When it comes to digital marketing, the world wide web is your oyster, and social media is your pearl of communication. But, as we all know, the thing with a pearl is, it’s a treasure that’s not always easy to find – just as social media can sometimes be a difficult connection to crack.
But that’s why we’re here: to navigate you through the do’s and don’ts of social media to find success in your campaign and in each and every post. Starting now.
Choose the Right Channels
Notice we didn’t say choose “all” social media channels, rather the “right” channels. There are dozens of platforms out there, and it would be impossible to include them all in your marketing strategy. You want to be able to keep up with fresh content on each one, not let it die. And, to add to that, each social media network caters to different demographics, so you should choose the platforms that directly feed into your target audience. A handful of the most popular platforms are:
- Facebook: With 67 percent of people online using Facebook, this reigns king of the social media kingdom. On top of that, 60 percent of Facebook users are female.
- Twitter: The power of Twitter is in your hashtag; use yours wisely and your customers will find you, plus share it with others. Those who Tweet most often are females in their late twenties.
- Instagram: Visual-based, Insta reaches a younger demographic between ages 18 and 29.
- Pinterest: If your target audience is mostly female, Pinterest is a bullseye, with 80 percent of users educated women with a higher income. Pinterest users see the platform predominantly as a visual search engine when scrolling through content.
- LinkedIn: The B2B social media network that keeps things professional and drives more social traffic to blogs and websites than Facebook and Twitter combined.
- YouTube: Six out of 10 people prefer online platforms, like YouTube, over live TV. You create an inspiring video from your smartphone and YouTube takes care of distributing that video to your target audience.
Be the Authority
There are tons of social media pages on the Internet and a high amount of traffic speed-scrolling through (81 percent of the U.S. population, actually), so make sure you stand out as the local expert in your field. Share your expertise, your thoughts and your insights to add something valuable to the ongoing conversation.
Spend Time
It’s out there amongst social media gurus that it’s a good idea to spend about an hour a day working on building your primary social media platforms, plus looking ahead to plot out an editorial calendar and scoping out how to schedule out posts ahead of time with cool tools.
Combine Quality Content & Visuals
Quality content is the language your audience wants to hear! It’s strong enough to be shared across different platforms, it sparks interest in your brand (eh hem, engagement), it’s informative and it spawns action. Writing “short and sweet” quality content means a careful balance of inserting both humor and authoritative knowledge of your subject or product. It will take some practice (and some post fails) to find just the right formula that tickles your fans’ fancy, from personal interest community news to staff profiles to tips and trends from your industry. And that’s OK.
But, don’t forget about the power of images. On Facebook, in fact, 44 percent of users are more likely to interact with brands if they post photos (or videos) and photos will garner 121 percent more shares. Some social media platforms, like Vine, Pinterest, Tumblr, Snapchat and Instagram, are the heavyweights of photos and videos. It’s a no-brainer to say that images increase visibility on feed space that mostly taken up by photos; a content-only post increases the chances that it will be completely missed. The perfect scenario is impactful content paired with a memorable image.
Offer the Best in Customer Service
Just as in your brick and mortar business, it’s vital to show active and responsive customer service – actually, even more so online because there’s a worldwide audience watching. Not only does that mean responding quickly, but, no matter if it’s a comment, question or complaint, be personable. Don’t send an automated, boilerplate response and come off as cold and uncaring. Social media is all about building relationships and your brand, and your worldwide image is the place to accomplish that.
If you’d like 73 Deville to help you be more social media-savvy, connect with us via email rob@73deville.com or call 843.222.0605 and we’ll plan out a strategy that’s best for you!