The use of social media by businesses and individuals is a part of our daily lives. Scrolling through Facebook or Instagram is a ritual for many and has worked its way into becoming part of our communication methods. Businesses who are not active on social media are losing several opportunities to connect with current and future customers.
If you just started or launched a new business, you have a number of responsibilities and risks to consider. Creating a social media presence is crucial to the growth and success of any brand. Since your customers are likely talking about your business and their experiences, it simply makes sense to join in the conversation and find ways of making social media beneficial for your business growth. Regardless of your current business size or level of success, here are a few social media tips that any business can embrace.
Focus on the right metrics
Social media marketing has become its own industry, that can be confusing for many business owners to navigate. However, creating a social media program that is based on the amounts of tools, posts, or volume is not conducive to success. In fact, quality is much more important than quantity. Connecting with your audience on a gradual basis with quality driven content and on limited social media platforms is the best way to begin and grow a successful social media strategy.
More than anything else, it’s important that all social media posts offer some sort of value to your audience. If your social media activities are sales pitchy, or focused on driving traffic to your website, followers will not find value in continuing to follow you. In fact, it’s likely to drive them away. Social media is first and foremost about developing relationships. In order to do so, you need to be honest, real, human and factual. This isn’t something you can fake – it needs to be genuine in order to be effective.
Finally, don’t spread yourself too thin. If you feel comfortable using Twitter, focus on developing that platform first. If Facebook is more your style and pace, build your following there then expand.
Exploring your social media choices
While it’s important to slowly build a social media following, it’s also important to choose a platform that makes sense and gives you the best opportunity for reaching your intended audience. It is important to realise that you can use different platforms for unique connections. The key is to use a social media platform that permits you the best opportunity to build an audience that helps your social network grow.
Speed up the process with automation
Automation helps to simplify and improve social media success. Social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter are equipped with multiple tools that help improve productivity for any small business. Using the right tools helps a social media novice transform their program into a professional and highly effective social media strategy.
Engagement: Social media is all about engaging with your customers – not speaking at them. There are multiple engagement tools such as Hootsuite, that helps you locate and isolate all mentions or activity related to your business on social media platforms. This allows you to quickly reply and engage with others who are actively speaking about your business.
Analytic Data: Having a way to monitor the success or failure of any social media program is crucial to fine tuning and improving the strategy.
Visualisation: Whether you use photos, infographics, video content, or even memes, creating eye-catching posts helps improve interaction and engagement.
Content Sharing: Creating social media content can be a challenge for any user. Sometimes it’s just as effective to share quality posts from others that are relative to your business type. Using tools like Pocket and BuzzSumo are quite helpful for located like-minded content.
Plan and schedule your content
Creating a content calendar for social media engagement is a great way to optimise your program for success. One of the best ways to use the calendar is to schedule social media posts in advance for automatic distribution. This process will allow you to allocate your time on developing quality social media content as your busy work schedule dictates and allows.
Measuring your performance
Keeping track and monitoring the performance of your social media strategy is another benchmark for improved success. It is crucial to stay on top of success and failure with regards to what you post, when you post, and how it is received by your audience. The analytical tools that are noted above will provide you with a good starting point to track and refine your social media performance.
When you have developed a consistent social media strategy that is effective, it is just as critical to evolve and grow your campaign to reach new users. A great strategy for achieving this type of success is an A/B testing method, where you make microscopic changes that slowly boost your success rate.
Regardless of the size of your business, social media tools help reach new followers, increase brand awareness, and permit businesses to connect with consumers by establishing solid relationships with them. It’s just as critical to remember to take a balanced and gradual approach to social media marketing. Remember, this type of program is a marathon – not a sprint, so start slow and gradually build on success.
Understanding what it’s all about
Arguably the best feature about social media marketing is it’s unique ability to directly connect and receive valuable insights from your consumers. Always remember that social media is about communication on a two-way street. This establishes credibility and builds a relationship that permits the business to increase sales. Moreover, when your followers engage with your social media content, it provides you with an exceptional opportunity to reply and connect with them on a personal level.