Posted by Even though social media was originally intended for keeping in touch with friends, it has evolved into a powerful marketing tool. As the number of social media users grows, so does your audience size.
Using social media effectively as part of a digital marketing strategy is essential if you want to succeed.
The use of social media is at an all-time peak. The trend of using social media appears to be here to stay. Millennials are using social media at an unprecedented rate.
According to Statista, there will be over 246 million active on social media in the United States by the end of 2019—roughly a third of the population.
Source: Statista
Users of social media are becoming increasingly tied to technology and brands.
Users are increasingly adopting mobile and IoT devices to access the internet in addition to accessing social media on computers.
According to one poll, more than half of Americans use social media on their phones at least 8 – 10 per day and spend at least 10 minutes doing so. When you add it all up, you’re spending roughly an hour and a half per day on social media.
With this whole screen time, marketers have almost limitless possibilities to improve the customer experience in new and innovative ways and vice versa. Users can directly connect with brands with particular demands, and brands can focus potential leads with appropriate products.
Customers are also more likely to make a purchase when they use social media. In fact, approximately 40% of shoppers claim that social media is their primary source of buy inspiration.
How do you quantify the effectiveness of social media marketing?
Reach and impressions are often the primary goals of social media marketing. If your ultimate goal is to raise brand awareness, you’ll assess your success by the number of individuals who see your material. Like, subscribers, social shares, reviews and engagements are all things to consider.
When you’re using social media to generate leads or close sales, you’ll want to keep track of clicks, conversions, and return on investment.
These parameters can be manually tracked using spreadsheets and analytics available directly from each platform. Working using a social media management tool, on the other hand, might be more convenient.
These services will keep track of your social media metrics and allow you to schedule postings as well as reply to user comments and complaints.
Some of these platforms interface with your email service provider (ESP), allowing you to track all of your digital marketing projects from a single dashboard.
Is it really that important?
Every digital marketing strategy must include a strong social media effort. You can send several messages to your followers via social media in a variety of ways and across different channels.
Furthermore, depending on the platform, you can distribute many posts each day, which you wouldn’t be able to accomplish with email marketing.
Nonetheless, in your digital initiatives, social media marketing should not entirely replace emails. When compared to social media, email remains the most effective digital channel for ROI and is 30-40 times more effective for client acquisition.
Rather than having to choose between social media and email marketing, you could blend the two.
So, what’s next?
You should now see how social media is an important part of your digital marketing plan, but it is not the only one. Now all you have to do is figure out what you want to achieve using social media and create strategies to help you get there.
Next, we’ll go over some of the best social media marketing techniques and tricks you may use.
Tips on how to use social media effectively on every platform.
Every social media platform should have its own strategy
Your marketing strategy must include an intentional and deliberate strategy for each platform you use, just as you would for any other area of your business.
Each platform has its own nuances and best practices for attracting attention. Even if you don’t have a presence on every social network, having a clear approach for each one will help you reach your target audience.
If you’re just starting out, focus on the quality of your postings rather than the number of sites and posts you publish on. Attempting to implement a new strategy on five separate social media networks, particularly for small firms, frequently results in a lacklustre effort and little to no success.
Consistency is key
Each social networking platform has its own set of rules for how often you should post. In order to reach your whole audience on Twitter and Instagram Stories, you need to be active several times a day.
Continuous Instagram posts and Facebook updates, on the other hand, don’t have the same sense of urgency and can be utilised more liberally.
Consider how each platform’s algorithm works and if the information is posted in chronological order or filtered based on other considerations when deciding on a post technique.
Again, this connects to your overall strategy for social media marketing.
It’s important to have a plan in place:
- The frequency with which you want to post on each social media network in accordance with the platform’s best practises
- which platforms will you be using and what kind of material will you be putting up there?
- What is the demographic of the people you want to reach on each platform.
Keep in mind that the people that follow you are probably also following tens of thousands of other individuals. Forgetting about your social media accounts is easy if you don’t post new content frequently.
