With billions of users across the globe, social media is a marketing opportunity not to be missed. No other medium is going to give you access to so many potential customers for free. It has the potential to make your posts go viral, to take your message across the globe and to target consumers in your niche or local area.
However, with billions of social media posts sent every day, getting noticed is a challenge. And without getting noticed, you won’t get liked, shared, or grow your audience of followers. To be successful, you need a social media strategy and, in this post, we’ll look at the best ways to develop one that’s right for you.
- Choose the right platforms
Unless you have a large and dedicated social media team or can afford the services of an agency, there is no way that most businesses can commit the time and effort needed to run campaigns on every social media platform. To be frank, not every platform is going to be appropriate to your line of business, anyway. The best solution is to narrow your choice of platforms to just a couple. If you are new to social media marketing, then you should focus on just one platform to start with.
What you should not do, is to pick a platform randomly or base your decision on the fact that it’s somewhere you have a personal account. For your marketing to be successful, you should pick the platforms you know your audience use. There are a number of ways you can find this out: ask existing customers which social media platforms they use, check Google analytics to see which platforms send the most visitors to your website and find out where your main competitors like to post. If you are a B2B company, then using a business orientated platform, like LinkedIn, might be more appropriate. - Manage your posting effectively
Running a social media account properly takes time and this can eat into your normal working day. To prevent it from becoming a burden, you need to get organised and the best way to do this is to schedule a few hours each week to create all the week’s posts in one go. You can then use a social media scheduler, like Buffer or Hootsuite, to publish your posts on the days of the week and times of day when they are most likely to be seen.
The only thing you will need to do then is to check in to your accounts once a day to reply to any messages or comments which have been made. - Post sharable content
While it is critical that you post regularly, it can be difficult to think of shareable content to post. One rule of social media is that you should never make every post about your products or services. You can post other things about your business, such as competitions, industry news, customer spotlights and helpful videos. You can even share posts by others, for example, blog posts by industry specialists or details about a charity you support.
Sharing the work of others can be helpful because the company or person whose post you shared may pay the favour back – and social media users can get the impression that you are a company with a social conscience, which is always good for brand development.
Two particularly important features of your social media content are images and text. In order to make these as shareable as possible, you need to use high-quality images and well-written captions. If you take the images yourself, make sure that you use a camera with a high pixel count and don’t be afraid to edit and enhance the images if needed.
A few hours research on photography skills can also come in very handy. As for written copy, create attention-grabbing titles, keep your writing fresh, and try to develop a voice that matches the personality of your brand. Always remember to check your text for errors as these can make your company look unprofessional. - Learn how to use hashtags
The important thing about hashtags is that they are searchable and people can choose to follow them. If you insert a hashtag into a post, therefore, it is likely to appear in the feed of anyone who is looking for it. Doing this enables your post to reach a more targeted audience.
As a rule, use hashtags that are popular in your niche or with your audience. Don’t, however, use too many in one post or use them all the time. - Posting about your products and services
When you do use posts to promote your products and services, make sure that the post links back to the appropriate page on your website, so that those who are interested are taken directly to the information they want to see. To be especially effective, you should create custom landing pages on your website that are specifically targeted at readers of your social media posts.
As mentioned above, don’t forget to use captivating text and images to attract the attention of the reader. It can also be beneficial to offer limited-time discounts or other offers that will create a sense of urgency for the reader and make them click there and then.
Conclusion
Social media marketing can bring great benefits to your business, increasing the reach of your message, improving the reputation of your brand and sending more customers to your website. Hopefully, the tips given here will help you set up a successful social media strategy of your own.
If you are looking to use social media but need to get your website up and running first, check out range of web hosting solutions. You’ll find links to these on our homepage.
