Social media marketing strategies that work include using chatbots, knowing your customer, learning from the competition, and investing in content marketing…
Today, companies rely heavily on digital marketing to promote their products, and social media is an integral part of that marketing strategy. There is a good reason why social media should interest any business- large or small.
Statistics showed that there are 4.62 billion active social media users as of January 2022- almost double the figure just five years ago. These users spend almost 2hours and 30 minutes on social media daily. Nevertheless, many brands have not taken full advantage of this tool.
Though the number of ‘likes,’ ‘follows,’ and shares are valuable, your brand’s social media success is defined by more than these metrics. Many businesses can reach a wide range of prospective customers through social media marketing. If your brand is not on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook, it is missing out.
What is social media marketing?
This digital marketing strategy leverages various social media networks to accomplish your branding and marketing goals. Don’t confuse social media marketing with aimless posting on your social media accounts.
Social media marketing involves implementing planned strategies with measurable goals such as:
- Maintaining an optimized profile
- Posting videos, pictures, live videos, and stories representing your brand and attracting a targeted audience
- Following your customers, followers, and influencers and keeping them engaged, thus creating a community for your brand.
- Replying to comments, likes, and shares to monitor your brand image.
Paid social media advertising is also part of social media marketing. You can also take advantage of this method and pay to have your brand published in front of many targeted users.
If you struggle to master the unique social media marketing skills to help you understand your audience, this article is for you. We present you with 10 social media strategies you can implement regardless of your brand’s size.
1. Use chatbots
You have probably heard of chatbots if you have an operation social media marketing strategy. Chatbots are effective digital tools that communicate with your customers and solve their problems without human intervention.
Chatbots integrate well with social media platforms, thus allowing your consumers to interact with your products comfortably. Some social media platforms like Chattypeople make integrating a chatbot into your social media marketing strategy easier.
Social media platforms enable you to build a chatbot that:
- Answers a customer’s questions
- Integrates with major payment systems
- Do not need coding knowledge
- Can take orders from comments and Facebook Messenger
2. Know your customers and create a personalized experience for them
This tip is related to chatbots. Chatbots perform more than automating specific tasks. If properly implemented, a chatbot can give your customers a personalized experience.
However, before you use chatbots to target your audience, you do well to know your customers. You need to understand what social media sites they use and what products they love.
Besides creating ads that take your audience to your landing pages, you can design ads that direct your website’s visitors to the chatbot window. An ad linked to a chatbot will:
- Personalized your customer’s experience
- Build a loyal fan base
- Boost sales
- Help the customers know that you are not always trying to sell to them.
3. Learn from Competition
I guess you are not a monopoly, meaning your competitors are probably using social media with great success. It is good to examine how they are using social media marketing.
You should not do this to duplicate their strategy but to learn what they are doing good and their weakness. If you have successful competitors as a benchmark, you will know what to emulate from what they have done. You can also include what they have not done that can work well for your organization.
Examining competition can also inspire you to take up challenging social media marketing. You could read about success stories of companies that took courage and invested on these platforms. It could be all you need to utilize social media marketing.
4. Invest in content marketing strategies
It is often said that content is king, and the same is true with your social media marketing strategy. Many successful brands have invested heavily in content marketing, and the trend is not changing anytime soon.
Your social media marketing strategy should incorporate quality content. You are likely to draw more traffic and following from prospective customers if you regularly post informative content.
Additionally, you want to ensure your content is highly optimized for search engines to bring the right customers to your site. The beauty of content marketing is that you can freely implement it to generate organic audiences.
For instance, you can schedule to share your regular web posts on your social media pages like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn to educate your customers. Your customers’ friends and connections are likely to see your content, follow your brand, and even buy your products.
5. Repurpose, recycle, and repost your content
Social media has numerous participants, with many posts calling for the attention of potential customers. If you want to stand out from the rest and gain traction with your target audience, you must regularly post quality content.
Creating regular quality content is time-consuming, but you can achieve this feat through:
- Repurposing- You can use customer reviews to create a Facebook or Instagram post. Alternatively, you can slice your blog post and generate a series of Tweets or convert a webinar deck to LinkedIn posts.
- Reposting- Though reposting needs moderation, it is ideal for filling your content calendar. You can repost content from your web page on Instagram or retweet influencer content. Additionally, you can curate content using authoritative sources to improve traffic and authority.
- Recycling- Why not post your Instagram reels or TikTok videos on your YouTube channel? You could also reshare your performing blogs on your social media pages to attract new followers.
6. Build an audience community
Don’t be satisfied with followers and likes; there is more to social media success. It is critical to demonstrate to your audience that you are a natural person they can interact with on social media.
How can you do that? You can include emotions and humor in your posts to make your brand relatable. Create a community by being social and creative. You want to keep your customers hooked to your content by creating a variety.
You can involve your audience by:
- Sharing regular newsworthy information in addition to your products and services
- Asking relevant questions to your audience.
- Asking your audience to share or like your post
- Gathering your customers’ opinions on various matters
- Liking, commenting on and sharing some of your audience posts.
7. Employ content creation tools
You have probably heard the saying that Instagram is the number one visual social platform. The truth is all social media platforms work well with visuals.
If you want your post to stand out in your visitors’ feed, you must accompany them with eye-catching and engaging illustrations, photos, and text art.
Canva is one of the best content creation tools with features and templates to allow you to create professional-looking visuals.
The images and videos on all social media platforms should be rich and fun. You can also incorporate occasional exciting podcasts. These contents will likely give your social media platform life and catch your audience’s eyes.
8. Target relevant channels
Some brands disperse their content on every social media platform, hoping to reach as many people as possible. However, that formula may not be effective in reaching your target audience.
Before settling on social media profile, examine your buyer persona to determine the ideal channel. For instance, you may not need a LinkedIn profile when launching a clothing brand. Similarly, you may not need Pinterest to advertise your surveillance services.
9. Create a social media budget
Since social media marketing is one of the most helpful marketing avenues, businesses should allocate an adequate budget to their social media endeavors. Remember that the budget works well when leveraged with the right strategy.
You want to ensure you choose a cost-effective way to reach your desired audience. Additionally, because your social media help you connect with customers personally, you can create a better connection with your audience.
10. Go live with your story
Going live and telling your story can add value to your content. It also helps your target audience know what your company is up to in real-time. You could launch a product, host a webinar or an event, and broadcast these events live to your target customers.
Several social media platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook, have live streaming features; however, many companies have not fully utilized this feature. Before your competitors benefit from live features, you can use them.
Live stream allows you to:
- Engage with and inspire your customers
- Show the audience that you care
- Create memorable and shareable content
The Bottom Line
Social media marketing is a vehicle that converts many leads and generates revenue. Brands that have mastered it are reaping big, and you can join the bandwagon. The 10 strategies outlined in this article can help you compete with solid brands and build a successful social media plan.
What other strategies are working for you that we haven’t included in this list?
