Social Media is one of the most powerful tools available to businesses today.
This is true both for companies that outsource social media management and those who want to manage social media in-house.
The key difference between social media management and social media marketing is that a social media marketing strategy requires a lot more than just reposting user-generated content and replying on social networks and platforms to transmit the message for you.
While it can be difficult on your own, using creative ideas can help you improve your campaigns. here are some of my best social media marketing strategy tips and advice for generating a thriving social media campaign
1. Customise Your Social Media Profile Pages
Starting a social media profile is easy, but customising it to your business and making it look good takes time and effort. If you want the social media profiles for your business to reflect who you are as an organisation, take some time at the start to create social media profiles that work well across social media platforms.
Customising social media profiles is the first step you should take. Once you have set up these social media channels correctly, it's much easier for users to find what they're looking for on your social media.
First, pick social media platforms your customers are most likely to use. For example, you might decide on LinkedIn if you provide business services or on Facebook to run a paid advertising campaign.
Discover your customer base on social media and create profiles for those social sites first.
Keep it simple at the beginning so that social profiles don't become overwhelming.
Once you have your social media profiles set up and ready, you can socialise them together to look consistent with one another.
2. Run Competitions, Use Coupons
Social media contests have become increasingly popular recently, thanks mainly to their ability to generate social shares and traffic to your site or social profiles.
It doesn't matter what type of contest you run because they all have one crucial thing: social media users love to participate in them.
Offering social coupons, discounts or deals on social channels is a fun way to get social media marketing campaigns going with exciting content for social sharing, which helps build up the social community around your brand.
People like social coupons because they feel like they're getting something special when it's just part of running an online business; social coupon offers also feel more authentic than simply posting adverts on social channels, which can drive away customers looking for professional opinions.
You could try offering social discounts when people follow you on Twitter, like you on Facebook, subscribe to your mailing list or refer their friends to sign up!
Many brands do this successfully by offering social coupons to new social media subscribers, so your social channels are full of great social content.
For example, run a social media contest that asks social network users to create viral videos or share images on social networks. Social users will be more than happy to oblige because they share your branded content with their friends and followers.
3. Ask Questions On Social Networks
There are few better ways to get social media users involved in social media marketing than asking them a direct question on social profiles and networks.
This is because social media users have an innate desire to contribute meaningfully to any conversation around them. Being asked a direct question gets them thinking and sharing their opinions with the world.
You need to ask a relevant social question using your company's branded hashtags or keywords, so nobody feels left out of the social conversation (make sure you've got social analytics to measure your ROI).
4. Use Social Media Ads
While social media ads might seem expensive to generate social shares and social movements, they can be surprisingly cheap for businesses with big budgets.
For example, social network advertising on Facebook is exceptionally cost-effective when used correctly. It allows companies to target their adverts based on specific interests or demographic information that users have already expressed online through Google queries, LinkedIn profiles or even Twitter bios.
This allows businesses to promote custom social content that feels personal and transparent instead of looking like standard advert content seen in most people's newsfeeds every day.
5. Create Viral Social Content
Easier said than done!
Hundreds of social content lists have been published over the years, but very few offer social media users anything new. So why not create social content that people want to share?
With short attention spans on social media, you have to immediately grab the audience's attention. Social media marketers can consider creating a social story that is explicitly based on social media.
Did you know an entire social movement was created around a group of people struggling with loneliness?
The Ice Bucket Challenge was conceptualised to raise awareness and funds for those affected by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), known as Lou Gerhig's Disease.
This social movement went viral not only because it was captivating but also because participants were encouraged to record themselves dumping ice water on their heads and then challenge others to join-which, propelled it across social platforms quickly.
Another viral campaign that resonated with social audiences is the ALS ice bucket Challenge social movement, which raised social equity and brand awareness for this social issue. Everyone on social media was talking about it; on Facebook alone, there were over 17 million Ice Bucket Challenge videos posted
To create something shareable, social media marketers need to consider making a social story that is explicitly based on social media.
Social stories are graphics with a brief description of what's happening in the visual, allowing you to create a narrative around your social content. To create something shareable, it needs more than attractive imagery, and it needs a good story behind it!
6. Use Social Media For PR
Social media is a fantastic way to get your company's name in front of social users without the expense of traditional advertising. It makes sense that public relations experts often use social media agencies to help promote their clients' latest ventures.
They often use social media campaigns to help publicise movies, television shows, books and other cultural phenomena.
Public relations is commonly associated with press releases and print media. In today's world of instant communication, Social Media For PR should be used by any company looking to make itself better known.
The most significant advantage of using social media for PR campaigns is that it's far less expensive than pay-per-click campaigns or other forms of online advertising.
High quality, engaging content can be used to boost your company's image and influence customers to buy your product or service.
Social media serves as a great way to let the public know about what you do, which means they'll feel more trust in your services.
7. Use Social Media For Customer Services
While social media might not be the best place to handle social customer service queries in real-time, it can undoubtedly help businesses struggling with social customer complaints overall.
The first step in using social media for social customer service is to get a dedicated social inbox in place on your company's website (or even on Facebook) that lists out potential issues/complaints raised by social users without automatically responding or taking action.
That way, any potentially damaging or false comments can be dealt with offline before they become public problems. Once you've got this process in place, you need to monitor each channel closely and update whenever a social customer service problem arises.
Do you need help with your social media marketing? Contact us to see how we can help!
