Anybody can use social media but not everybody uses it effectively. In the business world, this is a serious thing. If you have an individual or group of individuals employed to manage your social media connections, you want to know that they are getting it right every time. If you are doing it yourself, you need to know exactly what to focus on.
Why is social media important?
The fact that you are reading this means you should be over this question, but in case you aren’t here’s a few reasons why.
- Most of the basic features are without a charge. Yes, free. This matters if you know anything about marketing because good marketing is not cheap. Social media can provide excellent marketing opportunities at a low cost.
- Almost everybody is using it. Not only are social media sites filled with users, they seem to be online all the time. This is good as your posts can be seen instantly.
- You get instant feedback. Don’t waste money handing out questionnaires. Get your most pertinent questions answered digitally and in real time.
- You know who is interested in your brand and you get an idea of how interested they are.
There is an art to making use of social media in the right way. No matter if you are a small company or a big company, you can make it work. Over the years, a craze about likes, views and followers has developed. Some businesses though still expend the largest amounts from their marketing budgets on print and television. For 2017 though, that needs to change.
Things to do
When you get on social media, here is what you may want to focus on:
1. Use video better
Do video content the correct way. Spend money to make your videos great. Don’t worry about the cost of promoting them. Great videos will promote themselves.
Live videos are your friends. Use them carefully and wisely. They encourage personal engagement. Live videos allow you to broadcast to anyone, anywhere in the world.
Videos are appealing to the audience and are able to capture moments that words just can’t. Your audience will be more likely to share them and they can be very persuasive.
2. Use banner branded videos
These seem to be the trend right now and they work. The banners actually get people to click and if you phrase them right, your viewers will watch right to the end. Something like “You won’t believe what this product did” or “Savage but great ending” or even “Wait for it”.
3. Engage, engage, engage
In addition to writing top-notch content, you have to pull your followers in. Get them to participate in something and there are several ways in which you can do this. Requesting feedback is one of them.
In the end, you can evaluate your effectiveness in this regard by:
- Follower Participation – What portion of your following actually reads and comments on your posts? Comments mean your audience is engaged and what they say will tell you whether you are getting where you need to be or not.
- Shares – A large number of shares says that your audience is spreading your message and loves your post.
- Conversion – How many of these followers actually take you up on your call to action and do what you direct them to do? Do they click the links to your site? Are they purchasing your product or signing up for your newsletter? How many of your followers really become leads?
4. Collaborate
Collaboration represents the fastest way to grow. To grow your social media following you must collaborate. Find successful people, throw content ideas around and write together. You can incorporate what works for them into your strategy so you not only appeal to the people who already follow you but to a different crowd altogether.
5. Optimize for mobile
Most social media platforms are not only optimized for mobile but also available as a mobile app. Ensure that your links as much as possible are mobile responsive. Make mobile ads. Just mobile everything.
6. Check out Instagram Business Tools
Although this isn’t the most talked about features, it is still worth investigating. Instagram took the time out to determine what businesses need. The business profiles allow you access to analytics and to create ads from posts within the app. These tools will make it easier for your business to drive revenue and traffic.
7. Be available to your customers and offer great response times
Facebook now informs your customers of your typical response times. You can also set up auto response and list your availability hours on both Facebook and Twitter. Make use of any customer service options available to you on your platform of choice.
8. Paid social media advertising
There comes a time when you will nearly exhaust your marketing capacity using the basic free features of the social media platform. Don’t wait until the free features aren’t driving traffic for you. Run a paid advertisement campaign every now and then. In so doing, you will identify what time is the best for you.
In using paid advertisements, you need to become more adept at creating new ideas so you can reach new audiences. On the downside, the increasing number of people that will opt for paid advertisements will cause their cost to rise, so you may need to set a bit more aside within your budget.
9. YouTube
YouTube is a great way to build your following and earn a few dollars while you are at it. Really then what do you have to lose? Add your YouTube channel link to your other social media pages and your other marketing efforts like business cards etc… Otherwise, you can advertise here minus the responsibility of creating videos. The choice is yours.
Social media has come a very far way. Don’t get left behind. Keep up with the trends that your followers are most fond of. Don’t be afraid to invest your time and money into social advertising and selling. You’ll be glad you did.
