Social media is used by over 3.5 billion people around the globe. This means it’s not surprising that any business needs to incorporate a solid social media marketing strategy into their daily practices. After all, while unlikely the right post could reach 3.5 billion people. That’s a lot of potential customers.
But, social media marketing is more than just posting some nice pictures of your products or talking to people online. This can increase your turnover but it won’t be as effective as if you implement the following 6 ways to upgrade your social media marketing strategy.
1. Target The Right People
Before you do any social media marketing you need to know your audience. That means knowing their age range and what they like to post on social media. You should also note when this group of people are most likely to be active online. This gives you your window of opportunity.
The key to upgrading your strategy is to make conversation. You don’t just want to ‘tag a friend’, you need to create a conversation and even inject a little controversy. It will get people connecting with you and make them more inclined to use your services.
It’s important to note that simply tagging people is no longer enough. In the past, this has worked, asking people to tag a friend ensured the maximum number of contacts. This used to be enough to raise your rankings with the search engines. But, they have got wise to this and produced more complex algorithms. You have to engage with people and that means speaking to the right people.
2. Agencies
Many businesses shy away from the paid search company. But, these can be a valuable upgrade to your social media strategy. You need to let the agency do its thing. A good agency will know the market and be able to connect with people, then lead them to your site through the relevant link.
Of course, before the agency goes to work it’s essential that they have a full understanding of your business, your products, and your target customer. That’s why you need to verify the agency and their expertise in paid searches before you start using them.
It is important to note that paid searches are becoming increasingly popular, especially as it gets harder to generate organic traffic for an unknown site. Embracing this approach is essential to your ongoing success, just make sure you do it properly.
3. Social Shopping
Social media now allows people to shop directly through them. You can checkout directly from Instagram or click on a pin on Pinterest. The idea is to capture spur of the moment purchases. Add shoppable social media to your marketing strategy and you’ll make it easier for people to buy your products. That’s often all it takes to make the sale.
Considering 50% of all internet access is now undertaken through a mobile device and we live in an instant gratification society, people are going to shop online.
Anything you can do to help the shop with you, instead of your competition, will help. Making it easy for them to shop by allowing purchases direct from social media doesn’t just make sense, it’s essential if you want to succeed and grow.
4. Dark Social
People are becoming increasingly aware that everything they say and do online is visible to others, especially their friends. It’s leading to a feeling of mistrust in what the big companies are trying to do. After all, no one likes the idea that someone else knows everything about them.
To deal with this issue your marketing strategy needs to be upgraded. Talk to customers and potential customers on social media that’s not tracked, such as WhatsApp. It’s impossible to track these exchanges or rate how successful they are. But, you’ll be building positive engagement with your customers which will build loyalty and increase sales.
5. Live Video
Generation Z is just starting to get employment and disposable income. They are also the generation that lives in fear of missing out. You can use this fear to upgrade your social marketing efforts. This generation is glued to social media to ensure they don’t miss out on anything.
All you have to do is create live videos that speak directly to these people. The most successful ones will be behind-the-scenes videos or free giveaways. This will help them to stay engaged and build your customer base.
The video has to be genuine, that’s the secret to getting engagement, especially with the younger, ‘reality’ based generation. To ensure they connect and use your services give them something to entice them in but leave them hanging, enticing them back. It’s similar to the cliffhanger ending of any popular television series.
6. Streamline Your ‘Friends’
It’s time to re-evaluate your interactions with others. Connecting with influencers has been a successful way to spread the word of your business or product. This remains true. In fact, the COCID-19 pandemic has made influencers even more relevant.
However, for many years people have boosted their online popularity by paying for likes and enlisting fake followers. On paper, they look like influencers. But, in practice, they are not going to improve your market exposure.
That’s why you should verify engagement rates before collaborating with anyone. Good engagement rates suggest genuine followers and the potential to expand your customer base. The opposite is also true, fake followers won’t just rob you of the chance to expand your customer base. They can also distract you from genuine marketing methods, effectively reducing your marketing reach.
Final Thoughts
The old adage “If it seems too good to be true then it probably is” should be applied to any social media marketing strategy. It’s essential to build a good marketing campaign and using social media is the easiest and most practical approach. But, you have to do your homework before you adopt a strategy. That will help to ensure you choose the social media marketing methods that will actually help.
[See related post: The Importance Of Building Your Brand’s Social Media Presence]
[Images – Main Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels ; Meeting Photo by fauxels from Pexels; Man Man Image by rawpixel.com; other images from their respective websites and/or social platforms]
Jesse Hughes has carved out his niche in AI, personal technology, and emerging technology. He’s also a freelance writer specializing in Ecommerce, Ethical SEO practices and Responsive Web Designs for Small Business Enterprises (SME).