It’s amusing to think of the days before social media became used as a marketing tool. When it first came on the scene, social was discounted. Even today, some businesses don’t believe in its effectiveness or it’s considered an afterthought.
In 2019, social isn’t just something that’s nice to have—it’s necessary.
In the age of personalized marketing, social shines.
Social media can be used as an effective strategy to connect with new and old customers and notify people of new products—all while showing a little personality.
If your company hasn’t yet dipped your toes into the water, here’s a few quick and easy tips to launch your social media in the right direction.
1. Come Up with a Strategy
The first course of action is to develop a social media strategy, which is an outline of your goals and what you want to achieve through social. This is where you can let your imagination run wild: if you have ideas for posts and content, write them down here. Make sure you align your goals with your overall marketing strategy. Without goals, you’ll be unable to measure success or your return on investment (ROI).
2. Pick the right channels
When you’re starting to build your social media channels, it may be natural to want to sign up for as many social channels as possible. First, it’s important to figure out the demographics of your customers and what social channels they tend to venture on. Then, pick the top three social channels. This is an excellent way to focus on creating quality content, rather than drowning in an abundance of social channels. Every channel has a unique tone and demographic attracted to it.
3. Create and Post Engaging Content
It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Coming up with content can be difficult, especially if you’re coming up with posts the day of or on the fly. Creating a content calendar is one of the most effective strategies to keep yourself on track.
It’s also crucial to remain consistent with your messaging, tone and content, while ensuring it speaks to your brand messaging. If your brand messaging and tone is light-hearted and quirky, don’t confuse your followers by posting something serious or dry. Build a personality for your brand that shines through every post.
With content, quality over quantity is key. Ideally, it’s better to post good pieces of content 2-3 times a week than to post low-quality or unrelated content.
And, most importantly, be human! Sales posts work from time to time, but people can usually see right through it.
Visuals are key these days too, so try to incorporate quality images when you can.
4. Put Your Money Where Your Audience Is
A lot of businesses aim to reach their audience organically. In 2019, Facebook updated their algorithm, making it difficult for businesses to reach their audiences ad-free. Facebook ads are targeted and effective. You can create ads that are catered to page likes or clicks to the website or ads that garner engagement. If you’re a little restricted on budget, boosting posts is a great way to start getting engagement on the page.
5. Engage
When you start to receive engagement on your posts (likes, comments, etc.) be sure to respond quickly. Interact with likes and comments and reply to concerns. If you are unable to respond at that time, make a point of responding when it is possible.
Starting out for social is intimidating and there is a lot to learn. It can be time consuming, but it is worth it. Have questions? At NetGain, we know social! Reach out!