Nine in ten marketers say that using social media has helped them to increase the visibility of their business.
A recent study showed that 66% of marketers who spend at least 6 hours per week on social media see more leads. No matter what product you are selling or who your target market is, using social media as a marketing tool can help you to expand your brand and make more money.
The Importance of Social Media Marketing and Advertising for Web Traffic
Social media posts drive targeted traffic.
If you are in any industry, a large number of your customers and leads can be found on social media. Nearly seven-in-ten American adults use Facebook, according to a recent study from the Pew Research Center. 2018 data shows that the majority of 18 to 24-year-olds use Instagram, with 78% being active users. Twitter is the second most popular social media platform among this age group, with 45% of 18 to 24-year-olds being active users. Even seniors are Facebooking and Tweeting these days: 37% of those aged 65 and up are now social media users.
Using social media for business boosts your site’s SEO.
The crawlers can tell which pages are getting a lot of traffic and which ones are being ignored. The most important factor in your search rankings is your killer content strategy, but driving traffic to your optimized pages will make them climb much faster.
Social media can increase your reach via quoted experts.
One of the best things about social media marketing is that you can connect with customers and create relationships. If you used HARO to find experts for your latest blog post, you would be able to find relevant experts who could help contribute to your post. If you quoted someone who is popular on social media, they may have a lot of influence. Make sure to email your friends a link to the post once it goes live, and encourage them to share it on their own social media channels.
The Right Social Media Marketing Strategy Can Help You Slay the Competition
The social media marketing arena is a (fairly) level playing field.
You can create a social media account at no cost, and most small and medium businesses can set aside either the time or resources to manage a social media channel or outsource social media marketing.
Big brands have some distinct advantages over smaller brands, including greater name recognition, larger budgets for creating high-quality content across multiple channels, and more influencers who are interested in promoting their products.
When it comes to newsjacking, social media is king.
In today’s culture, it can be difficult to tell when fate will provide a great opportunity for your brand. Some times when your brand is mentioned on a cable tv show or tweeted about by an influencer it can help your brand. Sometimes there is a news story, meme, or pop-culture event that is perfect for your brand.
If you can post engaging content while people are paying attention, it can lead to your content being shared virally, increased website traffic, press coverage, and greater visibility for your brand. This strategy of creating content based on current events, known as newsjacking, is most successful when you share your ideas while the events are still unfolding. If you join the trend too late, you will look like another company that is just trying to follow the trend.
Here are 10 reasons why you need a social media strategy:
1. A commercial context is missing
A tactical approach to social media marketing can result in a disconnect with the company’s commercial goals. Measuring social media activity is difficult if you focus solely on the individual tactics employed within social media, as this fails to take into account how those tactics fit into the wider context of the other social media activity and marketing strategies being used.
The goals of a commercial enterprise should be set with an understanding of how social media can contribute to those goals. The process of analytics should be put in place in order to keep track of how well social media is performing with respect to those goals. If something can’t be measured, it is hard to get or keep the resources necessary for it.
2. Purpose or vision is missing
Listen and interact with your product consumers on Facebook to get started with social media marketing. Focusing on only one channel is not harmful. If social media marketing has a tangible purpose within the wider marketing mix, everyone will know where the business is going. Twitter is more popular with a younger demographic, especially ‘knowledge workers.’ This suggests that you should use it in a way that appeals to that audience, or be clear with your audience about what you’re using it for. Some businesses use Facebook to share monthly promotions and offers, or to run customer service.
Having a goal or purpose for being active on social media, and specifically on platforms like Facebook, is important. What is your website’s mission and how can the specific characteristics of each channel help support that goal? For example, what type of people use each channel and what interests do they have? You can build relevance and trust by adding point 3 below.
3. Social media tools and tactics are put before customer needs
Most of the marketing conversations I have are focused on promoting a product or service instead of being customer-focused. How can I sell via Facebook, use Twitter, or improve my position in SERPs? This is a missed opportunity in the social space specifically. If your focus is on promotion rather than building relationships, then you probably shouldn’t bother getting involved in social media. It’s not a promotional channel designed to sell a product, it’s a channel designed to build relationships, which over time earns you the permission to sell. Many people view Facebook as another platform to promote their brand, instead of using it to interact with customers and create meaningful relationships.
Your audience’s needs should be the main focus when choosing what to talk about. By finding the intersection between what your audience wants and what you want to discuss, you will be able to create a successful presentation. Advanced businesses are recognizing that they need to own the social relationship with customers, not just marketing. This makes social media integration more natural.
4. Content formats and topics and topics aren’t aligned
Essentially, what this person is saying is that too many businesses approach social media from a promotional standpoint, regurgitating the same information that would be found in an advertisement or e-mail blast. Why would anyone want to engage with a company that only promotes its products, even if it’s done through a contest or competition?
