If you want your business to be liked and discussed these days, you need a social media strategy. With more than half the world (59%) now on social media, it’s a place where word of mouth spreads. Quickly. But with so many social media platforms out there, not to mention over three billion images and 720,000 hours of video shared daily, how can social media marketing still help you stand out from the crowd?
There are several ways to create social media content and campaigns that connect with people, get liked and shared, and boost your revenue. The opportunities are ripe no matter what kind of business you’re in. There’s something for everyone in the world of social. Over a quarter of the world’s population is on Facebook, and the platform offers powerful targeted advertising that only Google can compete with. YouTube is the second largest social media site, the second largest search engine after Google, and a site where users watch one billion hours or more of videos per day. With more than half a billion active users, LinkedIn is a goldmine for local, national and even international business-to-business connections.
Anchor Digital will work with you on a social media marketing campaign that builds brand awareness, drives conversions and generates more sales. With a selection of tools up our sleeves, from ad copy to graphic design to social media PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, we’ll let you know where what and when you should be posting for social success.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is using social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok to market and sell products and services, attract new leads and customers, and engage with your existing customer base. This can take many forms, including education posts (such as “how-tos”) and informative ones (e.g. listicles), running ads on various platforms, enlisting the help of influencers for social proof, and using chatbots to communicate with your audience.
Some strategies for social media marketing success include:
1. Set goals that make sense for your business
Everything starts with figuring out exactly what you want to achieve. While you want to attract more customers and increase your revenue, the most common goals for a social strategy are increasing brand awareness and community engagement. You may be focused on driving traffic to your website, generating leads and sales, gaining insights into the market or improving your own credibility and reputation. All these goals are worthwhile, and so is a combination of them. Spending time getting clear on your short- and long-term goals will make it much easier to work out a plan for achieving them.
2. Spend time researching your target audience
Who do you want to put your content and products in front of? There’s not much point in posting all the time or paying for social media PPC if the people who need your product or service the most aren’t able to see it. By trying to appeal to everyone, you cast too wide a net. Knowing the people most likely to buy from you – their ages, genders, income levels, geographic locations etc. – you can create content that focuses on their specific needs and speaks to them on a personal level. You can glean more information about who your target audience is by – among other things - looking at your existing customers, conducting market research, examining your competitors and using tools like Google Analytics.
3. Create engaging social content
Getting clear about your brand identity, target audience and tone of voice should give you a pretty good idea what kind of content to publish. Social media gives you another avenue to share your content besides Google so that it reaches an even greater number of people.
Another benefit of social media is that you can create posts specifically for your platform using text, images, video and memes. Popular forms of social media posts include stories, giveaways and insights into the human side of your business (more on that below). And if you’re stuck on what to post, competitor analysis will shed some light on what social media users are searching for from businesses similar to yours. Programs like Hootsuite and Creator Studio help you automate your content so you can concentrate on other priorities.
4. Use social media PPC
Social PPC is a form of pay-per-click advertising, like Google Ads, that’s only for social media platforms. Social media PPC appears in ads on a user’s social media theme. One of the most convenient things about these kinds of ads is you can set them up so that only relevant members of your target audience will see them. Like other forms of pay-per-click advertising, social PPC is easy and inexpensive to set up but offers a high return on investment.
5. Make your social presence as timely as possible
It’s not just what you post, but when. Some times of the day and night are better for making posts that people will see and engage with. You should post regularly and at peak times when many web users are logged in, such as Tuesdays through to Thursdays at 10 am. Replying to comments and messages quickly will also help you be seen as professional, conscientious and switched-on.
6. Assess what’s working and what isn’t
Like any marketing strategy, it’s important to look at the data behind your campaigns to find out what is and isn’t working. Keep what works, discard what doesn’t, and test and re-test regularly. The knowledge you glean from your metrics will help you make this campaign stronger and give you a head start on the next one.
7. Show your audience that you’re human
Audiences love posts that show them your relatable, human side: behind-the-scenes snaps from the office, pics from social events, staff profiles, and down-to-earth advice columns. There are many methods to put a human face on your brand, and it can make you appear more trustworthy and make the customers feel like they know you and your team.
Let Anchor Help You Create the Best Social Media Content
Anchor Digital is the leading social media agency in Brisbane. We will create targeted solutions across every step of the consumer process. We’ll take a thorough approach to your social media strategy that involves market research and data analysis, strategising and planning with an eye on long-term growth, creating advertising strategies that make a difference and figuring out the practical business of what to post and when.
We’ll craft both social media PPC and organic posts that get the attention that you seek and draw customers and clients back to your website. We’ll also write social media content that speaks to the people you’re trying to reach in the tone of voice they’re most likely to connect with.
Our cross-functional team draws upon extensive social media experience to grow your business no matter your stage. Using the most sophisticated tools in the industry, we guide your growth with a data-driven, transparent approach. We have no need for lock-in contracts and prefer to allow the quality of our work to motivate you to work with us again.
To find out more about our social media marketing strategies and how they can help expand your business’s reach, drop us a line.
