Social media platforms have transformed the way businesses market their services. Brands are now connecting & interacting with their customers to achieve their branding & advertising goals. With the growth of interactive digital platforms, marketing on social media is evolving from a stand-alone tool to a multi-faceted one that continues catering to an ever-growing audience.
A recent report says that, as of July 2022, there are 4.7 billion social media users, accounting for almost 59% of the global population. Another report states that 76% of these users have made purchases based on what they see on social media posts.
Customers are no longer restricted to simply emails & phone calls when communicating with brands. And brands are taking the hint & making their presence on social media all the more prominent. If you have a brand, in this day and age, chances are you too are on a social media platform, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn or more.
The numbers indicated in the reports are significant. But is your brand capitalising on these numbers, or are you still trying to figure out your social media marketing game? Well, it is not as intimidating or complicated as you might think. All you need is to strategise right & you could be well on your way to accelerating your presence online.
But, first things first!
What Is Social Media Presence?
In layman’s terms, the social media presence indicates how visible & active a particular brand or business is on a social media platform. It also depends upon the kind of connection you build, as a brand, with your community.
While several brands have a social media account, comparatively, only a handful seem to have cracked the code for creating a thriving presence for themselves on social media. It does not happen in a day or two. It is a gradual process that needs you to be proactive, continuously create relevant content, and engage your community with meaningful dialogue. It is a part of the process to build trust, grow your following, and boost engagement.
Why Is It Important for Your Brand?
Before jumping onto the social media bandwagon, you must ask yourself, “What is in it for my brand?” or “ How does it help my brand to grow?”
The simple answer to these questions would be that social media is a low-risk, high-return marketing channel. If done correctly, marketing on social media can not only deliver great results but also significantly boost your brand awareness.
Here is a list of some of the key benefits of creating a social media presence & how it can be instrumental in helping your brand succeed.
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Establish strong connections with existing customers
Social media is an efficient platform to provide value to your customers for free. It is an effective content marketing channel that helps you build trust with potential customers long before they have made a purchase.
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Reach new heights of high-value prospects
Once on social media, you can utilise tools and optimise your profiles to maximise your brand’s visibility in searches. With the efficient use of appropriate hashtags, you can put your brand in front of the right audience, increasing your chances of succeeding.
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Gain insights into your targeted audience
Social media marketing provides you with in-depth analytics & insights into your targeted audience. How does it help your brand? These insights & analytics will help you get an overall understanding of your customer’s preferences. It will give you spontaneous data in real-time that can help you figure out the type of content that best resonates with your target audience.
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Potential to turn engaged audiences into paying customers
With a well-planned social media strategy, you can also successfully lead your engaged audience and inspire them to make a purchase. It all depends on how well you can harness the potential of social media marketing & content marketing.
Once you have established a social media presence, it starts working like a well-oiled machine, driving sales, expanding your existing customer base and converting potential customers automatically.
9 Efficient Ways to Help You Boost Your Social Media Presence
Ready to amp up your social media marketing game? We here at Make My Website have these tips, tricks & strategies to help you boost it & increase your impact online.
1. Understand Your Target Audience
Before you plan your marketing campaign, you need a comprehensive understanding of your target audience. It will help you create your brand voice & build your marketing strategy. It will also help you choose the right platforms for marketing your products and the kind of content you’d be creating and help you chart a schedule for posting.
For instance, if your target audience is young working professionals interested in personal grooming, posting content on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will get you a better reach. Your content could be about the importance of grooming, self-care, and grooming essentials. You’d ideally post your content late in the evening when there is a higher chance of your audience checking their social media profiles.
2. Set SMART Goals for Yourself
The concept of SMART goals has been around for a while now. And its relevance has not gone down a bit. When you plan on taking your business on social media, your strategy must focus on specific goals. Setting a goal will give your strategy purpose & help you avoid posting content just for the sake of it.
One example of establishing a SMART goal would be “We’ll double our Instagram followers within the next quarter.” This goal is:
Specific: The goal specifies the channel, i.e., Instagram and the metric, i.e., the number of followers.
Measurable: The metric mentioned in the goal is measurable. You can easily find the number of followers at the top of the said Instagram page.
