Published on June 6th, 2018
The online world is buzzing with social media marketing campaigns! And sometimes even the best social media marketing plans can turn out to be a disaster! It is because the excellent social media marketing strategies completely outshine the bad ones. Today, most small businesses use social media marketing as a tool to gain increased brand awareness and other promotional objectives.
Not many people know that the success of your business and social media marketing are linked very closely. Notably, for small businesses that usually have a limited budget to work, effective social media management can help them succeed better. However, sometimes in a rush to cater to several ends, small businesses lack the best know-how on how to go about their social media strategy.
Is yours a small business? Are you struggling with designing your social media strategy? If yes, then here are some smart tactics that you can rely on in 2018 and witness success.
1. Make consistency your primary objective
It is essential to know that social media marketing is a continuous process. To be able to see a remarkable difference, you will need patience, time and consistency. Social media presence can’t be established in one day. It could take months to years.
Are you planning for a product launch? If you want to leverage social media, then you ought to have a plan much before the day of the product launch. And once it starts, social media marketing is a constant process, which is long-term. And it requires your attention daily.
2. Have an in-depth understanding of your customers’ minds
When you understand your target audience, you can steer clear of social media marketing failures and hassles! It’s essential to know your target audience and the reason for their using social media. You can get this answer using a blend of psychographics and demographics. The demographics would include aspects like:
- Age
- Location
- Educational background
- Gender
- Marital status
For psychographics, you need to look at the “why” of specific issues concerning the target audience. For instance, you can have a list of questions like:
- The FAQ’s about your industry/product/niche
- The kind of content your audience prefers
Using both psychographics and demographics will enable you to design your social media marketing strategies in a customized manner. If you are searching for professional help, reaching out to companies like Kotton Grammer Media will be useful.
3. Select the efficient channels
Is your target audience inclusive of people above 50 years of age? And are you concentrating on having an Instagram presence? If yes, then your social media plan might be a failure. You need to think and know the number of people who are above 50 and use Instagram.
Sometimes small businesses think that ‘more is better’ which is not always right. So, when you are planning to create social profiles, create on three social media channels at best. It will enable you to generate engaging content for each channel and efficiently share the same. When you have social media profiles in all the channels, you can’t have a focused approach. And this scattered way of operation might upset your followers and customers.
4. Research the competition that exists
This is crucial for every small business that has stepped onto social media marketing. Small businesses usually don’t have adequate experience with their customer’s yet. Hence, enhancing their social media strategy might appear to be an uphill task.
Thus, you need to know more about your competitors. So, go ahead and learn about 3 to 5 market players that are performing well. And when you are researching about other market players keep the following pointers in mind, as you make your notes:
- The social media platform that other market players are using
- The frequency at which they share their posts
- The type and the context of the content
- The conversions and the engagement with the followers
Researching on other market players has its benefits! You can use your findings to enhance your social media marketing strategy. But ensure that you retain your brand identity. As copying what other market players are doing, will not bring about your brand authenticity.
5. Create a repository of valuable content
So, do you have a better understanding of your social media platform and target audience? If yes, then you can proceed to generate rich content. There’s no need to adopt a 20/80 content generation rule. However, it’s wise not to sound promotional as this will make your content appear very sales-y.
Another golden rule to remember is never to create content just because you have to post something. Instead, make use of the resources and your creativity to come up with material that your users would love to read about. Whether you choose to write about product promotion or a new service addition, make sure it has value for your online audience.
Concerning your content creation, you ought to be consistent. If you are posting actively for a couple of days in a week and go vanishing abruptly, don’t expect your social media strategy to work in your favor. Here are a couple of content choices you can opt-in for:
- Blogs
- Articles
- Videos
- Infographics
- Quotes
- Tidbits and quick tips
- Illustrations and pictures
You can select your content type based on the social media channel that you decide to post your content.
6. Humanize the social media presence
Do you want to gain customer goodwill and generate an active brand community? If yes, then you need to humanize the social media presence. Make sure that your brand on social media has a humanistic and natural approach. You will find more people respond to you that way. And to add to it, engage your audience with compelling conversations and share informative posts with a humorous tone as well.
Creating a social media strategy takes time and focus. If you are posting aimlessly and without a dedicated frequency, then you will never be able to leverage the power of social media marketing. With an aim to succeed soon, often small businesses miss out on crucial social media tactics. If yours is a small business and you want to make the most of social media, count on these tactics.