Social media can easily get lost in the grand scheme of a marketing plan, but its ability to reach potential customers shouldn’t be overlooked. A well-developed, creative social media strategy can bolster not only your marketing strategy but also sales and brand awareness, while giving your company frequent audience feedback. Here are some tips on how to develop a successful social media strategy.
Know Your Goals
Before starting a strategy, it’s important to know why you’re putting together the strategy in the first place. What are you trying to achieve by creating social media accounts? Do you want to increase leads or build brand awareness—or both? Do you want to start a direct dialogue with your audience? Knowing why you’re implementing a social strategy will help you in figuring how to implement it.
Understand Your Audience
With the sheer number of social media platforms available, your message can be shown to almost every person on earth. But you don’t need to target the world; only those who will find you relevant. Know who those people are. Develop personas to know where they spend their time and how they get engaged. Then go where they are and spend your effort on a targeted audience who are the most likely to find value in what you offer.
Cater to the Platform
After deciding which platforms are worth your time, make sure to personalize the posts to the platforms. What works on LinkedIn probably won’t work in the same way on Facebook. Know the purpose for each platform as it relates to your business and overall marketing plan and be realistic when setting goals.
Post Relevant Content
It might seem natural to only publish promotional posts to get the most of social media, but your audience won’t stick around for long. Make your content connect with your audience through the specific platform. Post behind-the-scenes pictures or educational articles from your company or other well-known industry leaders. A good rule of thumb, according to HubSpot, is the 80/20 rule: only about 20% of all posts should be overtly promotional; the other 80% should be consumer-oriented content.
Be True
Consumers know lip service from a mile away. Stay true to your company. Posting genuine, consumer-focused content once a week will pay dividends compared to publishing disingenuous posts every day. Keep it simple, relevant, and true.
A social media strategy informs the way you use the various platforms to achieve your goals. It can help your business beyond marketing and give you a chance to engage your audience like never before.
In the above infographic, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and more, help in creating an avenue for gaining new customers and providing insights about what your business does. Do you know that Facebook and Instagram are the best platforms which you can use for promoting the latest products and achievements of your business? As per the statistics given in the infographics, 42% of businesses feel Facebook is vital for the success of their business.
Still looking for creative new ways to establish a strategic social media marketing plan?
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