Even though its advent was relatively recent, social media has only continued to experience a vast increase in popularity since it first debuted. With this spread in social media platforms, unsurprisingly, there has also been a rise in social media marketing. More and more, companies are realising that they can take advantage of the types of advertising opportunities available through social media platforms like Facebook and Pinterest.
If you are debating whether or not your own business or company should jump on the social media bandwagon, it is important to learn about some basic social media marketing tips. With the help of the five tips in this guide, you will be able to learn more about what social media marketing really is, how it works, and why it is worth pursuing. Finally, you will also get some ideas for how you can upgrade your own company’s digital marketing strategy to keep your advertising techniques current and make sure you are in a good position to compete with the increasing number of social media savvy businesses. Read on for helpful social media marketing tips to make sure your business stays ahead of the curve!
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Assess the Selection of Social Media Options
One of the first mistakes that many people make stems from basic unfamiliarity with the diverse range of social media outlets that exist now a days. Most people have at least heard of Twitter and Facebook, but if you do not even know what other options exist for social media marketing, it’s going to be very hard to evaluate which platform is best for your purposes.
As a result, the first step to choosing one or more appropriate social media platform(s) for your own digital marketing strategy is to take a brief moment to consider the sheer scope of available possibilities. I have included a basic list here of some of the most popular and prominent social media platforms. While this list is by no means an exhaustive one, it should at least give you an idea of what types of sites you might want to consider for your own social media marketing plans. Each site name has a link to the homepage of the platform so you can check each one out for yourself to learn more.
This is only a small sample of some of the most popular among the many different social media platforms out there. The range of social media also includes everything from podcasts to Google+ to LinkedIn to personal and professional blogs. Keep in mind that every different platform has its own distinctive advantages and disadvantages, including categories such as the site’s level of popularity, web traffic, ease and convenience of building a marketing campaign on a given platform, and much more. Ask yourself what the highest priorities are for your own business and this will help you choose the platform that is right for your company.
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Incorporate Hashtags
Even if you are brand new to social media, you have probably noticed how much the use of hashtags dominates the Internet these days. If you have heard the term but still aren’t entirely sure why hashtags are used, the brief version is that they are a social media tool that was primarily popularised by Twitter and has now become increasingly popular as a way to tag content. Hashtags sometimes but not always, include links to specific sites. Twitter is still probably the best known place for hashtag use, but the phenomenon has spread all over the web. In the process, it has also become a useful marketing tool.
Not convinced of the usefulness of hashtags for advertising? This may help change your mind: the majority of the top brands from around the world have adopted hashtags in their social media posts by now. Hashtags that include a link help encourage engagement among consumers in multiple ways. Some examples are piquing interest, attracting attention, building consumer familiarity with brand names and ramping up views on various social media sites. Some companies have also used hashtags to start conversations or dialogues, share customer stories, and solidify support from the public. In short, there are a lot of potential ways for your business to improve its social media marketing with the help of hashtags.
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Publish Consistent Updates
In addition to helping you expand interest and engagement among potential customers, social media marketing can also be a great way to notify the consumer audience of any new developments in your business. Many companies use their social media posts to spread the word about big sales or promotions, in store events, online deals, etc.
The crux of this social media marketing tip however, is not just that companies should use social media to publish updates, but that companies should use social media to publish consistent updates. If your company only writes a Facebook post to promote events once in a blue moon you aren’t going to have many followers, and even customers who might be interested in following your pages will lose interest if there is never anything new posted.
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Publish Exciting Updates
Going along with tip #3, you also want to make sure that your content stays fresh. While tip #3 advises you to publish consistent updates, this does not mean you should inundate your readers with a barrage of constant posts. You need to find the right balance between offering content to maintain interest without overwhelming users and driving them away.
One of the keys is to develop content that is as original and innovative as possible. There are a lot of companies and brands for customers to peruse on the Internet, so if your social media content is the same as everyone else’s, you are not going to attract much traffic or interest. The more innovative and exciting your content, the more likely you will be able to mobilise interest from your audience.
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Use Ads on Social Media to Draw Traffic to your Website
In addition to providing opportunities for companies to draw viewers to their social media posts, another significant purpose for social media marketing can be to bring visitors to your own company website. It can be a difficult process to get a user to actually visit your website, but with the help of social media marketing, you can target potential viewers by taking steps like encouraging users to “Like” your Facebook page so that your business will pop up in their own stream.
Along the same lines, you can also track your social media marketing campaigns to keep a record of your results. Tracking your ads allows you to observe which advertising tactics are the most effective in helping to draw users to your website. There are a lot of different tools out there to help you manage the results of your social media ads, so you need to do your research to choose the proper venue. Here are just a few ideas to help get you started with choosing a social media management application:
- Facebook Insights
- Hootsuite
- TweetReach
- Pinterest Analytics
- Bitly
- Sprout Social
Of course there are many, many more tricks and techniques that go into social media marketing. The 5 tips listed here are meant to serve as an overview to help you jump start your social media marketing campaign. If you follow the tips listed above you will be on the right track to put together an effective social media advertising strategy to help increase your audience’s interest in your brand.
Vivere Marketing can offer further advice on your social media platforms, we’ve managed many local business and larger businesses such as Pet House. Contact us today for a free quote.