Hone in on your message
You’ll have a different target audience depending on the platform you’re using. Despite the fact that your demographics will overlap throughout platforms, it’s still important to know who you’re speaking to in order to personalise your message to have the greatest impact.
You’ll be able to produce better-quality content that is both on brand and appealing to your audience if you have a clear concept in mind.
As long as you stick to a consistent topic, your social media updates will remain relevant to your audience.
One of the most useful features of Sprout Social is its social media targeting feature. For some networks, you may be able to tailor your postings to a specific geographic place or language, as well as demographics and other factors.
A post on LinkedIn aimed towards the financial sector is an example of this. Those in the IT or healthcare industries may not be interested in what you have to say.
Rather than clogging up your followers’ news feeds with unnecessary posts, you can limit the visibility of a post to those in your financial industry network.
Maintain a keen eye on the latest trends
Stay on top of what’s trending on each platform after you’ve established your primary theme. This is an excellent opportunity to take advantage of a growing pattern or technique that matches your messaging and will help you increase engagement on the site.
Don’t follow every new internet fad blindly. Posting things that aren’t in line with your brand’s message in an attempt to appear current is a certain way to lose followers.
You don’t have to copy what other brands are doing if you don’t want to.
This is why it is so important to have a clear message that you can use as a benchmark for all of your future social media postings.
Observe and evaluate the outcomes
Your social media marketing activities must be precisely tracked and measured to ensure that you’re obtaining the best results possible.
More than 40% of businesses don’t monitor their social media ROI at all, so it’s impossible to tell if your approach is working.
Determine which indicators are most valuable to your brand in order to streamline your tracking procedure.
Invest in high-quality video production.
Video consumption is on the rise, and it’s hard to argue with that. More video material is being consumed by social media users than ever before because of the rise of IGTV, YouTube and Facebook Live.
Over the last 3 years, video views on YouTube and Facebook have both surged by more than 99 per cent. It is six times more likely to be shared than a photo or just text in a tweet.
Video content not only has a higher rate of interaction, but platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn are giving video content creators a higher ranking in their algorithms. Brands that publish videos gain more visibility and reach than those that only post text and images on social media.
Whenever possible, use A/B testing.
Numerous specialists in social media marketing make use of A/B testing as one of their go-to strategies. Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is a method of determining which of two different headlines for about the same piece of content gets the best response.
When it comes to landing sites and sales pages, marketers employ A/B testing, but you can do the same thing with your social media posts by using split testing.
Scheduling the link to be published numerous times with a different title instead of posting it once and then forgetting about it is a better use of your time and energy.
A/B testing is essential because the language and CTA words used in a post can have a significant impact on how people respond.
Social media failure may be due to low-quality material. It’s also possible that your Tweet, Pin, or Facebook post’s headline failed to pique the interest of your followers. The only way to tell for sure why a post isn’t performing well is to compare it to other posts in the same category.
Become a part of a group network
Smaller groups are becoming increasingly significant in massive social networks. It doesn’t matter if you’re on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, there are plenty of ways to interact with people and businesses in your industry.
Start by searching for industry-related communities on the social media platforms you’re already using, and then join and actively participate in them.
Start your own groups around your company and create an audience of like-minded individuals that are eager to promote your brand.
Engage with the people in the room
Social media users are looking for brands to communicate with them in a more personal way. So, in addition to regularly sharing useful and interesting information, be sure to monitor the performance of each platform you use and interact with your followers.
Respond to comments and queries about your posts, handles, and hashtags.
Take the initiative and join the conversation if you see others discussing your brand or product. In order for users to feel safe, they want to know that the person behind the computer is human and not just a robot who sends out links all day.
Your social media strategy should include a plan for responding to inquiries that are posted on each site.
Whenever you see your brand mentioned, respond quickly to mentions, thank those who share your material, and provide value to the conversation.
Conclusion
The landscape of social media is dynamic and ever-evolving. Marketers are constantly having to adapt their strategies to stay up with the ever-changing landscape.
If you’re just starting out on social media, these pointers might help you develop an effective marketing plan. They can help you gain an advantage over your competition and expand your audience in a way that benefits both them and your industry as a whole.