
Brands and businesses need social media marketing to warm up with their audience, increase sales, generate new leads, and build a robust online presence and these are only possible when you have an effective social media strategy.
Here are five easy-to-create, effective social media strategies that can help you rule social media.
Know Your Business’ State of Affairs on Social Media
Knowing your status quo is probably the most important social media strategy because it helps shape other strategies. Do you already have social media pages? If not, now is time to create them. If you do, examine them, and check if they align with your brand in terms of theme, tone, and message. Furthermore, note if they helping you achieve your social media marketing goals.
Also, head over to your competitors’ social media channels and make comparisons. You can pick two of your competitors if you have many; pick one that is doing better than you and another you are doing better than. Examine both competitors’ pages and compare their strategies to yours.
The stronger competitor is going to provide ideas on things you should be doing while the competitor performing less than you are will present insights on strategies you should not implement.
There are two ways to devise an effective social media marketing strategy to improve your current situation. You can learn the nitty-gritty of social marketing and handle it yourself, or you outsource to a social media marketing company.
Know Your Audience
You must learn everything there is about your audience; who they are, where they hang out on the social web, and the kind of content they want to see on their timeline or news feed. It is vital to know what they like as this will shape your social media content creation.
The easiest way to know your audience is to gather data to find out who they are. The following will help:
Who is your target audience?
These are the people you want to create content for and who are most likely to enjoy your high-quality visual content. They are also most likely to spend their money on your product and services. Your target audience can be based on age group, locality, income, and taste.
Where are they most active on the social web?
41% of people between age 18 and 34 in America interact with Snapchat daily. However, on LinkedIn, over 60% of the monthly users are between the age range of 30 – 64 and earn on average $50,000 yearly. Users on Pinterest on the other hand, are 81 percent female.
From the statistics above, you know it is more useful to focus on Snapchat instead of LinkedIn if you are selling to young adults.
If your target audience is primarily female, then you need to invest heavily on Pinterest. Data will help you know everything about your audience, so you must continuously gather and analyze data.
Set Goals
Create goals for your social media strategy. Do not create them in your head but write them down. Proper documentation is vital for tracking your efforts and measuring your success. Goals are essential for setting a benchmark for your social media marketing. They can also help you understand whether your social media strategies are working.
You can also use your goals to help you measure the effectiveness of your social media strategy. However, they should be realistic – do not expect to have 2 million followers on Instagram in one month. It does not work like that. Have goals that are attainable, specific, and measurable and ensure your goals align with your business’ overall marketing plan.
Social media goals to consider
Here are some specific, realistic, and measurable social media goals to consider in 2018:
- Increase revenue
- Build a community
- Generate new leads
- Increase brand awareness
- Improve customer service
- Know about your audience
- Increase traffic to your website
- Increase engagement level with customers
- Becoming an industry leader on the social web
Create A Content Strategy
Social media is all about content. If you do not post relevant content, you can kiss your social media marketing goals goodbye. However, if you post great content, the possibility of achieving all your goals is even surer.
The strategies mentioned earlier, if followed properly, will help you produce the most relevant and engaging content; because you would have known your audience and known what content strategy is most effective from examining your competitors’.
When it comes to social media content strategy, there are three things to consider:
- Type of content to publish
- The best time to publish
- The frequency of publication
Type of Content to Publish
Not every type of content is suitable for every social media platform. So, the kind of material you publish is sometimes based on the platform you have chosen to use (the platform where your target audience hangs out the most). Snapchat is video based. Facebook and Twitter are great for almost all forms of content. Instagram and Pinterest are visually based.
Users also shape the type of content you are to publish because it is all about them. 90% of online buyers say videos help decide on buying an item, so you might want to post more video content.
The Best Time to Publish
There is no universal best time to publish content on social media. So, if you are wondering what time to best to post content? Look at your data.
Every social media platform has tools that give you an in-depth insight into your followers’ activity online. So, you will need to use these tools to know when your followers are most active. Another appropriate time to publish is when it is most relevant to do so.
How Often Should You Publish?
When you post too much, you annoy your followers. Post too little, you leave them unsatisfied, and the no one wants to stay in an unsatisfying relationship.
To find a balance, look at your data. Yes, data again, but that’s the thing about marketing, the bulk part of it is about collecting and analyzing data.
Implement Your Strategy
Now, you know your audience, you have set your goals, and you have a content strategy. What remains is implementation. Draft an editorial calendar, decide on the theme of content, and always test different strategies to see which is more effective.
Conclusion
The cool thing about social media marketing is even small brands and businesses can reach their lofty business goals if they harness its power. You just need a plan. These strategies will help you reach your social media goals if you follow them. it is also vital that you test strategies and improve on them.