Social media is no longer a marketing tool that is used solely by big global businesses. Smaller local businesses and charities are now capitalising on the benefits that an effective social media strategy can offer. We understand that developing your social media strategy can be daunting, which is why we wanted to write this blog post! Here are some of our top tips to get you going…
Branding is one of the most important things when it comes to targeting your current and ideal audience. Different platforms attract different age groups, so keep this in mind when creating content. Have a look at audience demographics for different platforms, and think about what channels your current and target audience might be on. Align your tone of voice and brand design with your social media presence. Having a strong brand persona will create a solid connection with your brand in your audience’s mind. This will form a key part of your social media strategy, and overall strategy.
Once you have identified what platform your audience is on, the next step is to adapt your content accordingly. Do your research and think about what content format your audience will be most likely to engage with. When appealing to Millennials and Generation Z, it might be best to deliver your content in short snackable chunks (such as stories). This type of content is what they tend to engage with most. When targeting an older audience on Facebook, it might be more beneficial to post content using the traditional newsfeed format.
Consumers have always valued good customer service. With social media changing the way in which customer service is delivered, it is becoming increasingly important to share positive feedback and address any concerns your customers raise.
Positive feedback is great for creating original content on your channels. We often use Canva to overlay words onto a related image as a way to make it look more visually appealing. Sharing feedback is a great way to showcase the value of your business to potential customers. It also has the advantage of giving you original content for your channels.
It’s worth remembering that even the best businesses receive the occasional piece of negative feedback. The most important thing to remember is that negative feedback should be dealt with in a positive and constructive way. This will ensure that your customers remain happy and is a fantastic opportunity to build a good reputation for your brand.
When consumers talk about your brand, they won’t always tag your social channels. Don’t worry, you can still keep track of what your audience are saying about your business – this is what social listening is for.
Social listening isn’t just important for finding out what people are saying about your brand. You can also use it to see what your ideal client is talking about. By knowing the interests of your current and potential clients, you can create content that they are more likely to discover and engage with.
Social listening can also be used to stay one step ahead of your competitors. Take note of what they are doing and have a think about why it is – or isn’t – working. This will help when considering the next steps for your social media channels.
You can conduct social listening using various tools. Google Alerts are an easy and cost-effective way of keeping track of what people are saying about you and your competitors. TweetDeck allows you to monitor mentions of certain words that people are tweeting about. If you’re looking to track whether mentions of your brand are positive or negative Keyhole is a good website to use.
Time and resources are often a barrier to making social media marketing work well, and scheduling tools can help you with this. There are various platforms you can use to create content ahead of time and decide when it will be posted.
We like to use Hootsuite and Later here at Naturally Social. They’re easy to use and it also allows you to track your profile analytics too.
Our advice when scheduling content is to keep track of what’s going out and when. If you plan an event which gets moved to a different date, make sure that you check your scheduled posts and amend the dates in those too. Try not to schedule too far in advance either!
Alternatively, you may benefit from in-sourcing a specialist social media marketing team. This is where we add the biggest value for our clients. We take the pressure off, working as an extension to the team. We understand the business inside out so we can create social media content that really represents our clients and works towards achieving their business or organisational goals.
If you would like any of your social media questions answered, then get in touch via our website, Facebook or Twitter.
Put your feet up, we’ve got this. We’ve been living and breathing social-first communications since the phrase “social media strategy” was first heard on business-leader lips. Get the newsletter to stay in the loop. We respect your privacy and would never sell your details on to a third party. You can unsubscribe at any time – see our Privacy Policy for more details.
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