Social media has become an integral part of many companies’ marketing strategy. It informs trends, shapes consumer behavior, and most importantly – allows companies to promote their businesses to large, diverse audiences at the tap of their fingertips. However, studies show that while more than 90% of companies use social media to market, many struggle to see a significant return on investment or “ROI”. In the digital age of texts, tweets, likes, and posts – what steps should more companies take to successfully integrate social media into their overall business marketing strategies?
Have a Plan
Figuring how to start can be challenging – and that’s OK. The most effective step in the preparation stage is to develop a plan. Identifying the key goals for the month or whatever timeline you follow is one of the most important steps in this process. This may seem like an obvious first step but having a well thought out plan can make or break your budget.
It is important to note that creating a content plan takes a multistep approach.
This process includes the following steps:
Identify which products or services will be involved in the promotion strategy.
Schedule a specific timeframe to execute and run promotional campaign(s). (This is done to ensure that both, the marketing goals, and projected timeframe appropriately align.)
Some companies opt to run short campaigns to grab the audience’s attention quickly. The recommended amount of time to run a campaign is approximately 3 months. This provides an adequate amount of time to track data patterns and to identify what’s landing with your audience and what is simply not working.
Select specific platforms to use.
Each platform has a different time range for optimal visibility and engagement throughout the day/ week. For example, studies show that 9 pm ET on Sundays shows an increase in social media activity. Keep in mind that this is a general statistic. Understanding the behaviors of your target audience will be most impactful to your overall marketing initiatives.
Track key engagement metrics to for success.
Know the Purpose of Each Platform
The second step of the process is to understand that not all social media platforms are used the same way. When developing content for your campaign – whether organic or paid, it is extremely important to know who is using the platform and why. For example, Facebook and Instagram render the highest engagement overall. Content that includes video clips tend to do well on Instagram and Facebook. When using Facebook to run your campaign, companies are able to create forms. A Facebook form allows companies to collect contact information from prospective consumers interested in your products or services without requiring them to leave Facebook or Instagram. If you are looking to run a campaign on Twitter, you should think about aligning your efforts with trending topics and events. Pinterest attracts more niche audiences. Educators specifically, frequent this platform. At Agile, we encourage our clients to pursue a multichannel approach. This allows them to tailor their content to each platform to reach a broader audience.
Knowing the ins and outs of each platform will enhance your campaign strategy overall. Whichever path you pursue, it is important to have a strong social presence. People enjoy a strong narrative. This is a key to gain interest from potential consumers. The more that people trust in goods and services as well as a brand that they can remember. Having a solid grasp on these will encourage familiar users to engage with your content while attracting prospective consumers.
Use Your Content Arsenal
Running paid social campaigns can be extremely expensive. This is where many companies tend to get it wrong. The best place to start is by looking at the content you already have on hand or in your “content arsenal”. This could include existing photos, gifs, or video clips. There are many cost-effective applications that can convert still images into moving images. To amplify your campaign content, it is also helpful to include specific “buzzwords” or SEO terms in your posts. Commonly used terms will help users find your content more directly. Including hashtags in your posts can be super impactful here as well.
This approach takes a lot of data analysis and trial and error. That said, it is important to know when an approach is not working. If you have tried different approaches, varied campaign schedules and post times and you are not seeing the interest you predicted, take a step back and regroup. This could go an indicator that you and your team may need to build a stronger rapport with your target community.
Incorporating social media into your marketing campaigns have a high ROI without breaking the budget it just takes planning. For more information on social media marketing please visit: https://agile-ed.com/
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