Social media is a rapidly growing hub of communication that provides great opportunities for a business to utilize.
This means there’s a large number of potential customers that you have the chance to tap into!
As our society becomes increasingly digital, it’s critical to stay on top of social media trends.
However, using social media marketing to promote your business isn’t as simple as creating accounts and hoping for the best.
It’s important to remain methodical and conscientious with your work to maximize the benefits of social media!
This guide highlights five crucial steps to optimize your social media use in promoting your business.
1. Set Marketing Goals
Before making multiple social media accounts and posting all sorts of content, you need to make some goals for yourself.
Ask yourself why you want to utilize social media.
Once you know what you want out of your social media marketing, you’ll have a better understanding of how to take advantage of this medium.
The best way to craft goals is according to the SMART goal method, which means making your goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
General, abstract goals like “grow a larger audience” are ultimately too basic and not helpful.
A SMART goal, on the other hand, like “gain 1,000 followers across all social media accounts in three months” pushes you to strive for something specific.
When you develop SMART marketing goals you set yourself up for future success and give yourself a chance to actually see your progress!
2. Take Advantage Of All Social Media Platforms
While it may seem easier to establish a social media presence on only one platform, this can seriously hurt your business.
Nowadays most people have social media accounts across multiple platforms.
Therefore, if you want to establish familiarity between your brand and your customers, you’ll want to appear on all of the platforms your customers use.
However, take advantage of the social media platforms that apply to your target audience and business.
This means doing a bit of research to see where your target audience spends the most time.
If you’re eager to start promoting your business on social media right away, three great platforms to start with are Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
However, limiting yourself to only these popular platforms may also hinder your success since there will be lots of competition fighting for consumers’ attention.
Make sure to still do research to find the social media platforms that will best serve your particular needs!
3. Post Quality Content Regularly
Once you’ve determined your marketing goals and what platforms you want to establish a presence on, it’s time to start posting content!
Two things you want to focus on are quality and consistency.
Quality
First, you want to make sure that you’re posting quality content that informs people about your business and the products/services you provide.
You can post about promotions, flash sales, new product releases, and if you have a related blog, you can share your blog posts too!
Another great type of content to use is user-generated content (UGC), which is promotional content produced by your audience.
UGC has a large impact on consumers and not only provides you with content but also exposes your business to new customers too!
One way you can encourage UGC is by hosting a contest where people post a picture of themselves with your product to enter. That way you’re engaging your audience and getting (essentially) free advertisement!
Consistency
Second, you need to regularly post content!
There are plenty of online tools such as SmarterQueue, Planoly, and Tailwind that allow you to automate your posts.
They can help you stay organized and on top of all your social media.
While you want to regularly produce content, you don’t want to overload your audience either.
If you find that you want to post multiple times throughout the day then use platforms that support temporary content, such as Snapchat or Instagram stories.
With this type of content, you can provide your viewers with a “behind-the-scenes” look at the daily tasks of your business without overloading their timelines.
Make sure to craft your content carefully so that it accurately portrays the image you want your brand to have!
4. Grow Your Network
As your presence on social media expands, you should aim to grow your network as well.
One of the best ways is to develop relationships with micro-influencers who typically have stellar engagement rates and help your brand’s authenticity and credibility.
When you work with micro-influencers, you expose your business to their unique audiences.
Since micro-influencers tend to have increased engagement rates, the likelihood of their viewers seeing and interacting with the post about your product is much greater than macro-influencers or celebrities.
Additionally, micro-influencers tend to charge less for a post. That means you won’t have to break the bank to get genuine, quality promotions.
5. Review & Revise
Once you’ve put everything in motion, you want to evaluate the effectiveness of the different strategies you implement.
It’s critical to periodically check your progress on social media to determine what’s working and what’s not.
This review should inform your future actions and give you an idea of how on track you are towards achieving your marketing goals.
Two great resources to help you start the reviewing process include BuzzSumo and Google Analytics.
Once you’ve completed your review, use that information to revise or refine your marketing goals and strategies.
You’re limiting yourself if you don’t use social media to promote your business, so make sure to take advantage of this unique medium to reach your business’s full potential!
Additional articles you might be interested in:
- How To Get Started With Social Media: A Guide For Startups
- How To Get People To Notice Your Digital Content
- 5 Innovative Techniques That Will Captivate Potential Buyer’s Attention
- How To Discover And Engage Your Target Audience
- How To Create A Killer Content Marketing Strategy
- 6 Reasons Why Digital Marketing Is Essential For Startups
- How To Pick The Right Influencers To Market Your Products
- How To Use Digital Marketing To Promote And Transform Your Business
- 22 Social Media Marketing Tips For Beginners
- How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur
- How To Choose The Right Social Media Platform For Your Business
Sarai Lopez is a senior at Wheaton College (IL) studying Spanish and Communications with a focus in rhetoric & culture. She loves learning, sharing her knowledge, eating just about any sort of chocolate dessert, and listening to all genres of music. One day she hopes to create a children’s animated series as well as open her very own bakery.
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