Content that is entertaining, inspiring, or serving the unmet needs of a would-be decision maker is great content that fuels effective social media marketing. What could you create that’s interesting? There are many ways to format your content, including blogging, making videos, creating ebooks, tweeting or posting, using SlideShare, and recording audio podcasts. What makes sense for the consumer?
5. Managing resources and process
A social media marketing program is a big undertaking that requires a lot of strategic planning and forethought. The person responsible for the program needs to be able to build a strong team and select the right tools to help them execute their vision. The task is daunting and there are many tools to consider. Moving forward, you’ll need to establish more formal processes and governance within your organization. However, let’s not make things more complicated than they need to be at the moment.
First – set up some basic listening. To be successful in business, you should research the market to learn about your customers, competitors, and the overall industry. You should also pay attention to how customers talk and react to you and yourcompetitors. Develop a fulfillment point by considering the easiest route, which is likely to be a blog. This is your content and social hub. Choose locations for your outposts and decide what tasks each one will perform. Use Twitter to share ideas and interact with influencers, use Facebook to have customer dialogue, and identify some specific networks that relate to your market. Ensure that you are re-sharing and encouraging re-sharing of your content matter so the big deal here is to have a content publishing process to keep things simple and manageable – you need to be active, part of the conversation.
6. You have no network of influencers to help you
The word ‘social’ is a clue that you cannot do something alone. You need a lot of people who are interested in your content and are able to share it with others. These people should already have a way to reach your target audience. Allies. People whom working with provides a win-win.
It is worth taking the time to find out who has influence and to use listening tools to see who is active. By being in the market, you will see who has power and how they connect to you. If you know what you want, then building relationships with others to help you attain your goals is an old-fashioned way to go about achieving them. What’s in it for them to help you? The content is most likely great because the creator is motivated to add value to their audience.
7. Competitor activity goes un-missed
You need to be paying attention to what your competitors are doing. You should monitor your competitor’s social marketing activity in the same way you monitor their respective search rankings and creative appeal. It is not necessary to be led by the activity of competitors, this is not necessary. The social space could be influenced by what the more significant players do and say, which might then affect your opinion or your standing.
Know who the established players are, right? As well as established brands, pay attention to the emerging, hungry marketers.
8. No means to move on market trends and changes
Ongoing research is of huge importance! The last five years have seen a lot of changes, with the iPad being invented and smartphones becoming more common. Are you ready for the next five years? You can be sure that the speed of change is going to increase and that your experience until now has probably confirmed that. You’ve heard the expression that ‘markets are conversations’? If you want to be a part of the conversations that are happening, you need to do so at the simplest level. If you want to be successful, pay attention to the people who are already successful in your field, stay up-to-date on technological changes, and understand how those changes will affect your target audience. Also, keep in mind that new technologies are often adopted quickly in your industry. It isn’t about becoming engrossed in QR codes or the next new thing, it’s about trying to predict what will happen next and being the first to adopt it.
9. You think every website visitor, fan or follower is a sale today
Why do 80% of people on your site do nothing? Have you ever considered this or argued about it with colleagues? They visit from all different websites, click and then leave. No purchase, registration or social interaction. These are the people who are waiting for you to not market to them like your competitors are. Do you contribute to that conversation and help solve those problems? We’ll continue to say our stuff even if people don’t understand because we’re worried about what the competition is saying.
Firstly, go where your customers already are. If you’re looking for gap or student travel information, Lonely Planet’s Thorntree site on Facebook is a good place to start. As marketers, we should focus on Facebook as a way to reach consumers, who are generally focused on solving their problems in the best place they can, which is often Google. Join in on the conversations that they are already having, share your knowledge and thoughts openly, and be open-minded to what others have to say.
10. No responsibility to measure the impact
The success of social media marketing can be measured by objectives, goals and strategy. The IAB has put out a ton of information on measurement. To align with them, we’ve posted on measurement in detail.
Even if you’re only measuring a more pragmatic set of KPIs that demonstrate improvement in a relevant area, you’re still making progress. It’s ideal if you can find a way to make money from your idea.
Failing to consider the aforementioned risks would be unwise. If you’re not careful, you can easily become disconnected from what’s going on around you, become irrelevant, and miss out on opportunities that your competitors are taking advantage of.
You should be in charge of your social media strategy and not let a PR or ad agency control what you do. Why? The tail wags the dog, in short. A partner’s motivation cannot be inauthentic if it is about what is best for the customer. This company is filled with people who are passionate about your brand and who know the details about your products and services. There is no need to fake it here; these people genuinely care. Agencies can help, of course! They help with getting the work done, designing processes, picking out the right tools, and creating a context for content development through campaigns and creative execution.
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