As we all know, social media marketing has been a complete game-changer for the world of marketing, creating more opportunities and avenues to reach your audience more effectively and efficiently. Across multiple platforms, social media welcomes new business-orientated features daily. If you are yet to jump on the social media bandwagon for your business, it’s not too late! Here is our ultimate guide to social media marketing to help you to discover the power of social media for your business.
What is social media marketing?
Let’s start with the basics – what is social media marketing? Social media marketing (SMM) is the use of social media websites and social networks to market a company’s products and services. Currently, the most popular platforms are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tik Tok, Snapchat and YouTube. However, if you’re starting from scratch, begin with one or two platforms first. Before starting, it is interesting to know which platforms have the most users and are the most popular. Ranked 1 and 2 are Facebook and YouTube. Facebook have 2.74 billion active users and YouTube have 2.291 billion active users – crazy right? There is more to consider than user numbers, as different platforms often reflect different types of business. For example, LinkedIn is known to be a very professional platform for like-minded people to share their experiences and achievements within the business world. Snapchat, however, is a more casual, fun and creative platform.
Why should you practice social media marketing?
There are many benefits that stem from social media accounts. Some are easily recognisable, whereas others are not. An example of an unrecognisable benefit to social media is brand awareness.
Brand awareness:
Put simply, brand awareness refers to who knows about your brand. This can be measured by likes, reach and impressions. However, social media accounts can start real-life conversations, further strengthening and increasing brand awareness.
Inbound traffic:
Social media is the perfect place to expand your business to a larger audience. If you are a small business, you can reach people from potentially all over the world with one Instagram post. Actively using a social media account can welcome more business, more sales or more store visits. Using features such as hashtags and location stamps can attract tourists, allowing your business to be a “must visit” destination.
Increased customer satisfaction whilst creating a loyal community:
Social media is essentially a networking and communication platform, therefore using it for its main purpose can lead to a greater connection with current and potential consumers. Social media accounts allow you to create a voice for your business and also a place to welcome engagement. Every social interaction should be carefully considered to ensure you’re reflecting your businesses values and beliefs. Don’t let this fear stray you away from consistently interacting with your audience. Forming relationships with your consumers is an effective way to achieve brand loyalty.
Creating a social media toolkit:
There are many platforms being created, aimed to support social media sites. Many of these can allow you to be more thorough, precise, and efficient with your social media presence. Some of our favourites include Content Cal, Later, Facebook Business Suite and Veed. All of the sites can elevate your social media and ensure you are using your accounts optimally. We have summarised all these platforms and their features in one of our recent blogs, click here to read!
Strategy and Planning:
Setting up social media accounts is not a set and forget task. Rather, it’s a constant work in progress. To ensure your accounts thrive, planning and setting goals are extremely important to consistently welcome improvement and growth.
Understanding your audiences wants and needs is a great start. This notion will evolve as your audience expands, so revisiting this often is important. Some great ways to learn more about your audience surrounds asking questions, seeking feedback and general trial and error.
As part of this, defining your target market before posting is key to ensuring you’re reflecting who your audience is in your content. Ask yourself, who would like this content? What are their interests? What type of content appeals to them the most?
During the initial stages of creating your accounts, setting SMART goals is an effective way to monitor your progress. If you are unfamiliar with this goal-setting technique, click here to learn more.
Another part of your strategy should surround your competitors. As social media is a very public space, there is nothing stopping you from checking out their accounts! Learning more about other approaches to social media from businesses in your field is a simple way to learn. Just remember – no copying!
Reflecting:
One of the best ways to achieve social growth and overall improvement is to learn from your past successes and failures. Taking the time to reflect on what works and what doesn’t for your audience is a simple, effective task. This can be as simple as looking back at your posts and taking note of posts that got the most likes, comments, and interactions. Additionally,
there are many different functions that vary from platform to platform, each of which provides insights and analytics regarding your uploaded content. Often, you can monitor your growth for a specific period, enabling you to measure month to month or even over 12 months. We understand that schedules can become very busy, however, planning a time to go over your socials will ensure your time is being spent optimally.
After establishing a routine and plan, social media can be extremely rewarding and can be very simple. Remember the basics, such as being true to your business when interacting, being consistent and trialling new ideas. If you have your social media established but it isn’t achieving growth, click here to read our tips to elevate your socials even further.
Not sure where to start or need further assistance? We can help! Click here to learn more about the social media services we offer at Oraco or send us an email.
