Social media marketing isn’t just for the mega corporations. Any company -large or small- can participate and enjoy the benefits. Smaller businesses that are typically short on resources and challenged for time should be aware of these 5 essentials to boost customer engagement and close subsequent sales.
1. Know What You Want To Achieve
With most small business’ resources being at a premium, it is important to first have a clearly defined objective before deciding upon strategic options. Prior to posting to Facebook or starting a Tweeting campaign, ask yourself a basic preliminary question: What is our key objective?
Do you most want to drive consumer traffic into your stores, or are you focussed upon generating a response from on-line promotions? Are you looking to build brand awareness through a larger fan base by growing your newsletter & e-mail databases? This is the type of thinking that will become the linchpins of your developing social media initiative and the way in which to determine its success.
2. Know Where Your Customers Are
By establishing a typical customer persona, your dream consumer, you should be able to establish the social media platform best suited to your company. What are the ranges of their ages, genders, incomes, and interests? Where are their locations? Understanding your demographic will help you better identify and target your social media network choices. Facebook is the largest social media platform worldwide with more than 1.1 billion fans (YES BILLION) but Twitter is powerful in urban centres. Pinterest is overwhelmingly strong with women interested in crafts. Instagram is a great fit if you’re trying to reach photo taking foodies.
Understand the social media fit where you can be most successful. While more than 1 platform may suit your needs, start with one network. Do one, do it right and then move on. This will allow you to remain focused.
3. Social Marketing is More Than Buying Facebook or Twitter ads
You have to engage your followers. You may be able to persuade them to your page with promotions and ads, but you have to keep their interests with great content. A strong social campaign offers an incentive for fans to share content. Photo or video contests where your followers create your content and share it are great ways to get your targeted consumers involved. Integrating Twitter hashtags into your campaigns spreads your reach over several networks & channels.
Social ads & social campaigns complement each other, but optimizing their synergy takes a dedicated understanding and approach.
4. Nothing Happens By Itself
It is not over with the plan. Next steps are to deploy, track, re-test and optimize. Nothing happens in a vacuum, and improvements don’t happen without effort. Create the internal resources and the appropriate time required to reply to the messages you will receive from your Social Media campaigns, which can actually be done quickly and efficiently. After all, when you have been successful in getting your dream customer to engage and speak with you, it’s a very good idea to be there to provide a rapid response, which will feel to them like great service. And of course you will be rewarded with more sales generated for your company’s products and/or services!
5. It’s Called “Social” Media For a Reason
Any company taking the social media plunge must realize that the work involved needs to become a regular part of their work week, or of course they might want to have the benefits of working with a trusted social media professional, at least to coach them through the first campaign iteration (info@cytryndesignandcommunications.com). But, if you think you can do it alone, at least prepare a weekly social media schedule. Sixty minutes to create next week’s campaigns. Sixty minutes to analyze results to see what works and what doesn’t. Existing customers and new prospects will also be communicating with you, so additional interaction and correspondence will be required.