Social media has become increasingly important to companies, as 90% of young adults between the ages of 18-29 are now active on at least one social media platform and usage among adults over 65 has tripled in just five years (Pew Research Center). This means your current and upcoming target audiences are increasing their presence on social media. Effective marketing has always been about finding the people where they already reside. So, when it comes to social media community management, your company needs to be visible, branded and appealing on the right platforms for your target audience.
Step 1: The Big Picture
Approaching social media marketing without a solid plan for success is likely to be a wasted effort. You can easily spend a lot of time producing content for your social media profiles, but without the right content strategy, you may be getting results that don’t mean anything in hard numbers. In other words, you can be getting all kinds of engagement, clicks and follows without increasing your sales or business strategies in any direct (or measurable) way. In order to establish an effective social media strategy, you need to align your social media marketing goals with your overall marketing strategy.
Step 2: The Journey
Quality over quantity — start with goals focused on building your social media account with active users who are engaged in the content you post (measure likes, shares, retweets, mentions, comments and favorites). Next, increase your brand awareness (measure your increase in qualified leads, followers, consumer sentiment and reach by region). Then, focus on increasing your leads and customer traffic to your website (measure click-through rates and bounce rates).
Remember your sales funnel — your social media content should be directly appealing to consumers at specific points along their buyer’s journey and helping them move to the next stage. Use social media to draw in new prospects, cultivate valuable leads, promote conversions and foster long-term relationships with loyal customers.
Step 3: The Adjustment Period
Don’t get stagnant — take every opportunity to look at what kind of follower or lead you are attracting and adjust your content to appeal to your coveted target audience. If you don’t know who your most valuable customers and followers are, then you are going to have a hard time knowing what type of content actually interests them.
This article was written by Megan Carnathan, Director of Social Media for Workhorse Marketing. As the head of our social media department, Megan and her team help our clients navigate the ever-changing landscape of strategy and execution. Workhorse believes that social media marketing and advertising are fundamental to helping businesses build brand awareness, customer relationships, and ultimately drive bottom line results such as new leads and higher purchase frequency.
Do you need help improving your social media marketing strategies?
At Workhorse, we believe only proven value is worthy of your time and money. If you are struggling to create a solid social media marketing strategy, we can help. Our full-service marketing team is ready to give you results-focused solutions.