Achievable: The goal here is feasible. It is not an outrageous claim, such as “double the number of followers within a day”. It is an easily achievable goal within the given time.
Relevant: A relevant goal aligns well with the brand’s objectives. Doubling the number of followers would lead to more exposure & better reach.
Time-bound: This goal is time-bound and the objective is to achieve this goal within the next quarter.
3. Select the Platform Wisely
You must select your platform wisely. You must understand that every social media platform has distinct algorithms & each of them works differently. The people who use these platforms are also looking for different things. So, before planning your social media marketing strategy, you must choose your platform wisely.
It is always advisable to plan for multiple platforms instead of just sticking to one. It helps you to increase your reach & connect with more potential customers. Doing so will also improve your chances of getting noticed. Additionally, it helps in staying connected with your audience across platforms.
4. Be Human
The point of social media is to connect on a more personal level. And hence it helps when you abandon the mechanical & formal tone of conversation when you are communicating with your audience on social media. A personal human touch allows your audience to relate with you more & helps in building trust.
Brands nowadays are taking on the informal tone, communicating with other brands & overall abandoning the stiff conversation in favour of a more friendly one to become more relatable. Create memorable experiences for your audience that will have them returning for more.
5. Learn from Your Mistakes
When you are starting out, it is only natural for you to make mistakes. Some of the common mistakes that brands often make are focusing on quantity over quality, posting the same content everywhere, or not replying to queries on social media fast enough. However, you must not treat these mistakes as setbacks. Learn from your mistakes & incorporate your learnings in your future interactions.
No one expects you to be a superhuman & not make mistakes. However, you must take responsibility and improve. Treat these experiences as learnings that will help you find out what works with your audience & what doesn’t.
6. Trust the Hashtag Supremacy
Never underestimate what the ‘#’ can do for you. With the advent of social media marketing, the practice of using hashtags has also grown. These tags help your brand become more visible in search results and it also helps boost awareness of your brand.
How to choose the right hashtags? Always pick relevant hashtags. Try to be consistent with your hashtags. When selecting hashtags, you must also do extensive competitor analysis to get a better understanding of social media trends & how they can help your campaign.
7. Remember ‘Content Is King’
The importance of meaningful content is undeniable! Create meaningful content that resonates with your audience. Do not cramp them with posts or stay absent for too long. Strike a balance with your posting. You can consider using a social media Calendar to streamline your posts & schedule them better.
When posting on social media, make sure you are using a lot of visual content. The Facebook algorithm, for instance, is designed to pick posts with videos and images over ones without them. Boost your visibility with high-quality creatives (try using authentic ones instead of stock ones). Constantly monitor the type of content that performs well & try creating content along those lines.
8. Leverage Trending Content
One way to stay relevant & up your social media game is to leverage trending content. Always keep an eye on current affairs and social news & updates and try incorporating these into your marketing strategies. However, remember that when using trending content to market your product, it must not look forced.
For instance, recently, Microsoft Teams was down for several hours. And many brands took this opportunity to promote their products, leveraging this situation. Most took to platforms like Twitter, to post memes, GIFs and other relevant content about the situation. This not only helped brands to leverage the situation to promote themselves but also helped them to connect with their audience organically. You can also effectively use such occasions to initiate a conversation & market your services.
9. Spread the Word
Let your friends, acquaintances, customers and everyone else know you are on social media. You can consider tagging them to your posts, sharing your content & inviting them to like your page. However, you must not overdo it, as that might come off as annoying & backfire.
Another way to boost your reach is by inviting people who view & react to your content to like your page. It will help them see more of your posts & also allow you to reach a wider audience.
These are some easy tips, tricks & strategies to help you get started with your social media marketing campaign. Remember that your social media presence is only as valuable as your audience makes it. You must observe, monitor and analyse social media trends and your audience & their behaviour to make the most out of your strategy.
Also, remember that your strategy must be flexible & it must keep changing and evolving depending on the kind of response you’re getting from your audience (since they are the ones you are catering to). Don’t be afraid to experiment, as long as you are not compromising your brand values & brand language.
And now? You’re all set to start managing your brand’s social media marketing campaign on your own!
