4 Top Tips For Social Media Marketing
With over 3.2 billion people using social media globally and 39 million people using it in the U.K., social media marketing is the best way for your business to get involved in the conversations your customers are having online.
In a world where 80% of people will make purchasing decisions based on what their friends say and 73% of shoppers are being influenced by social media, it’s crucial to get your social media marketing correct and these are my tips on how to do just that.
Understand Your Goals
Social media should never be a stand-alone marketing campaign. It should always be used to support a wider strategy that aligns with your business growth goals. All too often I see companies using social media because they feel they have to or because it’s what their competitors are doing.
It’s absolutely essential to understand the purpose of your social media campaign before you launch it. Are you trying to increase brand awareness? Drive visitors to your website? Or maybe drive sales? Perhaps you just want to change consumer perception of your business. Whatever your goals, they need to be clearly identified and KPIs need to be set before those goals can be achieved. If you launch a campaign without clear direction you will inevitably end up wasting your time, seeing few valuable results, becoming unmotivated, and eventually giving up. In some instances, you are better off not having a presence on social media than having a poor presence.
Understand Your Audience and Use the Appropriate Platform
Ensure that you are picking the correct platform for the users you are targeting and you will see the best results. When looking to engage with your customers across social media it’s crucial to firstly understand who these existing and potential customers are. This can be achieved through effective buyer personas and by understanding your existing customers in more detail.
Click here to read more about creating an effective buyers persona
When it comes to identifying existing customers that engage with you online, I recommend you use Google Analytics and explore the ‘audience’ tab which gives a detailed breakdown of the demographics, interests and locations of your website’s users.
By understanding who your target market is, you can then begin using the correct platform on which to reach them. By investing your time, energy and budget into the correct platforms for your users you will see the most effective results. As an example, you wouldn’t look to sell mortgage advice on Instagram because the audience is primarily young users who will not be in a position to purchase a house. In contrast, Facebook’s main user demographic is 25-50 year olds who statistically speaking would be better positioned to purchase a house and may therefore need mortgage advice.
Learn more about social media demographics here
Become an Information Hub Within Your Industry
When posting across social media, follow our 70/30 rule, in which 70% of your posts should be about interesting news/information that is taking place within your industry and the remaining 30% of posts should be content that you have produced and is more focused on your business and it’s work. It is also important not to post too much. We recommend 3/5 posts per week; but this will change based on your business and the industry you operate within.
The purpose of this is that you become an information hub within your industry. You do not want to be talking about your business all the time because your followers will lose interest and there is very little opportunity for growing a page this way. Try to post things that are going to help your followers and support them in their daily life. You want them to follow you because they value the content you are putting up and if you’re always trying to sell to them, they will not value your content.
By posting about the industry as a whole, your followers will inevitably become people who work in or have an interest in this industry. Consequently, when you do post a sales promotion or when you do post about your business, you will have a more captive audience to speak to and you will increase your engagement rates which can lead to an increase in sales.
Be Consistent
When posting be consistent. Ensure that your tone of voice, messaging, use of hashtags, image style and branding remain consistent. Also try, where possible, to post at similar times on similar days. People like consistency and this will increase your followers and engagement rates.
The best way to remain consistent is to watermark your logo into images you use. Have a dedicated person committed to your social media management so that the tone of voice is consistent and ensure that your messaging is always relevant to the goals set out prior to beginning the campaign.
Final Thoughts
Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools that your business has, assuming you are using it correctly. By following the above steps and ensuring that you are aligning your business goals with your marketing goals and consequently your social media goals, you will obtain the results you are looking for with your social media marketing.