Social media plays a large role in digital marketing today. According to HubSpot, over 53% of people all over the world are using social media. If over half of the population is using social media, why not get to where the people are? Here are some ideas on how you can social media market.

 

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is a form of online marketing that involves using social media to grow your business and achieve your goals. This is done by sharing content on different social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

 

Set Goals

When setting a goal for your social media campaign, you should create something that can measure your success and your return on investment. These goals should be trackable using things like click-through rate and conversion rate. Each of your goals should follow the SMART guidelines: 

• Specific

• Measurable

• Attainable

• Relevant

• Timely

 

A good example of a goal would be: our business will use Facebook and Instagram to grow our leads on our page by 25% in the next six months.

 

Identify Your Target Market

To set up your marketing strategy, you’ll need to figure out your target market and where those people are on social media. Ask yourself questions like: 

• How old are they?

• Where do they live?

• What are their interests?

• What problem are they trying to solve?

• Where/how do they communicate?

 

What to Post?

Then you need to figure out what form of content to post. You can use things like images, videos, and links to help inform your viewers. You are also able to decide if you want to create educational or entertaining content.

 

Do Research

Once you know who your customers are, do research on where those people use social media and where they like to communicate. For example, Facebook and Instagram are most used by people who are aged 25-34, while Twitter is used more by people aged 30-49.

 

Research Your Competition

In addition to doing research on your customer base, you also need to do research on your competitors. Look at what the other companies in your field are doing with their social accounts. Look for things like: 

• What are they focusing on?

• Who are they targeting?

• What keywords are they using?

 

If you find that your competitors aren’t using some sites that might be helpful to you, create accounts on those sites. You might be able to gain a lot of clients that are being missed by them.

 

Social Listening

As said by Sproutsocial, “social listening refers to analyzing the conversations and trends happening not just around your brand, but around your industry as a whole”. There are a few different ways to practice social listening.

 

Track Keywords

Using sites like BuzzSumo and SEMrush, you are able to track your keywords and keywords that might be important for your industry. Tracking your keywords is important because you can use it to monitor your competitors, increase your visibility, identify new keywords that might be helpful for your business, and troubleshoot any issues you may be having.

 

Engage with Customers

When using social listening, you are able to respond to your customers where they are posting and commenting the most. You are able to respond to a customer who leaves a positive review about your company, thanking them for their business and letting them know how important they are to your company. If a customer leaves a negative review about an issue or problem, you are able to see it in real-time and solve their problem much faster than you may have been able to.

 

Identify Your Influencers

Influencers are people who are well known and well trusted that have a social following. These people are viewed as an expert in their field. By them showing that they trust your business, it will build trust in your own company. Connecting with influencers may bring you a new opportunity to create a marketing strategy with them as a promoter for your business.

 

Do a Social Media Audit

A social media audit looks at your social accounts to figure out what is and isn’t working for your company. You are able to look and see if there are any other accounts pretending to be you, find anything that may be outdated, and if there are any new opportunities you might be missing out on. These should be done often so you can have the best working campaign possible.

 

Find All of Your Accounts

Take a look at your current accounts as well as any accounts that might be connected that you aren’t using anymore. Any that you aren’t using anymore you can get rid of to clear any confusion for your customers and get rid of any old and outdated information. If your company has many different departments, they may be using different social sites that you may not be aware of, and doing this audit helps you find them so you can use them to your advantage. You are able to find your accounts by searching for your company in Google and seeing what pops up. You can also go on each social network and search for your business directly.

 

Define Goals for Each Network

It is best to set a goal for each social so that you don’t become overwhelmed. This can be something like increasing your brand awareness, gaining more leads, increasing your engagement with the community, or increasing the traffic to your website. These goals will help you to stay on track and focus on what it is you are really wanting to do.

 

Make Sure It’s Consistent

Ask yourself these questions when wondering if your socials are consistent: 

• Are the accounts consistent with your current brand?

• Do your profile and cover images match on all accounts?

• Do they reflect your current business image?

• Are your links done correctly?

• Do you have any links to your website?

• Is the message you’re trying to convey coming across the way you want it to?

 

Take some time to set up each account so they are similar and on-brand with what you are trying to accomplish.

 

Improve Your Accounts

Once you find all of your accounts you are able to improve upon them and choose what works best for you. Find the networks that are working best and focus on those. You may even want to create a mission statement for each network you choose.

 

When you have chosen the accounts you are going to use, ask yourself: 

• Is everything filled out?

• Is the information correct?

• Are the keywords used on the site the ones that you are trying to focus on?

• Are your logos, images, and overall brand consistent with your current image?

 

Not sold on social media?

These things and many more can help you grow your social media presence and help you to grow your company. Social media is such an essential part of today’s marketing world that it is incredibly beneficial to set up your social accounts. Still not sure? Check out these great social media stats you’ll want to know.

Does this all seem too overwhelming? Contact Small Hits to see how we can help you with your social media presence and get your company to go big.