For business owners around the world, social media has become a sort of blessing in the current day and age. Irrespective of whether you are a small-scale seller or part of a large organization, you can leverage the power of social media to create a difference in your business.
It has become evident over the years that social media is a vital aspect of your digital marketing strategy. It is here to stay and is slowly taking over as the topmost platform to look for prospective customers. In such a scenario, building a solid social media presence is crucial.
It all started with just creating a page or account on a social media platform, be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and so on. That was followed by merely sharing regular updates and posts about your products or brand.
This simple two-step plan has now evolved into a plethora of marketing strategies that must be followed to gain an edge over competitors and make your brand bigger and better.
If you still haven’t optimized your social media accounts for maximum engagement, fear not. With a little bit of research and understanding, you can build your brand on social media in a way that will be an inspiration to your peers.
Almost all businesses, big or small, are present on a social media platform. So, how can you set your brand apart from the rest? To stand out from the crowd, you have to think differently.
Thinking differently does not simply mean inventing new strategies that have not been thought of yet. It also implies adopting the existing marketing strategies in a unique manner and making your audience realize the X-factor of your brand.
Statistics show that in 2020, more than 3.6 billion people around the world were using at least one social media platform. This number is expected to reach over 4 billion by 2025. This is a booming industry, one that is waiting to be harnessed by marketers.
You get access to about 350 million users on Twitter, 2.5 billion users on Facebook, and 1 billion users on Instagram, to name a few. This kind of exposure can change the reach and scale of your business in a manner you have not foreseen yet.
Advantages of Social Media in Digital Marketing
Online marketing has many avenues, some paid and some free. Social media is one such place where you can reach big milestones even without paying a hefty amount. There are several other advantages of using these platforms for effective marketing.
- It helps to establish a communication channel with your target audience and prospective buyers.
- It makes your brand accessible to customers, which in turn leads to better website traffic and even conversions.
- It helps to build engagement with your followers and, through that, expand your audience base locally and globally.
- It can be used to build website authority, leading to improved SEO (search engine optimization).
- It drives traffic to your site, decreases bounce rates, and leads to bigger revenue streams.
This is not all, to say the least. The power of social media can revolutionize your business if you know how to use it. Simply put, a strong social media presence can and will help you in the long run to get your brand established in its field.
Now, when we think about this, it may seem easier said than done. However, there are a few simple and genius tricks and strategies that will go a long way in improving your social media game.
Top 15 Social Media Marketing Strategies to Boost Your Brand
Nowadays, simply posting about your products on social media and sharing promotional content just won’t do. You need to develop a unique approach to this aspect of marketing to make your company stand out. Here’s how.
Understand your audience
Understanding your audience forms a big part of your marketing strategy. This depends not only on the products you are marketing for but also on which social media platform you are using for this process.
For instance, if you run a blog and are sharing your posts on Facebook, you can give a brief intro about the content or share a snippet from the article. This approach won’t work on Instagram or Twitter. There, your communication must be more concise.
For Instagram, you may share an image related to the blog, one that will attract viewers instantly. You can then mention the blog link in your bio. For Twitter, you can share the blog with perhaps an impactful statement to describe it or a positive review you received for it.
Likewise, your approach towards social media will depend on the platform and the kind of audience viewing the post. Analyzing your audience will also help you to make posting schedules, formulate relevant content, and offer targeted solutions.
Set attainable goals
When deciding on a social media strategy, you should keep a clear goal in mind. What is the purpose of your marketing campaign? What do you seek to achieve through your posts on social media? How will you ensure prospective buyers are drawn to your brand? Look for answers to these questions first.
There is no point in staying active on social media platforms just for the sake of it. Your objective must drive all your actions. Whether you’re using the platform to increase followers, post ads, generate leads, increase website traffic, or any other such purpose, your strategy must be aligned with that goal.
Your marketing techniques will vary, depending on your goal and your target audience. You can always choose to modify or evolve your goals as you go along. However, you must always start with something attainable and realistic.
Be active and positive
Your approach towards social media communication holds the key to your campaign’s success. Your goal must be to stay active and positive in your replies. In this regard, the perfect example can be Netflix’s Instagram account.
If you check their replies to comments on their posts, you will find that they always have something clever and humorous to say. This causes Netflix to be more endearing to the followers.
To maintain a cheery social media persona, it is essential to have a consistent voice. The best thing is to delegate each platform’s responsibility to a particular person and ensure that they keep at it without missing a beat. If you do not have ample resources, you can make a checklist for each platform and stick to it.
Invest in videos
Content has moved beyond just text to include images, videos, GIFs, memes, and so much more. It is essential to note that visual representation of content attracts more viewers, as very few people have the patience to read through a long paragraph.
With decreasing attention span of users, the challenge to create engaging content becomes all the more real. This is why most companies use media assets to show and even talk about their products. This way, the communication becomes more engaging and personal.
On ecommerce websites, too, it is slowly becoming the trend to include videos, along with photos, for a product. This is so that the customer gets an idea of how the apparel is going to look on them from all angles. Websites with videos are expected to see better conversion rates.
Several video-making software on the internet come with preloaded templates and user-friendly functions to help you create intros and other videos for social media in a matter of minutes.
In addition to that, you can use a video editor website to create interesting and ‘cool’ videos for all your social media platforms. Be it a product video or simply a brand message for your followers, you will find suitable templates to tell your story and even apply customizations to make it more personal.
Images and videos attract potential buyers to your page, and eventually, your website. They also help in securing purchase decisions and reducing returns and exchanges as the customer already has an idea of how the product looks and works. All in all, this strategy will not let you down.
