Social media marketing is a must for every business. Big or small. New or established.
Why?
- 68 percent of Americans are on Facebook
- 54 percent of users research products on social media
- During live events, Twitter ads are 11 percent more effective for marketing than television ads
So, we know social media marketing has big potential to get your brand and products in front of a huge audience.
But how can you get it right?
Know Who Your Audience is and What they Care About
When you know your target audience, their interests, their values, and their buying habits, you can narrow your marketing’s focus.
For example, let’s say you want to target millennials. You’re in luck: more than 90 percent of them use social media, compared to just 48 percent of baby boomers.
That means you have a high chance of reaching your ideal customer base through effective social media marketing. You need to:
- Gather information on your existing customers (age, location, spending habits, purchase preferences)
- Look at your competitors’ social media marketing: what techniques do they use to reach your shared audience?
- Survey customers to discover which social networks they use, which days and times they tend to browse, etc.
- Create buyer personas for different demographics within your audience
The more you know about your ideal customers, the more effective your marketing should be.
Focus on Engagement, Not Just Selling
It’s tempting to promote your products or services on social media shamelessly. But this is likely to bore and frustrate your followers.
Work on engaging your audience through relevant, valuable content. Use images, videos, concise text, and more to keep your posts diverse.
Another key element of engagement is interacting with followers, responding to comments on posts, and more. Be transparent and accessible. Build relationships with the potential to translate into conversions down the line.
A/B Testing is Your Friend
A/B testing (or split testing) is a simple but effective way to determine the best ads and content for your social media marketing campaign.
Create two versions of ads or posts, incorporating different images, language, video lengths, GIFs, and more. Run them both at the same time, split between your audience equally, for a fixed period.
Analytics will reveal which version secures the highest engagement. You may or may not keep it as is, or build a new variation implementing the strongest features of the most successful one.
Stay Consistent
Establish a voice and stick to it.
That’s not to say you can’t evolve over time and embrace a slightly different tone. But it does mean it’s best to stay consistent across posts and social networks.
So, if you use punchy language and humorous GIFs on Twitter, don’t be painfully dry on Facebook.
This can disorient your audience, and suggest your team behind the scenes is unprofessional or disorganized. Consistency helps your brand develop a recognizable personality, build trust, and ensure followers know what to expect during interactions.
Social media marketing isn’t easy, but it’s worth putting time into developing a sound strategy that suits your business goals, audience, and budget.
Focus on building brand awareness, gaining trust, and establishing a consistent voice to maximize your campaign’s performance. Want help from a seasoned Orange County SEO team? We’ve got a free marketing analysis with your name on it!