Online marketing is a great way to promote your small business, but how? The internet has made it easier than ever to reach new customers. The trouble is knowing which strategies work best and how to put them into action. In this guide, we review What Are The Best Strategies For Social Media Marketing and identify the tips that will help you get started.
In this guide, we review What Are The Best Strategies For Social Media Marketing, what should be in a social media strategy, What are the 4 C’s of Social Marketing, and social media marketing strategy for small business.
What Are The Best Strategies For Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is more than just a buzzword, it’s a powerful tool that can be used to grow your business. If you’re ready to start using social media in your marketing strategy but have no idea where to start, read on! Our team at Blueberry Digital has put together this helpful guide on the best strategies for social media marketing. We’ll go over everything from creating engaging content and prioritizing visuals all the way through hashtags and brand voice.
Create Engaging Content
When you’re creating content for social media, it’s important to keep your audience in mind. The more relevant your content is to the people who follow you, the better.
The next step is to make sure that it’s interesting and engaging. People want to be entertained and they want useful information, so give them both!
If possible, also use images or videos instead of text-based posts as this can make things more visually appealing. Finally, don’t forget hashtags—they help increase visibility on social media channels and get users interested in exploring related topics.
Prioritize Visuals
A picture is worth a thousand words. If you’re not using visuals to help tell your story, you’re missing out. This can be as simple as using images to break up text and capture attention, or it could mean strategically using them for branding purposes.
- Images help tell your story
Visuals are the best way to engage people on social media because they’re easy to understand and digest in a short amount of time. A picture is worth 1,000 words! They also allow readers who may not have access to all the information (like everyone with an Instagram account) follow along with our content without having an extensive back-story knowledge base on each topic we cover at Buffer.
- Use visual assets that work well together across platforms
When planning out your social media strategy, remember that there’s no need for every post or piece of content to look different from one another—that would just confuse people! Make sure you’re choosing images that work well in various formats: Facebook posts should be square; Twitter photos should be wide; Pinterest boards should use vertical images; Instagram posts can include both portrait and landscape imagery/videos if necessary… You get the idea!
Use Your Brand Voice
As you plan your social media marketing strategy, it’s important to remember that your brand voice is the tone of your brand. It’s not just what you say but how you say it. Your brand voice should come through in everything from tweets and Facebook posts to email newsletters and blog posts. This consistency helps build trust with current customers and attracts new ones by making them feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves.
To figure out what your brand voice is, ask yourself these questions:
- What does my company stand for? (You might be surprised!)
- Why do people love us?
- What does our customer service team sound like when answering customer calls?
Be Active On Multiple Platforms
When it comes to social media marketing, there’s a lot of talk about “platforms”. But what does this mean? Well, if you’re a small business owner or just someone who wants to start using social media for your own purposes (and let’s face it—everyone should be using social media), then the most important thing is to get active on multiple platforms.
Here are some examples of different types of platforms:
- Facebook;
- Twitter;
- LinkedIn; and
- Instagram.
Don’t Underestimate Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to categorize your content and make it easier for people who are interested in similar topics to find you. They also help your post reach a wider audience by boosting the visibility of your Instagram posts.
Hashtags can be used to build community around specific interests or events, such as #GirlBoss or #RunDisney. You can even use hashtags as an opportunity to show off your knowledge by adding them purposefully into posts related to a topic that isn’t already covered by an existing hashtag (but do remember that this can get spammy).
When choosing hashtags for your business, keep two things in mind: 1) the quality of the content must match up with the quality of its production; 2) people want something more than just another picture from their favorite brand—they want genuine connection and authenticity from those brands they follow
Creating a social media presence for your business can be daunting, but armed with the right strategy and tips, you can successfully utilize it to your advantage.
Social media has become an integral part of business today. It’s the most effective way to reach your customers, and it can be used to build relationships with them that will increase brand loyalty and customer retention. Social media is also a great way to promote your business, especially if you’re willing to take advantage of its many features such as:
- Content creation (videos)
- Community engagement (contests)
- Customer service (answering questions)
what should be in a social media strategy
Every brand and business needs a custom social media strategy based on their current social media standing, goals, and resources available to them.
And while everything in social media tends to hinge on a bunch of independent factors, there are some universal, core building blocks which you need to have in place to ensure that your business gets the most out of its social media initiatives.
In this post, I’ll review eight elements behind every successful social media strategy – and why they’re so important.
1. Social Media Audits
A great social media strategy is built on big-picture mentality – beyond thinking about what you want each individual post to do, you need to look at the overall state of your social media presence before you can move forward.
Make a habit of conducting regular social media audits on your channels. A self-audit can help you catch inconsistencies, learn more about what campaigns worked (or not), review benchmarks, and maybe even set new goals, enabling you to consistently improve your social media strategy.
2. Clear Goals
Defining clear goals before you begin any campaign or building a strategy can help you keep track of progress, and identify points at which you may need to ramp up efforts.
Focusing on clear goals will give you and your team direction on where to concentrate your energy, and it’s key to have a defined focus to unite your overall efforts.
3. Clear Understanding of the Brand’s Audience
Getting to know your audience in the most in-depth way possible is also essential to creating social media content which truly resonates with your potential followers and customers.
Ask your audience what their pain points are, find out what publications they read, and where they hang out, how much they make. The more you know, and the clearer the picture of your target audience, the better.
Figuring out these details will help you come up with ways to connect with and build a more engaged community.
4. The Right Platforms
Here, I’m referring to the right social media network(s) for your business, and becoming well versed in how those platforms work.
You should also know that just because a network is popular, that doesn’t mean it’ll be a good fit for your target audience, or your internal capabilities.
5. A Content Bank and Social Media Schedule
At the core of every successful social media strategy is a solid plan and editorial calendar.
Knowing what tasks and important dates are coming up will help keep your team on the same page, and give you the freedom to spend more time engaging with your audience, conducting social listening or taking advantage of spontaneous opportunities to push your initiative.
Your schedule should be based on supporting your social media objectives, and any offline marketing efforts as well. If you need help, here are some tips on creating an effective social media marketing schedule.
Creating a content bank is the second part of having a social media strategy and schedule set in place – an organized content bank will help you keep inventory of older content you can repurpose when you find content gaps.
6. Social Tools
Without tools, all us social media marketers would be going nuts.
Effective social media strategies are built on using a mix of automation and timely engagement.
Tools can also refer to network specific tools (like Instagram Stories, Facebook Live etc.) which you can integrate to increase your growth on each social media channel.
7. Analysis and Measurement
Every social media strategy should include the measurement and analysis of your efforts.
Not every part of your strategy will be a winner, but analyzing and measuring will enable you to stop doing what’s not working – and to double-down on the parts that are producing results.
8. Time for Engagement
We’re at a point in social media where engagement with your audience has become a key element in growing your network.
With so many accounts, posts, and messages being thrown at us every day, we have to make the extra effort to truly become part of the community and put the social into social media.
A good social media strategy will always include time for interacting, asking questions and connecting with the people we’re trying to reach. Also, algorithms take into account your level of interaction when showing your posts to your audience.
The social media landscape is always changing, but sticking to the core tactics that work will continue to deliver results. I hope this collection of tips give you a good base, and clarity to get started.