Social Media has now made its way into most organizations’ integrated marketing plans considering the benefits it has to offer derived from significantly lower investment thrust into Social Media campaigns.
Social Media is now mainstream and benefits small business most effectively; providing them with huge traffic and higher leads compared to traditional marketing. As anywhere, the results are not effective immediately but once your business begins to take off, the viral structure of social media works its magic all the way. Of course; you constantly have to fuel it with extremely high quality content, engagement strategies and timely responses.
This noisy, cluttered market has room for everyone but only the ones with the hunger to expand their territory survive. What is it that can set you apart? Can small businesses get the exposure while competing with their multinational counterparts?
We decipher some meaningful strategies of Social Media Marketing that, led by your brand experience, will present you with an unparalleled opportunity to connect directly with your customers.
- Set Goals: Setting goals for your business is of utmost importance. Social Media adopts the Target and Measure approach. Setting goals helps you target the right audience, set aside investments and direct the right amount of efforts in achieving the desired results.
- Be active and connected: Remain connected! You cannot expect to register your business on a Social Media site and expect it to garner followers automatically while you remain away for a month or two. That is not how it works. Being constantly available and active is the unsaid, golden rule. Update your account regularly, feed your followers constantly with your products and services. You never know what might interest them.
- Switch to being human: Social Media needs you to be human to be famously social. No one likes to be inundated with mundane corporate updates represented by a logo or a brand. Hire someone (human) to do all the talking. Yes, you have to be professional but knowing that there is a human on the other side is more comforting than some automatically triggered messages. Share your experience, expertise, set up a social customer service channel, respond to grievances and empathize with the users- just as another human would.
- Avoid hard-selling: Yes, you are here to do business and, for that, you need to sell. Don’t oversell! Try masking your messages subtly with your products or services, not every post should be about selling, not every response should have to be about trying your product. Listen and advise, customers like businesses who will help relentlessly to assist customers with the right product even if means not selling their own products. Remember- User engagement is the key!
- Monitor and Measure: Most Social Media platforms offer some amazing insights into your business pages. Use them to your advantage! Monitor statistics regularly, this will help you know what is working. Be patient, it takes time to click but if you think a strategy is not working, drop it. There is no rulebook to guide you precisely on the rights and wrongs; sometimes it’s about experimenting but with a measured approach.
Although, it is a little late to join the Social Media bandwagon, Social Media is growing monstrously with new channels opening up to invade every nook and cranny of our social life.
Remember! The key to success for any Social Media Marketing is to see yourself as a customer receiving those posts and not as the Social Media Marketer- On any social media channel, Corporate feeds spread and resonate much widely ‘coz they come from a trusted friend or family as opposed to coming directly from a marketing company or a brand!
Article written by: Jennifer L Blair