Whatever you do, whatever industry you occupy, whatever products or services you sell, there’s no way that you can afford to neglect or underestimate the importance of digital marketing. And as long as your prospects and customers are using social media, social media marketing needs to be an integral part of your marketing repertoire. Many new to the world of digital marketing may balk at the idea of marketing on social media, but it’s not half as intimidating as many new entrepreneurs may assume.
Master social media marketing and you’ll find that you get the kind of quality engagement with your target market that money simply cannot buy. And who knows, you might even have a little fun too!
Start with a social media mission statement
Your business was no doubt born of a mission statement. It’s the guiding principle that defines every aspect of your operations from how you train your staff to how you package your products. Your social media campaign should also have a mission statement. What kind of brand persona do you want to project? What will you use your social media presence for? How do you want to be perceived? When you can distill this into a succinct sentence, you’ve got yourself a mission statement!
Know your platforms
A common hurdle at which many brands fall is assuming that they need to be all things to all platforms. In so doing, they spend a lot of unnecessary time and effort uploading and posting the same content to multiple platforms. Some of which may not even get the level of engagement necessary to make it worth their while.
This is where market research comes in. Find out what platforms your target market is using and what they use them for. This will give you a much better chance of engaging them on their own turf. For example, while many younger consumers have Facebook, they are much less inclined to use it than their older counterparts. Many are instead drawn to more visual platforms like Snapchat or Instagram.
Be social… Have fun!
Yes, we’re aware of the inherent paradox in telling you, dear reader, to have fun. Nonetheless, social media is a platform for just that… being social. And being social doesn’t necessarily mean bombarding people with promotions. While your followers may well benefit from the new sale you’re running or the new 2 for 1 offer you have going on, that’s not the only reason why they follow you. They follow you because they want to engage with you. Go ahead and respond to their comments on your posts. Like what they post. Share stuff they create that impresses you. This all goes a long way to lending a human dimension to your brand.
Use the tools of the trade
Managing a social media campaign can be exhausting. What’s more, because posting the right content at the right time is of such paramount importance, it can also be disruptive. Fortunately, there are a wealth of tools out there that can make your life easier by automating certain aspects of your social media campaign. Get out there and find the ones that best suit your needs!
When you have a clear focus and the right tools, managing social media marketing is not as difficult as you might think!
