- Reading time: 5 mins
- Topics:
- Social Media
When it comes to social media marketing, there are many options for platforms to use, and more becoming available every day. However, not all of these are right for every business. Choosing your social media strategies wisely allows you to invest time and resources into activities that will help you meet your business’ needs and goals.
Here are 10 questions to ask when choosing the right social media strategies for your business:
1. Who is your target audience? Knowing your audience is knowing how to best market to them. Do some research and create personas for your target audience or niche market. Use these personas as part of your marketing plan to know how to best reach them. Check out our 5 Tips to Creating Your Customer Persona for help.
2. What types of content will you be posting? Good content doesn’t just convey information – it engages and educates prospects in a way that demonstrates the value of your organization.
3. Is your product or service visual? Marketers everywhere are constantly told to “show instead of tell” their offers if they want to attract and keep a prospective client’s attention. This rule applies to social media as much as it does to any other marketing tactic. On any given day, users post 350 million photos to Facebook. On that same day, Instagram users upload 80 million photos. And in just one minute of that day, 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, according to Brand Watch. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by these figures, you’re not alone! The sheer amount of visual content already out there is staggering. It’s safe to say that without a cohesive strategy your voice won’t cut through the clutter. Check out these 3 Tips to Help Your Visual Content Stand Out on Social Media.
4. Do you want to include video? Social media channels give preferential treatment to video content hosted in their own platforms because it keeps viewers engaged in their own channels. Regardless of platform, video content supply is meeting demand with 87% of online marketers use video content and 75% of online video viewers have interacted with an online video this month, according to Hubspot. This is why marketers must fully understand how to create original, timely, relevant, engaging, and shareable videos to help their brands stand apart from the competition.
5. Do you want to invest in paid advertising? Most social media platforms today have some form of paid advertising, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Paying for visibility will ensure that your content will be shared and will drive traffic to your website. Paid advertising helps social channels provide a better user experience by excluding unengaging posts from people’s feeds while generating revenue for businesses using these platforms.
6. If using multiple platforms, could you repurpose content? One piece of content can be repurposed several ways. For example, if you’ve created an infographic, you can write a blog post about it. Older content can be refreshed with newer information. Even sharing pieces of longer content on your social media profiles counts as repurposing. Different audiences consume media differently and your content marketing strategy should accommodate this.
7. Can you link your social media to your website? Even though it is not part of your website, social media provides a link building opportunity. For example, if you write a blog or publish other content, link to it in your social media posts. Along with visiting these links themselves, your followers are also likely to share them with their contacts, driving more traffic to your website. Check out this checklist for 5 Ways to Successfully Build Inbound Links.
8. Do you plan to use social media as a customer service tool? How many times does your business phone ring before you answer the call? How long does it take you to respond to your customers’ email messages? Whatever your answers were, cut them in half – that’s the expectation of your customers on social media. You’re supposed to be there, or you shouldn’t bother having a profile. As social media channels become an alternative customer service line for most people, you can’t afford to leave it unattended. Make sure you have time every day to check all of your social media platforms for comments or messages. You must treat your social media presence as you treat your storefront – be there!
9. What are your goals for social media? What do you hope to achieve by using social media? Do you hope to drive more traffic to your website, or promote particular products that may appeal to your target audience? Do you plan to use your social media outlets as a more effective customer service tool? Whatever your goals may be, make sure to establish them and find a way to measure your success by using tools like Google Analytics.
10. How do you plan to measure your social media goals and data? Google Analytics is probably the easiest way to keep track of your social media-related conversions. Analytics data will tell you how many of your website visitors come from social media, which posts or offers they’re responding to, how many times they visit before they convert, how much they’re spending for direct purchases, and much more, based on your customized reporting parameters.
With the right approach, engaging with your followers on social media can be a worthwhile marketing activity. Make sure you are making the most impact by choosing the right strategies for your business and its needs.
