Source: Placeit.net
An astonishing 93% of all businesses now use some type social media to market their brand. These tools are saving companies incredible sums of money and redefining the traditional methods of marketing and commercial advertising.
No one can deny that social media engages us. In the last decade alone, Facebook has grown its user base to over 1.4 billion customers around the world.
Yet despite these remarkable numbers, most small businesses haven’t maximized the potential of social media, and have yet to design a clear strategy.
Establishing Your Social Media Platform
Firms like one Bay Area marketing company are helping clients develop realistic and obtainable social media marketing plans that can drive new business toward your company. Experts agree that social media campaigns should be designed to obtain the following goals:
- Increase website traffic
- Build brand recognition among new customers
- Convert leads into sales
- Establish a positive relationship with clients
One of the best ways to realize these goals and to establish a presence is to participate in a wide variety of social media platforms. Don’t just create a company Facebook page and call it day, but invest time in learning the advantages of Twitter, Instagram, and even YouTube. Coordinating your social media efforts together makes it easy for customers across all social media channels to find you and allows you to reap the benefits of each service.
Once you’ve established your objectives and gotten your company set up, delegate the task of social media marketing to one individual on your team. Social media is about being present, active and engaged, and an inactive account can disappoint customers and reflect poorly on the management of the company.
Research the new social media marketing tools; many have developed automated services to make posting easier. Take advantage of these services and put your marketing guru at the helm with scheduling services such as Buffer or HootSuite.
Delivering Web-Worthy Content
The most important thing to remember once you have launched your social media campaign is to remain consistent. Actively engage your friends and followers and do your best to build a positive reputation and close rapport with customer. Some great ways that you can do that include:
- Creating Online Contests
- Posting Company Updates and Pictures
- Responding to Customer Inquiries
- Giving Out Promo-Codes
Try to keep all correspondence such as positive customer reviews public so that other customers or partners new to your company can learn a little more about you and get a good first impression.
Selecting Content
Carefully consider each social media post before you post it. Craft social media messages like you would any other type of marketing content, and aim for a high standard of informational content that customers will find of value. Company blogs are a great place to share your news about your products and services, staff and client news, and they also help with your search engine optimization!
Make sure that you watch out for copyrighted content or pictures when sharing posts online. And remember that social media posts will show up in Google and the search engines, so avoid posting in the heat of the moment. Problems such as these have hurt the reputation of some organizations.
Social media can be a great tool with a lot of untapped potential. Like anything in life, it takes time to get into a groove with the message and technology. Once you find your voice and publishing consistency, you’ll see gains in your customer base, traffic, and partnership opportunities. Go forth into social media with patience, and professionalism!
About the Author: Jenni Tomasi is a Client Success Manager for Wheel Media, a marketing & website design company with offices in San Francisco and across the USA. She loves sharing small businesses marketing ideas and startups with social media, and wrestling with her bulldog Bruno.
