A few years ago, you could not mention social media in a serious setting, such as in a business environment. This technology was used for private communication and was perceived as a preserve for the new generation.
Today, you cannot ignore social media and achieve business success. Various social media channels have become a hub where businesses create brand awareness and engage current and existing customers. They have provided a platform in which entrepreneurs can extend their organizations’ vital messages and establish an online presence.
However, achieving your business goals with social media marketing is not as easy as it sounds. You don’t join Facebook, for example, post ads about your products or services, and expect to get sales overnight.
Look – in the US alone, over 88% of businesses market their services through social media. With that in mind, we can confidently say that competition is stiff, but you can stay a step ahead of your rivals if you put the right strategies in place.
Whether you run a big brand that leads on the horse racing betting business like Twinspires or you recently started a new company, below are some social media strategies that will help you stay at the top of the game.
Table of Contents
Don’t ignore your clients and competitors on social media
Just like any other form of marketing, data is vital in social media marketing. You need to know who your potential clients are and understand their demographics. Also, you need to know what strategies your competitors are using, so that you can be able to twerk your plan where necessary and maximize your chances of success.
As they say, knowledge is power. The more knowledge you get, the more authority you get to make informed marketing decisions and develop winning social marketing methods.
Thanks to the advancement in technology, you don’t need to manually get the data you need by spying those who are interested in your product or always looking at your competitors’ pages. With an excellent social media listening tool, you can tirelessly get as much information as you need. This tool will help you;
- Find the best influencers to collaborate within your niche
- Find out what your competitors are up to, and the strategies they are using, and the type of content they are creating to remain ahead of you
- Learn everything about your audience – who they are, what hashtags and keywords they often use, where they are from, the social media accounts they are most active in, the type of content they prefer, and much more
- Manage your online reputation and brand visibility by continually monitoring your brand name and finding out what clients are saying about your product or service
- Measure the success of your campaign using conventional metrics and by assessing emotional reactions to your messages. This will help you identify areas of weakness within your campaign and make changes when the need arises.
Create engaging content
Content is, and will always be the king of online marketing. If you create content just for the sake of it, or because your marketing message must contain some words, then your social media marketing strategy you have heavily invested in is doomed for failure.
By creating valuable content that appeals to the right emotions, creates positive interactions, and develops a ‘wow’ factor in your prospective clients’ minds, you can rest assured that the campaign will sooner or later result in more leads, conversions, sales, and profits.
To make your content appealing and attractive to your target audience, make sure it is accompanied by compelling visuals. Take actual images of the products you are selling and embed them in your posts or tweets. Then, make it your business to develop new content every day so that you can keep your prospects engaged at all times.
When developing content, be authentic, factual, and engaging, so that viewers can find it valuable. Additionally, don’t be afraid to try something new. For example, if you created a video that attracted thousands of likes and shares, don’t keep using it all the time. Share images, articles, and news updates, so that prospective clients can perceive your brand as ‘resourceful.’
Develop a community
If you want to increase your chances of success in social media marketing, create a super-friendly environment where prospective clients can share their experiences and comment on your posts.
When writing a post, make sure you devise it with engaging questions, which will help you gather vital information about your campaign, so that you can determine what is working and what is not.
When prospective clients ask questions about your services or complain about something, always give timely responses. This will go a long mile in enhancing your online credibility and building mutually beneficial relationships with your audience.
In some cases, you might find some negative comments or sentiments that might damage your brand reputation. Before you make any statement, make sure you analyze the situation so that you can determine what to say. In some cases, silence is the only viable response strategy!
Make your employees the brand ambassadors of your business.
When using social media, you can increase brand awareness by leveraging your staff members. This is popularly known as employee advocacy.
When using this strategy, you will basically be promoting your brand’s marketing messages with the help of your employees.
Even though employees might have small audiences, we cannot shun away from the fact that they are highly engaged. Therefore, when your staff members share your company’s messages, you will eventually realize a better online credibility, brand reach, and awareness, not to mention that you might get more traffic, leads, and conversions on your site.
However, you will need a few tips to help you implement this strategy:
- Embed advocacy in your organizational culture or find ways to motivate your staff to share your company messages.
- Create valuable and compelling content you want your employees to share
- Develop clear guidelines that will ensure only relevant information is shared
- Make sure that employees can access information with ease and share it without any problems.
Keep learning!
If you treat yourself as an expert in social media marketing, you might eventually lose it all to your competitors.
Don’t stop learning. Stay on top of social media marketing trends and updates on every platform your business uses. Read blogs and websites that share trends, insights, and tips, and make sure you have the right knowledge that will help you stick out from the crowd.
Note that not all current trends will be relevant to your business or niche, but learning about them might help you understand how better you can engage your audience for improved success.
Regardless of the strategy, you choose to use, don’t forget that your clients are the most critical stakeholders in your business. Therefore, keep them in mind when developing content. When you do this and stay true to your brand, then there is no reason why you shouldn’t achieve the social media marketing success you have been dreaming about.