Jump on to trend bandwagons and hashtags
Every other day, there are local and global trends that take over social media. It is a great idea to leverage those trends through unique content and appropriate hashtags. When the Black Lives Matter movement took pace, many brands and social media handles posted relevant messages.
As more and more people search for trends and read trending posts, chances are that your post will get way more visibility if you’re featured on the trending page. Apart from global trends, what results is massive engagement are local trends.
Depending on the area and scale of your business, you can participate in local trends as well. This will lead to more organic traffic, a connection with your followers and more exposure on social media.
Build a relationship with your followers
If your followers merely view your social media account as a promotional page, you are doing something wrong. Ads and promotional content can only take you so far. The trick is to humanize your brand.
Your social media persona should have a distinct voice, one that your followers can relate to. Often, we see pages that copy-paste the same reply to all comments or keep reposting the same content every few days. That just won’t do!
Even if your content message is the same, make sure to repurpose the structure to make it appear unique. Always reply to comments with specific solutions and not like a bot. Your followers will appreciate this genuine connection, and it might also help bring some word-of-mouth publicity.
Construct a distinct brand identity
This is somewhat related to the previous point but goes deeper to help in creating a specific identity for your brand. Choosing this identity depends greatly on what you are promoting.
If you have an inspirational blog, you cannot indulge too much in jokes and memes. Rather, focus on positive messages and uplifting your followers through your content. If you run a gaming page, your content should be youth-centric, casual, and on-trend.
Sticking to your online persona will help your followers know what to expect from your page. This will bring them back to you when they are looking for a specific type of content. However, do not hesitate when it comes to surprising your followers sometimes, with posts that they will enjoy and appreciate, but which go in sync with your persona.
Dabble in monetization
Although there are several things you can do on social media for free, a little monetization wouldn’t hurt anyone. Organic traffic is always the best bet, but some paid avenues can help you lead to that.
The new business features of Facebook and Instagram make it important to include ads with your content if you want to see profits. Not just ads, social media monetization strategies include influencer marketing, paid promotions, collaborations, and much more.
These avenues assure great ROI (return on investment), along with more acceptance from your target audience. Make sure you keep track of the platform’s algorithms, business features, and prominent personalities who can help further your goals.
Hold Q&A sessions
This is fairly a new social media strategy but one that has seen great success globally. Much like the Q&A section of your website, where users can get their queries addressed, it is a good idea to hold Q&A sessions on social media platforms.
One way of doing that is through live sessions. Facebook has reported that live videos and interactions get six times more engagement than regular posts. Many influencers are seen to hold live chat sessions where their followers are invited to ask questions and get real and insightful answers.
You can also hold “Ask Me Anything” sessions on Instagram and Twitter. Just ensure you answer most of the questions, if not all. This strategy pays off more when you are about to launch a new product or service and want your potential customers to be aware of it.
Add links to your website
If you are a business owner, your ultimate aim is to draw traffic to your website. No matter how popular you are on social media, if it doesn’t translate to conversions and revenue, it won’t be of much use to you.
Thus, adding links to your website is crucial. Whether you add links in your bio, promote specific web pages with relevant posts, or simply educate your followers on what to find on the website, make sure the link is prominently placed and easily visible.
The flipside to this is way too much emphasis on links. Your followers should not feel like they have to visit your website for every small thing. That would render your social media account ineffective. Just give them enough information and urge them to visit your website for more.
Integrate with your emails
Your social media should not be separate from your emails and other promotional activities. After all, your aim is to generate interest in your website. That can be done through emails as well as social media platforms.
Whenever you send emails to prospective customers, include your social media icons and add links to those pages. You never know when an interested user decides to visit your profile and even chooses to follow you. With increased followers, your website traffic and customer base are sure to increase.
Produce and share quality content
Social media activities depend greatly on sharing trendy and relevant content. However, that does not mean you should only share posts. Producing content is as important as curating it, if not more.
Here also, video editing tools and tutorials prove to be of great help. Your social media page must have some amount of original content that speaks about your brand. Think of innovative ideas, use trends effectively, and keep an eye on your competitors to find out what kind of content works.
Experiment with games
Another brilliant social media marketing tactic is to use games and contests to build engagement on your profile. Your followers would love to participate in interesting bonding exercises, which in turn would bring more customers and traffic to your page and website.
Think of quizzes, games, trivia contests, meme challenges, hashtags challenges, and much more, to amp up the pace. Keep an exciting reward for the winners or a chance for them to be featured on your page.
Always remember that these engagement exercises should be mutually beneficial to you and your followers.
Use tools to automate posts
Post automation is a tricky area. You should know exactly which aspects of your social media communication should be automated and which should be kept realistic. For instance, it is a good idea to automate posts throughout the day but never automate customer replies.
Automation comes to your aid when you cannot have a dedicated person to post content at specific time intervals. Many tools help you achieve this, like SocialPilot, Hootsuite, and so on. You can schedule posts for up to a month in advance.
This makes planning easier. However, make sure when you reply to people’s comments and queries, you have a real voice and not just an automated response.
Limit your promotional activities
Yes, we understand that your social media strategy is aimed at promoting your brand. Yet, that should not be the primary impression followers have of your account.
You need to sell your product without becoming a salesperson on social media. Here, your persona should be more wholesome and interesting. People who visit your pages should not feel as if there is nothing in store for them unless they buy your product.
Focus on growing your follower base through interactions. Your account should not have more than 20-25% of promotional content, so as not to put off your audience. Instead, promote your products through influencers and engagement-building exercises.
Conclusion
Social media marketing can be of varied ways. The trick is to find your niche first and then experiment with unique approaches for better results. Whatever you do, don’t forget to monitor your progress through analytics tools. Depending on the success of your campaigns, you can make constructive plans and strategies for the future.
