With 2.46 billion social media users worldwide, there’s no tool that can reach your audience like social media can. In addition to this high engagement, social media is much cheaper than traditional marketing channels and easier for business owners to do on their own marketing. If you’re yet to explore the opportunities social media can bring to your business, or you’re just looking to improve your campaign, here are 6 tips business owners can use to improve their social media efforts.
1. Decide what platform is right for you
Your target audience will usually dictate what social media platform is best for your business. What you choose will also depend on your goals and what you want to achieve through social media, but it’s important to know what platform your customers are using.
Facebook is the biggest and most popular social media network with over 2 billion users. Because of this, Facebook is a safe bet for most businesses however if you’re targeting a young demographic, another platform may be more effective.
Instagram is a great choice if what you’re selling has good aesthetic appeal, LinkedIn is used largely by business professionals and Snapchat has a highly engaged, young demographic.
Find out who your target audience is and where they are.
2. Learn the skills
While it may have taken some time, more and more people are coming to understand the art form that is social media marketing. To get the most from your efforts, it’s important that you know how to make marketing strategies and campaigns that will be effective for your business.
Taking a course in social media marketing, which you can easily do online with an education provider like Upskilled can go a long way to helping the success of your social media efforts.
3. Commit
While social media can take your business to the next level, it won’t happen overnight and there will be challenges along the way. It can be hard to build up an audience, create valuable content consistently, and have engagement that turns into conversions.
When starting out on social media, understand that it can take up to a year or more to start building an audience and finding the type of content that they engage with the best. Make a plan that details what type of content will you be posting and what you hope it will achieve.
4. Show off your businesses personality
Social media, and the internet as a whole, is constantly bombarded by content and much of it is mediocre at best. Your social media profile must give people a reason to follow you. Of course, you will be using it to promote your products or services, but you won’t find success if your account looks like a faceless robot that spits out generic post after generic post.
People on social media value original and entertaining content, along with connections and experiences.
5. Listen
While it’s important to create interesting, unique content, it’s just as important to listen to what your customers are saying. Social media is one of the first channels that allows consumers to directly communicate and engage with businesses.
One result of this is that customers are beginning to expect a high standard of customer service through social media. Be prepared and embrace the opportunity to communicate with your followers. It’s important that you do this well, rather than spitting out generic, automated-like responses. Not much else turns customers off faster than copy and pasted responses!
On the other side of this is that you can get your audience to create content for you. Look at the questions your customers are asking, ask them questions and make competitions that involves them making content. Not only does this make your job easier, but customers love being involved.
6. Visual content is king
Content is king, and when it comes to social media, visual content is extra powerful. While you won’t be able to do it every time, posts that include visual content are more likely to create engagement, be shared and receive comments. In 2016, Lewis Communications found that 67% of marketing decision makers used visual content for the high levels of engagement.
Social media has become a major part of society, and because of this, it’s essential for your businesses marketing efforts. There’s no easier way to reach such a wide audience. In saying this, it takes time and commitment to develop and execute a social media marketing campaign that is effective. Make a plan, learn the skills and listen to your audience.