Social Media Marketing Made Easy
Social media marketing is, put simply, finding potential customers and giving them what they want in a social context. You want to educate them about your product or service, encouraging them to investigate further.
This could be achieved in many ways. The key to getting your Social Media to work for you is finding the exact way to engage with your particular customer.
Some of the ways you could engage with your customer are with:
- something that makes them laugh
- something that they relate to
- something that teaches them something they’re interested in
- something that fixes a problem for them
We’ve all had those moments when scrolling and we see things that really pique our interest. We can’t help but respond, or better yet, tag and share the content with friends. That’s the goal of social media marketing – to find things that resonate with our potential customers and make them feel like we ‘get’ them.
Before you begin, you should know your options on Social Media:
- YouTube
- Snapchat
- TikTok
Each platform has its own unique demographic. When customers are online, they are seeking different types of content for different areas of their lives. For example, LinkedIn is perfect for speaking to people while they’re in their ‘work’ headspace. If you’d rather speak to them in their ‘relaxed’ headspace, Instagram or Facebook is what you need.
Great marketing tells the same story in hundreds of fresh, interesting ways! Knowing who your customer is, where they will be searching online and what they want to see is the best way to decide which platforms will work best for you. Yes, we say platforms, plural. Getting out there on the best platforms for your particular business is the best way to have a working, balanced social media marketing strategy.
Here’s what might be going wrong with your Social Media Marketing Strategy
Before we get started on how to create the best social media marketing strategy, we should discuss what might be going wrong with what you’re currently doing first.
Are you posting to Social Media like an Amateur Golfer?
I don’t know if you’ve ever played golf. If you’re wonderful at golf, congratulations! But for others, that little white ball might go everywhere they don’t want it to go. Social media marketing can feel like that sometimes. You might want to achieve a specific outcome, but it might be hard to win the most “holes.”
There are 4 Main Reasons Why We Might Miss The Holes:
We manage quite a few Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages for our clients. We do all the research for messaging, timing, market, etc., and put together fantastic content schedules every month. Feel free to reach out if this might be helpful to you!
Here’s why you want to work on your Social Media Marketing Strategy:
- Social Media Fosters Brand Awareness
Social media is the place to be to reach hundreds and even thousands of people. If you want to boost brand awareness, social media is the best option. It will increase engagement through comments, likes, and shares. However, as an added benefit, customers can also find your website. It’s important to include direct links to your website across your social media. On Instagram, this might mean adding a Linktree to your bio for easy access to all your important links.
- Social Media Generates Leads
If you want to boost conversions and increase sales, social media is the way to go. Social media allows you to promote your products and services by engaging with your audience. Remember that those who follow you want to engage with you. Bank on that! Contests, polls, and even hosting live videos provides you with an opportunity to engage with your customers. Just a few reasons why working on your content is so important for your social media marketing strategy.
- Social Media Connects To Your Audience
Customer engagement is possible like never before with social media. Social media creates the space to interact with customers in a personalised way. You can respond to questions, comments and help your customers where needed in a moment. Don’t be afraid of the visibility social media will give you. Customer loyalty is a big part of social media, and your customers will surely give generous feedback as you provide the services and products they love most!
The Do’s and Don’ts of using Social Media Marketing for your Business
Ok, so we’ve established that having a social media presence for your business is invaluable. Having a website is obviously a must, but the amount of time people spend (and the amount of people who sign up to social media) grows every single day, so why would you miss out on such a great opportunity?
Well, the fact is that it can be daunting. Putting your business on social media opens the doors for others to comment and share on how they feel about your business, and what if the content you post doesn’t get any traction (or worse, negative attention)?
Well, don’t stress – here are some simple do’s and don’ts for having a successful social media presence.
And of course, if this is all still a little much, or you just want a bit more help and guidance, contact our friendly team. We have years of experience in not just managing great social media accounts for our clients, but ones that drive sales too!
The best way to know what you should be posting is to find out exactly who you’re going to be targeting and just as importantly – how. There are a few things you should start with when looking at your social media marketing strategy.
This is what we call the Who, What, When, Where and How.
WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, HOW
Who is your customer?
To answer this, ask yourself the following questions about your business:
- What is your customer’s gender, age, annual income?
- What do they do for fun?
- What are their passions and dislikes?
- Why do they need you? What life event has caused them to seek your product or service?
- Who in the household (or business) generally contacts you or purchases from you?
Your customer’s demographic is the first thing to consider when thinking about your content. The more detailed you can be about your target market, even to the point of creating an imaginary ‘persona,’ the more likely it is that you will be posting content designed to win a sale. The most successful social media marketing strategies are specific and have a customer in mind.
What does your Customer Need?
Think a little further this time. What is it you’re trying to sell to your customer? Is it a product or service? Why does your potential customer come looking for you?
When you know the answers to the questions above it’s time to move on to:
What is the Emotional Response you need your Customer to have to your Product or Service?
Some examples of these emotional states might be…
- Inspired
- Empowered
- Relieved
- Entertained
When you figure out the emotions you want to trigger with your content, you can then move on to answering this follow up question:
What Kind of Posts will help Fulfil these Emotional Responses?
When you inspire the correct emotional response in your potential customer, you’ve started to give them what they need. This means they’re more likely to stay on your page longer and hopefully you’ll be able to encourage them to engage further. Some examples could be an inspiring quote, or a funny video, product releases or a graphic relating to your industry.
Maybe you have some images from ‘in house’ activity that will make your customer smile. With Facebook or Instagram, for example, videos are one of the most engaging things. Having a number of these on hand, either sourced online or created in house, is very helpful.
When it comes to social media marketing – Content is King – especially when it’s allowing your customers to get to know you better!
When and Where
When are your current and potential clients online? Where are they? Facebook might be better to engage with customers for a range of services. If you’re selling to businesses, LinkedIn might be your ideal space. On the other hand, if your product is very visual, Instagram might be your jam. The great thing about Instagram is it is also owned by Facebook and sharing between the two platforms is very, very easy.
It’s also important to ask WHEN they’re online – and WHERE they’re going online. Now is the time to decide which days to post. Are your customers looking for your services on weekends? If so, make sure you post Saturday and Sunday as well. If it’s very corporate, then probably just Monday to Friday will work.
The more specific you make your social media marketing strategy, the more you will benefit from its rewards.
