When you are running your own business, it is not enough to simply be on social media.
You need to be able to use social media effectively to further your brand and build your audience.
In essence, your social media marketing strategy should be a guide to plan your goals, prepare your content, and make your life easier.
In today’s society, when every man and their dog (literally!), are on social media It has become more important than ever to stand out.
There are millions of accounts brands and businesses online, so you need an effective marketing strategy to stand out from the crowd.
Claim Your Mountain Top
Right now social media marketing is the best way to improve your brand awareness.
Broad brand awareness leads to brand recognition and brand loyalty.
But before you can achieve them you need to start with brand awareness.
Your audience needs to know you exist.
Your audience needs to know what you offer.
Your audience needs to know what you stand for.
Your audience needs to understand you as a person.
This is why, to begin with, social media marketing is a fantastic way of put yourself out there.
A social media strategy will help you outline exactly what you want from your accounts.
A solid strategy will help you plan exactly what content you need to create, how your audience will see you, and the goals you have for your productive growth.
Remember the Marketing Basics
There are three Ms in all marketing, they are:
1) Market – who you are trying to reach.
2) Medium – how you will reach your market.
3) Message – what you want to communicate.
For marketing to be successful you need to put a clear message in front of the right people.
Social media is one of many possible mediums you can use to communicate your message to your market.
The big advantage of social media is that it is very low cost – sometimes even free.
By taking elements of traditional marketing, and implementing them on social media you will be able to reach and build your audience.
Once you have identified your market, and refined your message, social media is the medium you will use to reach them.
Making sales, getting click-throughs, or whatever your goal is, are all tangible outcomes of social media marketing.
They are objectives that you can measure and see if your marketing is working. .
You can quickly see how well you are connecting with your audience.
Don’t Just Broadcast
Always, always, ALWAYS, respond to any comments your audience makes on your social media posts.
Your audience will see you are a real person and available to take part in the conversation.
Take time to answer questions, and keep adding value in the comments.
Show that you can help your audience by actually helping them.
When you show-up in the comments on the regular, your audience will begin to know, like and trust you.
They will see you as someone who understands their problems and can genuinely help them.
Analytics Measure Strategy Success
When your social media marketing is working well, it shows your value as a brand.
It is a quantitative result of how valuable your brand is.
Checking your analytics will also help you gauge how satisfied your customers and your audience is with the content you provide.
By analysing your data, you will be able to tell if your audience are interacting.
Analytics provide you with instant feedback to know if your content is resonating with your audience.
As you see what is working, and what is not, you can update your social media marketing strategy.
In simple terms, do more of what is working, and stop doing what is not.
Each adjustment to your strategy will get you closer towards your goals.
In conclusion, social media marketing is a very efficient and effective way to reach your ideal customers.
Without a good quality social media marketing strategy your brand will struggle to achieve success.
