Social media marketing is an endeavour that doesn’t take off instantly, it takes time. It calls upon the marketer to undertake continuous monitoring & evaluation so as perform better with time. How long it takes to realize colossal ROIs on social media marketing investments is majorly premised on how you plan, strategize & execute. Therefore don’t despair if things start off slow & progress at a snail’s pace – great things often take time. Plus there are numerous strategies you can employ to boost the performance of your social media marketing campaigns. Here in I’ll discuss some of those strategies.
Blend Organic Promotions With Paid Ones
Owing to the financial constraints most businesses operate with it’s no surprise that many rely solely on organic promotions. An organic promotion is when you post any promotional post be it on Facebook or Instagram without paying for it – its reach is limited. A paid promotion is when you pay for the post to reach more people. Paid promotions are key in driving your efforts further because you get to target who exactly you want the post to reach. In addition, you can get detailed insights (analytics) on the performance of such posts. Thus you must seriously consider doing more paid promotions; don’t be stuck on organic.
Strategically Plan Based On Analytics
Obviously you can see I have mentioned the term analytics again – that must tell you something. Boosting your social media marketing performance is a pipe dream if you don’t do paid promotions – this is because such promotions provide the much needed analytics. When planning your campaigns don’t assume things, infer from the analytics data what exactly needs to be done. You have got to ensure you focus on the right metrics though. The right metrics are reach, click rates, engagements & comments content (also referred to as sentiments). Don’t get fooled by likes, they can be misleading at times. Sentiments give you an idea of what are saying about your brand. Click rates are quite instrumental in leading to conversions. So, whenever you plan any post, focus on those metrics from prior posts to see which areas need attention.
Shift Focus Away From You
There is a tendency by businesses to focus on themselves & their brand at the expense of customers. Don’t make it about you, make it about them – this will do wonders for your marketing efforts. The very existence of your business is hinged on your customers, so, treat them exclusively. The customer is king, remember! Focus more on hearing what they have to say, ask them questions, make them feel the platform is theirs – always address their concerns. Don’t spend too much time on promoting your products or services. If you make it about them they become so attached to your brand such that buying your brands becomes natural for them.
Encourage User-Generated Content
User-generated content is very crucial in social media marketing. It is central to building formidable social proofs which are key drivers in convincing people to buy your brand. There are numerous ways in which you can formulate user-generated content namely, product/service reviews by customers, testimonials, etc. Another way also is to encourage your customers to be de-facto mouthpieces for your brand by raising awareness about your brand through them making their own posts.
Closely Study Your Competition
We can’t talk of strategy without knowing what your competition is up to. The beauty of social media is that it has open platforms and as such you can study what your competition is doing on their own campaigns. The working principle is quite simple – replicate & enhance their strengths whilst noting their gaps or shortfalls & filling them.
Cast Your Nets Wider
Never make the mistake of using just one social media platform i.e. being on Facebook alone. The different social media platforms are devised differently and offer varied conveniences. Therefore it is very strategic to diversify your social media marketing campaigns. Facebook is the most commonly used, Instagram is exponentially growing is so appealing to the young generation, LinkedIn is mostly formal and replete with sophisticated & academic people, Twitter is the most engaging etc. Thus when you build your presence across various platforms you tap into their varied niches and you neutralize inadequacies that some platforms might have.
Social Media Influencers
It’s evident that businesses now rely a lot on social media influencers. If you are to enhance your social media campaigns you must follow suit. Traditional means of advertising are proving futile. Associate your brand with popular figures and leverage on their influence to tap into their followers and on their voice to augment brand visibility. Influencers need not always be popular, some cases relevance is more important than big numbers.
Content & Posting Schedules
I once alluded to the 80/20 rule in one of my articles. This is whereby you focus 80% of your time & effort on engaging with your customers and then 20% on promoting your products & services. This might seem simple but it is a catalyst for growing your social media campaigns. This is also closely tied in to posting schedules. Less quantity but more quality should be your strategy – you don’t necessarily have to post daily. There must be breathing space between your posts. Posting too excessively can starve most posts from being adequately viewed because people naturally have an affinity for heading to the most recent post.
Video Is King
Surveys have continuously shown that video-based content is responsible for very high engagements rates. This is due to many reasons, one of which is that people generally hate reading but can pay undivided attention to a video clip. If you are to see exceptional spikes & surges in your social media marketing campaigns you ought to come up with more video-based content.
I have discussed these strategies in a generic manner so that you take note of areas needing to be strategized on. The onus now rests upon you to tailor them & perfect them for your own context.
