Social media is a huge part of our life, there is no doubt about it. For businesses, this platform is becoming even bigger as they comprehend how useful and impactful it is. With social media, brands have the power to connect with tons of customers globally and promote their brand in a more visual and friendly way. But even with social media, you need a plan and a strategy. Since almost all brands are on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, you need to stand apart.
How do you do that? With social media marketing.
Social media marketing is a process that helps you create appealing content to promote your business on tons of social media handles. The social media in question are Facebook with 1.73 billion users daily, Instagram with 1 million monthly active users, and Twitter with 126 million daily users. Also, gaining traction is LinkedIn, with 675 million users daily, and it is perfect for B2B companies. These are the top doga, but other social platforms are no less powerful, especially YouTube, which is one of a kind.
To promote your business on these, follow these five golden tips.
1. Research everything
The first step is obvious; you need to research your audience. You must find out what social media platforms your customers use the most? What type of content do they like? What time are they active on social media? All these questions are essential, and you need to research the audience, gather the data, and then analyze it. That will help you plan your social media marketing and also help you figure out which platform is perfect for your business.
2. Figure out the goal
Social media Monitoring can help you out with this. It will give a sense of direction to the relevancy and conversions pertaining to your business. As with everything, you must have some expectations from your social media marketing. It can be to increase followers or to expose your brand or bring in more leads, and so on. But whatever the case is, figuring out your goals is imperative for executing your social media marketing planning. When you know what goals you want to achieve, you will work towards it by formulating a plan that works best for it.
Also, it gives you a time limit in which you want to see the results.
3. Have original content
The most important thing when it comes to social media marketing is creating your content. You don’t want to use content that is old or copied from someone else. If your content is optimal, it will engage more people, and you will experience an increase in your leads. Here are some points that you should keep in mind:
- All your images and videos and stores should be original and of quality. You don’t want to use content that shows your brand in poor light. For the same, use Canva to create and edit original images. Also, it can help you create other visuals like a Facebook cover, and so on.
- Not every content that you post on your handles has to be about promoting your brand. Content that talks about the current ongoing scenario or something for fun are essential too. It helps with building a community.
- User-generated content is the best type of content that you can use for your social media handles. They engage people, and also, they are original.
- Watermark your images so that no one can use your content falsely.
4. Monitor your metrics
Measuring whether your social media marketing plan is working or not is essential. These metrics can help you adjust your plan. But if you think that the number of followers and the likes you get on your posts is the correct measuring tool, then you are wrong. Here are some metrics that matter more than likes and comments.
Reach: is the unique number of people that see your posts regularly. The more reach your content has, the more your brand leads will improve.
Clicks: refers to the click numbers you get on your logo or company name or so on. When people click on your link, it shows that they are moving further in the marketing funnel. Monitoring this number is necessary.
Hashtag performance: Knowing which hashtags on your business side performed better is necessary. It will help you move your content forward and in a better direction.
Engagement: How many people interacted with your brand after they saw your posts?
Paid likes: Brands do run paid ads on Facebook and Instagram. It is because it’s harder to gain organic likes or reach on FB, but not so much on Instagram. As a brand, you need to know these differences.
5. Posts schedule
The organization is the key to success. If you don’t organize your posts to go out timely, you risk losing followers. No one is going to stick around for months just to see your post once. So, have a schedule, like posting thrice a week or so on. It will help you create content in advance and schedule it using tons of tools available in the market like Publer, Buffer, and many more. That way you have posts coming out regularly, and you have time for other things as well.
Social media is a powerhouse. If you don’t use it well, your competitors will certainly gain benefits that could be a game-changer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chandrima Samanta
Content-Editor at MartechCube
Chandrima is a Content management executive with a flair for creating high quality content irrespective of genre. She believes in crafting stories irrespective of genre and bringing them to a creative form. Prior to working for MartechCube she was a Business Analyst with Capgemini.