Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a form of marketing strategy that uses the various social media platforms to achieve marketing, communication and branding goals. It can help elevate your audience and customer base by strategically positioning yourself as a thought leader in a given field.
Why Should You Adopt The Use of Social Media?
Recent years has seen an increase in the use of social media by both big and small businesses to market and expand their brands. It is so because:
- Social media plays a significant role into the discovery of content that is new
- Social connections within the mainstream search engine or social media network can impact the relevancy of some search results
- It also helps builds links that support a business’ Search Engine Optimization efforts
Before you dive into using the social media as a marketing tool, you need to have a plan that aligns with your business goals. Only then will you be able to measure your Social Media Return On Investment (ROI). These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself, as a brand:
- What is it that you hope to achieve using this form of marketing?
- Who is the audience that you target and how do they use social media?
- What message do you want to send using this strategy?
SMM Fundamentals
The use of Social Media Marketing is about strategizing. It isn’t just about creating any content any posting it online. By having a plan and set goals, you will be able to create successful social media campaigns.
The following tips will help you build a foundation that will serve, your customers, brand, and business. They include:
1. Create a Variety of Content
Adopt the use of visual content to act as a gateway to more valuable content. Before you settle on which visual content to use, ask yourself how that content will drive traffic back to your website, services or products.
Incorporate the visual content with backlinks to your site. Convert snippets of an existing article into an image. Use of images will you leverage the social media platforms that are successful in using imagery as a means of communication e.g. Pinterest, IG, FB, etc.
You can also incorporate your content with quality infographics or videos to complement the content.
2. Add Value to Your Conversations
If you happen to find valuable content from a source other than yours that may intrigue your target audience, don’t shy away from linking it to your content. People stop listening to you if all your content is all about you.
You can add value to your content by developing relationships with online influencers and creating curated content. Share and talk about the content of others, once in a while.
3. Deliver Content Consistently
You need to be consistent in publishing content. Keep your posts relevant to your target audience, entertaining and at the same time valuable. If you disappear for a while, followers tend to replace you in a jiffy.
Be available to your audience by engaging with them on social media, consistently. Each social media platform is unique, and you need to keep your image consistent across all platforms.
4. The Significance of Listening
The success of a social media marketing strategy relies on the art of listening. Get to know what is relevant to your target audience by going through their content online. Join in their conversations.
Keep track of your competitors. What SMM techniques are they using, that seems to be working? Apply the same method but do it better. Competitors can give you insight on social media marketing.
5. Measure Your Success using analytics
Tracking data helps you determine the success of the strategy that you have adopted. The results of the analysis will help you know which strategies are working for you and which aren’t.
You can also add tracking tags to your SMM campaigns for monitoring.
Use of Social Media Marketing plays a vital role in expanding your reach as a business and positioning you as a thought leader. Go ahead, use it and do it right.
