Social media has become an integral part of our lives. Whether we want to share our thoughts or connect with friends, social media platforms have changed our communication.
Facebook alone has over 2 billion daily active users. Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tumblr, are also very popular.
There are several ways to get started with social media marketing. The key is to choose a social media strategy that fits your brand and audience. Here are some tips to help you create a successful social media campaign.
As a business owner and digital marketer, social media marketing is one vital aspect of my daily activity.
In Nigeria, organisations are gradually starting to appreciate social media marketing. They know it is a valuable tool for communicating their message to their target audience.
The organisations that engage in social media do so often as an afterthought. They rarely have a clear-cut and documented social media marketing plan or the right social media management tool.
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What Are the Right Things (Best Practices) to Do on Social Media?
Below are the skills you need to do social media marketing right:
1. Know your Target Audience
Your choice of content (social media post), where you post it (your social channel), and when you post it will be influenced by the type of customer you desire to attract. So you need to identify the target audience for your brand or product.
Who is the intended use of your product? What are the characteristics and behaviours of your existing customers? What are their favourite social platforms? The answers to these questions will help ensure your social media content reaches the right audience. There is no point in creating content for social media users that are not interested in your brand or product.
2. Be Authentic
Be genuine, transparent and authentic to yourself and your brand by posting honest and valuable content through your social media account. As a business owner or social media marketer, the only way to be authentic is to showcase the real you on your chosen social media network through the type of content you post. Being authentic can make you vulnerable, as sharing personal stories can leave you open to criticism. Authenticity, i.e. truth on social media, can be a game-changer for any brand.
3. Have a Clear Message
How important is clarity in your messaging, and how clear is your message? Sales and marketing are dependent on the clarity of your message. Your core message must be articulated consistently across all social media platforms to convey a unified voice.
4. Be Consistent
Consistency is vital in social media marketing. For your audience to recognise your brand, you must be consistent. A great way to stay consistent on social media is by developing a consistent brand voice across all your social media channels. Think of your brand voice as your brand’s personality – that personality shouldn’t change much from channel to channel. Another great way to stay consistent is using a social media calendar as part of your content strategy to ensure you post at the right time on any relevant social media site using the right scheduling tool. Make sure you devote sufficient time and effort to creating your social media content calendar. It is vital to the success of your campaign.
In a broad sense, social media consistency helps you engage your audience and give them more reason to ‘follow’ you back. Consistency builds momentum, and posting regularly builds real connections and trust with your audience. If you have conflicting messages (for example, on your Instagram Story and Twitter), your customers will feel confused and less likely to buy from you. Your brand must be instantly recognisable when someone is scrolling down your profile.
5. Be Helpful
Strive to be a resource on your brand, product or service for existing and potential clients. Provide customer service where possible through your social media channels.
6. Be Patient
Successful social media marketing takes time and genuine commitment. Connect with your audience and provide them with most of the value in the relationship without asking for anything in return.
7. Be Kind
Every day is a new chance to be kind and positively impact others through your social media presence. Social media has made it easy to spread hate, but it’s also easy to spread joy and positivity. Remember that whatever you post on your social media profile will probably be people’s first introduction to your business or brand. Speak to people the way you would in person. Be considerate of the feelings of others. Be open to opportunities for collaboration to create user-generated content with your target audience.
How the Intern Can Do Social Media Marketing Right.
Instead, they get an intern and ask the person to set up and run the organisation’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
Some organisations that desire to look ‘cooler’ than their competitors go further. They ask the intern to add LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat.
When the intern asks for brand-related content, they tell the person to ‘just post about us or our product line’. Thus, the perplexed intern posts, churning out dozens of tweets and posts daily.
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They tweet and post about anything they can come up with on the organisation’s products or services.
After tweeting all there is to say about the organisation, its products or services, the intern, not wanting to look incompetent, now goes overboard and posts cat and dog pics as part of the content mix!
Then they finally go haywire and start posting jokes and memes unrelated to the organisation’s brand on their social account.
Finally, the intern may get so used to posting whatever they want on the organisation’s account that they tweet and publish their thoughts and philosophies about life, politics and religion.
Alternatively (God forbid), they become disgruntled about the organisation and use its social media channels to vent their frustration through endless ranting in their tweets and posts.
The intern finally gets another job elsewhere and leaves or gets fired! Off they go! Together with all the login details to the various social media channels!
By the time the organisation realises it, the damage has done a lot to the brand. Then they have to start all over again, or worse, they forget about social media.
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How the Boss Can Do Social Media Marketing Right.
Other organisations who think they are ‘smart’ and don’t want to fall prey to the above scenario decide that “the boss” should handle its social media marketing. However, guess what?
The boss already has several things on his plate to handle. He has different business areas to think about and does not bother spending his valuable time ‘playing on social media’.
Then some organisations value social media as a tool to grow their business. They hire a professional and competent social media manager.
How Do I Start a Social Media Marketing for My Small Business?
Start by defining your social media goals. What do you want to achieve for your brand through social media marketing? Your candid answer will determine how you use social media marketing for your business. If you haven’t already, you’ll need to take the first step in creating your social strategy for businesses. Create a profile for your small business on each relevant social media platform your potential customer uses. Then, leverage these platforms by sharing customised content for your ideal customer. Post content with consistency. You should have the ability to manage several social media.
How a Social Media Agency Can Do Social Media Marketing Right.
Some organisations outsource their social media marketing to a professional social media agency. They realise that a professional agency will have all the skills and tools to handle social media marketing.
An agency can help you map out strategies for incorporating social media into your marketing mix. An agency can show you how to use social media to achieve your brand’s mission and vision.
Also, a professional agency will be fit to help you calculate your return on investment regarding social media marketing and how it affects your organisation’s bottom line.
These are the organisations that succeed in their social media marketing. These are the companies that do social media right.
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What Is the Role of Social Media Marketing Agency?
Social media marketing agencies work with clients to align social media marketing strategies with business goals and overall marketing strategy. They help identify the best channels for clients to reach their target markets. Most day-to-day activities within a social media marketing agency focus on creating and organising content.
A social media agency uses paid advertising or organic content production on various social media platforms to achieve its client’s social media goal. A social media marketing agency ensures that your popularity across social networks is built on a solid foundation. They help you monitor your engagement rate and other social media activity to find ways to improve.
Closing Thoughts
In conclusion, social media marketing is one of the most powerful tools today for businesses to grow their customer base and increase brand awareness.
At Mauco Enterprises, some clients have outsourced social media marketing to us for several years.
They are still using social media to reach their target market properly. Social media is still having a positive impact on their brand and organisation.
Are you interested in outsourcing your digital marketing or social media marketing to Mauco Enterprises? Contact us to get started.
Related Article(s)
- How to Be Successful at Social Media Marketing
- Understanding Social Media Marketing
- 3 Ways to Use Social Media for Your Business
- The Simple Management of Social Media that Wins Customers
- How to Grow Brand Awareness on Snapchat
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