Harness the wings of social media to bring your brand into the limelight.
With consumers 71% more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals, social media represents a powerful tool for brands to use to increase their exposure and expand their customer base.
Statista also reports that more than 3.26 billion people use social media today. That’s more than half of the global population!
With this in mind, it’s safe to say that brands accelerate their chances of business growth when they build a presence across social platforms.
Here’s our take on the best strategies brands should use to optimize their social media marketing in 2022.
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing leverages social platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Twitter to promote brands and products.
The operative word in social media marketing is “social.” Social media is a virtual space where people stay up-to-date with friends and family, learn more about their favorite brands, influencers and celebrities as well as connect with others over shared interests.
Social media is about making connections. Thus, the focus of social media marketing should be on building a follower network, inserting your brand into conversations that matter, and creating content that speaks to the pain-points of the audience your business aims to reach.
When your target market sees that you have the insights and solutions for their needs, they’re likely to be inspired to click through to your website, browse your business offerings and perform a desired call-to-action (CTA). The end-goal of social media marketing is to direct user traffic through the digital sales funnel and drive conversions.
Start with goals
Goals ensure social efforts remain aligned to a brand’s overarching mission. Before you start creating content for social media, talk with your team about your overarching business objectives and discuss how social media marketing can be used as a lever to see it through.
Goals could include (but are not limited to):
- Boost newsletter signups
- Drive eBook sales
- Increase leads
Goals also act as a reminder that what you do has a tangible impact on your business. Everything you post on social media collectively builds your brand’s reputation, and so content must be in keeping with company values.
Know your customer
Social media is all about the user. When people flick to a brand’s social media page, they want to see themselves reflected in the content. At a glance, they want to see why they should care about what you offer and how your products and services will help improve their lives in some way.
Before you go steam ahead on social media, you need to know the answers to these questions:
- Who is your business intending to reach?
- How will they benefit from what your business offers?
- Why should they choose you over a competitor?
Actions to take to address this include:
- Profile your target customer (map out their age, location, job title, needs, pain points and values)
- Brainstorm the impact, or changes people can experience with your products and/or services
- Conduct a competitor analysis (what they do and how they do it)
- Develop your unique selling point (USP)
Knowing your customer enables you to create content that resonates with them. This is the reaction that needs to take place to ensure lifelong supporters of your business.
Make community management a priority
Social media marketing involves more than creating and posting content. People want to interact with the human face behind the brand and experience a genuine connection.
This is where community management enters the arena. In practice, community management involves being responsive to post comments and direct messages, as well as keeping tabs on who is tagging and mentioning your brand in their posts (earned media).
When you make community management a priority, it’s easier to identify leads, build a rapport with existing customers and make your social media presence appear more appealing to outside users.
Tailor content to each platform
Every social platform is different. It’s in a brand’s interest to learn the unique features of each, understand which platform their audience uses, and to avoid posting identical content across all platforms.
In any platform you use, keep an eye on the latest features (e.g. the recent launch of Instagram Reels). Social algorithms prioritize content that leverages the latest platform features and users enjoy engaging with brands that keep their content fresh.
Here’s a quick summary of the types of content that works for some of the main platforms:
[Instagram grid]
- carousels (educational content, brand storytelling, customer testimonials)
- eye-catching images (on-brand illustrations, high-quality lifestyle photos)
- infographics (fun facts, industry news)
- Reels and videos (product demonstrations, launches, how-to content)
[Instagram stories]
- behind-the-scenes (BTS) content
- links (blogs, sales, registrations)
- sharing of brand mentions
TikTok
- BTS content
- dance/voice-over trends
- explainer videos
- how-to videos
- product demonstrations and launches
- industry news and commentary
- memes
- personal insights and experiences
- professional tips
- thought leadership articles
- industry news and commentary
- memes
- BTS content
- customer testimonials
- memes
- Reels and videos (product demonstrations and launches)
When you tailor content to each platform, it shows the audience you understand the platform and your presence on the platform feels more authentic as a result.
Hashtags – less is more
Hashtags categorize posts and improve your brand’s searchability. They act as a ranking signal to help search engines and platforms understand what content is about.
Because of this, it’s tempting to cram as many hashtags as possible into a post. It’s a sure way to get content seen by many – right?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. Posts that are littered with hashtags are treated as spam by the algorithm and are shown to less people as a result. Too many hashtags can also be off-putting to followers as it can detract from the core message of the post.
Instead of peppering posts with lots of hashtags, opt to use two to three high-volume hashtags that are relevant to the content. This will help you attract the right audiences.
Social media marketing is a great way for brands to increase their exposure and build a lifelong customer base.
But how can brands determine whether they’re hitting their social targets?
Analysis of performance data is the best solution. Data encapsulates an objective measure of how successful your content is at driving users to perform desired actions. When you study the data and account for the story behind the numbers, you have the tools at your disposal to determine what’s working and what requires a pivot.
You can access performance data for all of the platforms you use in one place when you connect your accounts into the Digivizer platform. This saves you the trouble of having to manually extract performance data from each platform.
Sign up for free today to harness performance data the easy way.
