Large and active following on social media is the biggest weapon of your digital marketing strategy. Social media platforms have been flooded with users and user-generated content. Leveraging this to your advantage could help you attract new leads and improve your relationship with existing followers.
The choice of content largely matters because video content is ruling the social media, helping companies see a 41 percent increase in traffic.
However, video alone can’t determine the success of your social media strategy. There are other things that are equally important.
This article will talk about the 5 most influential strategies that can help you achieve your social media marketing goals efficiently.
1 – Create Different Content Types For Different Platforms
Not all content type is suitable for every social media platform. It’s normal to post entirely different things on different platforms or change your message between networks for any given post.
Since all the different social media platforms have their audience (who have their expectations for what they want to see on the network), you need to create content that caters to their needs. This will determine how successful your social media posts will be.
General guidelines to what people expect to see in the major social media platforms:
● Facebook: Videos and updates about your business.
● Instagram: High-resolution photos, videos, and stories.
● Twitter: Company news and GIFs.
● LinkedIn: Company news and other professional content.
● Pinterest: Step-by-step photo guides and infographics.
You don’t need to have photoshop skills to create an image or poster to upload on Instagram. Free tools like Piktochart allow you to create custom posters in seconds. All you need to do is choose from thousands of royalty-free images and add text. You can share the same image on Facebook and Twitter as well.
When it comes to sharing the same content to different platforms, you need to make it more contextual according to the platform.
2 – Convert Your Loyal Customers Into Brand Advocates
A 12% increase in advocacy can result in a 200% increase in revenue growth.
Once you turn your loyal customers into brand advocates they start supporting you (for free), through actions such as spreading the word about your brand. This will help you build trust with your audience far more quickly than you otherwise might.
The first step towards turning your loyal customers into brand advocates is by establishing such an emotional connection with them that they become more involved with your brand.
You can follow these steps to create brand advocates:
Deliver Proactive Services: It could include simple tasks such as integrating a live-chat option to assist them while they make a purchase or informing them about upcoming sales. One of the great hacks would be informing your customers “not-to-buy” anything a day before the sale and letting them know how they can save a lot if they buy the product the next day.
Ask for Feedbacks: After all, your customers are the ones using your products/services and they can tell you the exact thing about where you are going wrong. You can run polls on Instagram Stories or ask for feedback directly on Facebook. This will not only help you improve your product/services, but it will also make them feel valued (a crucial step in creating brand advocates).
Offer Loyalty Programs: Showing gratitude by offering a loyalty program with discounts or free products based on customer’s purchase history could demonstrate you’re loyal to your customers. As a result, they’re more likely to spread the word about your brand.
Other steps to convert loyal customers into brand advocates include:
● Offer a referral program
● Personalize customer experience
● Engage with your followers on social media
● Offer special offers to your customers on their birthday
● Provide great customer service
It’s all about showing your customers that you care about them and they’ll take care of you.
3 – Tell Stories Instead of Focusing on Selling
Using social media to sell your products or services directly to your target audience will do more harm than good. Since most people spend time on social media to enjoy, learn new things, and read stories, you must focus on building a relationship with them before selling stuff.
The key to successful storytelling lies in creating relatable characters and situations that evoke emotional responses. In the end, people would want to know more about you and your brand and thus, they will view more posts and videos about you. Some of them will head directly to your website to understand what you do.
Besides, it is also one of the best ways to convert your existing customers into loyal ones. They get to know why you do what you do in an interesting and relatable manner. You can include things such as how your product helped your customer and what problem does your product solves to make the story brand-centric.
4 – Leverage the Power of Social Listening
Social listening or social monitoring is an art of finding out what people are talking about your brand or your competitor or your industry in general. It could provide great information about your customers which you can then use to create real-time marketing campaigns.
Social media listening tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer can help you monitor social media platforms to know the issues and topics your target audience is talking about. Burger King used social listening to literally “break the Twitter”. It soon became the most liked Tweet of all time.
Other benefits of social listening include:
● Generate high-quality leads.
● Identify brand advocates and influencers.
● Identify which social media platform is best for your business.
● Offer better customer service (on social media by finding customer inquiries and interactions quickly).
● Understand what’s working and what’s not (for your competitors).
● Get feedback about your products or services.
Social listening enables you to engage with your audience in a way that can deliver maximum exposure for your business.
5 – Incorporate Influencer Marketing into Your Video Marketing
Influencer marketing is expected to become a $10 trillion market by 2020 while the video is the fastest growing form of content (with a 34.36% increase in engagement in YouTube). Incorporating influencer marketing into your video marketing can take your campaign to the next level.
It will expand your reach (people who know the influencer but haven’t heard of your brand) and will give you credibility (people trust influencers). This increase in visibility and recognition could help you generate more leads and revenue.
One of the most common ways of combining influencer and video marketing is influencers using your product and telling people why it is better than that of your competitors’.
Final Thoughts
Social networks can boost sales and increase brand awareness if used efficiently. Creating different content for different platforms will help you increase engagement.
Put efforts to convert your most loyal customers into brand advocates and prioritize storytelling. Also, use social listening tools to know what people are talking about your brand or industry on social media platforms and then curate content accordingly.
