Social media marketing has the power to reach and influence enormous numbers of customers, so brands that fail to leverage it are letting their clients down. 80% of marketers who responded to a Hootsuite 2022 Social Trends Report believe that social media offers customers insight and can be a Return on Investment (ROI) since it boosts a company’s other marketing initiatives.
The correct implementation of a social media strategy can improve search rankings, increase traffic to websites, and enhance conversion rates, enabling marketers to earn more leads.
When creating an effective social media strategy, you do not understand which channels to use, so how can you do so? You may have difficulty determining whether your company needs an online presence via Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, or TikTok.
We will show you a simple step-by-step process for selecting your social channels and determining what is most important to you in the following paragraphs.
What are your social media strategy objectives?
You need to connect your social media channels to high-level objectives. If you don’t know why you should use a particular channel, it’s probably not the right choice.
Use social media to increase brand awareness.
In the first instance, you should choose well-known platforms that have a large audience so that you will be able to reach a large number of people. You may also consider niche platforms.
If you understand your personas and believe that TikTok, for example, would help you reach a younger and visually-oriented audience, then you should advertise there.
No matter your budget, promoting your brand is an effective way to increase brand awareness. Consider your social media advertising options, and you may be surprised at the results.
Facebook’s advertising platform, for example, is believed to generate considerable revenue.
Use social media to enhance lead generation.
Marketing professionals use social media to generate quality leads. Targeted campaigns aim to attract prospects that are relevant to your funnel and are potentially convertible.
According to eMarketer’s research, 59 percent of marketers feel that social media marketing is the most effective means of generating leads.
In terms of generating leads through social media, LinkedIn is considered one of the best B2B sites. You can join groups, create targeted advertisements, participate in discussions, and search using advanced filters.
An AdWords campaign may be as effective as a Facebook or Twitter ad, but the cost per click (CPC) is typically lower.
What channels is your target audience using?
After aligning your goals with your intended social media channel, you need to consider where your target audience interacts online. Unless your largest customer segment consists of many elderly women, you might be wasting your time and money. Furthermore, if your target market is primarily male, you would not be able to benefit from Pinterest marketing.
Your social media strategy will be more successful if you know your target demographic. Utilizing data-driven insights will enable you to create a strategy and channels which will promote the most targeted, effective approach, which will increase conversions.
A social listening tool such as Sprout Social can be used to analyze your current followers. In this manner, you will be able to access demographic information regarding your current social media audiences, thus determining whether a channel is worthwhile to maintain and, if not, why not.
If you have not selected a social media platform yet or wish to explore previously unexplored platforms, Pew Research Center has released an analysis detailing key demographics for many social media platforms.
In the Internet world, do more women use Instagram (44 percent vs 36 percent) than men? Did you know that 50 percent of LinkedIn users earn over $75,000 per year?
Therefore, instead of following the current trends, we should consider demographic information when choosing social media channels.
What channels are your competitors using?
It is equally important to understand how your competitors use social media to analyze the channels through which your target audience interacts. You can make wise decisions for the future by evaluating industry activity against this.
Consider the type of content they post on their site. Does the content cater to a particular platform? What is their posting schedule? What percentage of their posts are liked or shared?
As part of the success of your marketing strategy, it is crucial to measure how active your competitors’ followers are on social media and how many interactions they make with their posts.
Using social listening tools can also assist you in identifying which brands are most popular and influential in your industry. Buzzsumo, for example, allows you to determine the most popular formats and lengths of content shared by your competitors on social media.
Furthermore, you can view how many other users have shared them and the social channels on which they received the most shares.
An audience listening tool can help you identify which brands are the most influential in your industry and reach the greatest number of people on social media.
Using Brandwatch Analytics, you can monitor your competitors’ social media activities across Facebook and Twitter and search for mentions of them across the Internet.
If you are analyzing your competitors, you can employ various listening tools. Whatever the case, thoroughly research the available options and know what to expect.
How many channels should you manage?
How many social media channels do you believe brands use? You cannot showcase your brand through a single channel. However, finding the appropriate balance can be difficult.
Overexposure to too many platforms will lead you to thin out and dilute the impact of your work. However, if you rely on one platform exclusively, you may not achieve the desired exposure.
Tools such as Buffer, a social media calendar, and a scheduling service, can help you save time and maximize your resources. It is also possible to cross-post across all of your social networks if you wish to tailor your post for a certain platform.
Further, the buffer allows the uploading of images, which means that your content is likely to receive more views if relevant images accompany it.
Automate this process, and you will be able to incorporate more channels into your marketing strategy, but don’t forget to start small. After you have nailed a few social channels that work for you, consider trying a couple of new ones.
If you drip-feed these elements into your marketing strategy, you will avoid wasting time and money.
