Top 5 Social Media Marketing Strategies

For today’s businesses, social media is one of the most valuable marketing tools. This is especially true if you are marketing to Millennials. According to the Pew Research Center, 90% of this age group use social media. Social media marketing provides you a wealth of options, which can be equally exciting and overwhelming. To be successful, you must be willing to put the time and effort into the right social media strategies.

Here are 5 strategies that will make your social media marketing more effective:

1. Want to play? You’ve got to pay! Most social media platforms today have some form of paid advertising, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Paying for visibility will ensure that your content will be shared and will give you a much greater chance to generate traffic to your website. Paid advertising helps social channels to provide a better user experience by excluding unengaging posts from people’s feeds while generating revenue for businesses using these platforms.

2. Make them watch it! 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 93% of marketers using video for content marketing and 55% of people watching videos online every day, 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.

3. Be found with SEO. Surprisingly enough, many small businesses have been able to survive and get found online by simply keeping their social media profiles up to date and investing in their local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. If you’re like most consumers these days, you’ll check consumer reviews of a product or brand before any business engagement. Where do these reviews come from? Directories, review sites, social media channels, and blogs! To be found online, take the time to update your local listings and create content that will aid your SEO strategy.

4. Communicate digitally. As we make fewer phone calls to inquire about a business, we turn to information that’s available online, on the go. Many times it’s easier and more time efficient to connect with a business online by filling out an inquiry form, initiating a chat conversation, sending a text message, or even ‘clicking to call’, rather than visiting the business in person. In fact, many people prefer to communicate almost exclusively via email, as they find it less intrusive than a phone call during business hours. This is especially true for younger consumers who prefer using electronic forms of communication that can be easily done through their mobile devices.

5. Be responsive. Just think about it for a moment, how many times does your business phone ring before you answer the call? Once or twice? How long does it take you to respond to your customers’ email messages? Less than 24 hours? Whatever your answer was, cut it in half and that’s the expectation of your customers on social media – you’re supposed to be there, or you shouldn’t bother to have 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!

Successful social media marketing doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, effort, and persistence. However, with a strategic combination of compelling content, active engagement, and a little inside savvy on the distinctive features of each platform, businesses can turn a buzzing conversation channel into a valuable marketing tool. To reach your prospective clients is the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship.