Posted by As a content creator, do you feel like your hard work goes unnoticed? All those precious minutes spent crafting this perfect piece of content that results in nothing but crickets. This means absolutely zero circulation through social media channels.
It’s no secret that social media has changed the way we communicate, engage with one another, and build relationships. Yet many people still haven’t found their voice online.
But how will you know if all this time you have spent building up your brand isn’t working?
Fortunately, it is possible to show off your business in ways other than paying top dollar through advertising channels. Think of infographics or native ads which can help generate leads without breaking anyone’s bank account.
Social media is an integral part of most companies marketing strategies, but if you’re not seeing the return that you were expecting or want to increase your brand awareness with new customers in specific markets, then it could be time to rethink your strategy.
Let’s take a look at how you can do this.
Your New Social Media Marketing Strategy
A social media marketing strategy is not just about having a presence on all of the major platforms. It’s also necessary to carefully consider how you’ll use these channels for each platform and their specific goals, which should align with your business’s larger digital efforts.
The more time we spend online, it seems like everyone has something they want from us or at least our attention.
This means some may think that spending money advertising in this way might be worthwhile while others would caution against it altogether because there are so many possible ways people can misuse information given long-form through these types of promotions (for example, scams). More on this below.
1. Consider using chatbots
Using artificial intelligence (AI) as part of your marketing strategy is a growing trend. While it may still not be perfect to write long-form content, where AI writing software excels in is short-form content.
This can include things like your Instagram post captions to make them more engaging, or creating unique descriptions for your YouTube videos to make sure you rank high in their search engine results.
But there is more than just simply creating an account on Facebook or Instagram. You can take it one step further with one of the most effective new strategies for gaining followers on social media by using chatbots.
A chatbot is an automated system that runs similar to a conversation between two people.
In simple terms, a chatbot is your personal executive assistant that can manage conversations and tasks for you.
Chatbots are a great way to engage with your audience on a different level. It’s not just about posting a picture and saying “follow us for more! #hashtag”. You can use a chatbot on Instagram or Facebook Messenger to answer common questions, inform customers of sales, new products, and even make simple small talk.
It’s a great way of staying competitive by automating as much of the sales funnel process as possible, saving you both time and money in the long run.
2. Know your numbers
It’s important to track your social media analytics as it gives you a sense of what’s working and what’s not. Social media marketing campaigns should be based on your actual analytics not just guessing what you think your customers want.
The goal of most marketers is to increase engagement with their content by getting more likes, shares, retweets, and comments.
By knowing how your target audience is interacting with your content will give you an idea of how you can best serve them and provide more of the content they like.
Questions such as “what time of the day are your audience online?” and “Where are they getting engaged the most?” are good at giving you insight into your reader’s behavior.
These are just some of the things that you need to know, but to get further insights into what’s working and what’s not for your brand, it’s advisable to use a social media analytics tool.
To get started, try posting content that is relevant, informative, doesn’t come across as a sales pitch, and is engaging with your audience. Get them involved. Then start posting consistently for maximum results.
3. Don’t be afraid to advertise
If your budget allows you to, consider investing in a little bit of paid advertising. It can allow you to increase your reach and boost brand awareness in a short period of time.
Even just $5 a day for seven days means you don’t need to wait for the data to come in before you can tweak it and go again.
However, even after just seven days of advertising, you will know a lot about your target market. Specifically, how long they’re interacting with your content, where they are from, and what they are most likely into.
In contrast, using organic data is a considerably slower method but the trade-off is that you don’t need to put any money down.
A new tactic to try is the Facebook Click-to-Messenger ads. These work in the same way as your standard newsfeed advertisements but instead of redirecting the user to a landing page, they go straight into your company’s Facebook messenger window.
To make the process even more automated, pair it up with a chatbot and it will continue the customer through your sales funnel for you. Now you can interact directly with the customer and give a more personalized solution to their problems.
4. Engage with other accounts in your niche
It’s called social media for a reason. The idea is to be social. So hang out where your potential customers or clients are and engage with them.
Here are some ways you can avoid being a social robot:
- When you share content, be sure to tag and mention those accounts. This is a good way to expand your brand’s awareness where major accounts could potentially share your post for even greater reach.
- It’s ok to share content from other relevant accounts in your niche. Think of your social media account as part of your blog. You might find that people start following you because of how the little gems you find for them.
- Don’t forget to give. Infographics, statistics, inspiration, long-form, short-form, all these different types of content need to provide some sort of value. Don’t keep promoting your company all the time. What’s in it for the reader?
You can also sign up to various social media groups and forums like Facebook Groups and Quora. Here you can find common questions that people are asking within your niche and then you can attempt to solve that with a link to your post (value is key here).
5. Go live and showcase behind the scenes
Users consuming videos online are on average spending a staggering 90 minutes per day viewing! An easy way for you to get your brand on the digital bandwagon is by going live.
All of the popular social media sites such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook all support this feature.
Going live has the benefit of your followers interacting with you in real-time which is something that a pre-recorded video just can’t compete with. Whether it’s showing your remote set up or that photoshoot you’re currently doing, you still need to prepare your live strategy.
A common tactic used by social media influencers is to promote your live stream in advance. This builds up anticipation for your followers and allows them to schedule time to watch your stream.
Of course, you still need to be providing value (sensing a theme yet?) otherwise you might find a considerate drop-off in participation rates in future live events.
Do this by giving a sense of community as your followers start entering the room. Greet them by name, allocate time in the end for any questions, and don’t forget to include a call to action, even if it is to just follow your channel by “smashing that subscribe button”.
Final Word
To keep your social media strategy on track, be consistent. Whether you want to grow a following or maintain the one that you already have, consistency is key. Share content at regular intervals and think about what type of material will resonate with people to get them involved in conversations related to your brand.
By showing that you’re real and are there providing value to anyone who follows you is crucial when you’re putting your social media marketing strategy together.
It’s also important not to share too much information all at once because it can overwhelm followers who are trying to consume everything they see from you quickly. Focus on quality over quantity when deciding how often to post and what kinds of posts make sense for your goals as a business owner online.