Social Media Marketing

An average person spends 1hr and 40mins on social networking sites each day. Social media marketing is a powerful way for businesses to achieve prospects and customers. A strategized marketing on social media can bring remarkable success to your business, creating devoted brand advocates and even driving leads and sales.

There are certain points to be kept in mind before implementing a social media strategy. Ask yourself:

• Where is my target audience?
• What social media platform can my target audience be found?
• What do I wish to achieve with social media regarding my brand or business?
• Who should set up and maintain my accounts?
• How often should I post?
• What content would my target audience be interested in?
• How will I measure my social media strategy?

Once you have determined your targets you have the makings of a basic social media strategy. You will also have a clearer understanding of the direction you need to take and what social media platforms will be suited for your brand or business. Your business need not be on every social media platform, be where your customers are. The purpose for each platform is different and you need to choose the best that suits your business.

Facebook: Whether your business goal is brand awareness, website traffic, lead generation, or online conversions, Facebook will make a notable difference in reaching your goals when used properly.

On Facebook, you can target by age, gender, employment, interests, purchasing behaviors, relationship status and so much more! This gives you the power to target your exact audience and put your ads and content in their newsfeed where they are already scrolling.

On Facebook, you can target by age, gender, employment, interests, purchasing behaviors, relationship status and so much more! This gives you the power to target your exact audience and put your ads and content in their newsfeed where they are already scrolling.

Instagram: Instagram is primarily image focused. While text descriptions and hashtags can accompany your photo, you can’t add links to your posts. Instead, you get one link in your bio for users to go wherever you hope to send them. Instagram users tend to be highly engaged, even more so than some other social media platforms. Instagram has 800 million active users, so jumping in to engage with this crowd is not a bad plan!

Twitter: Twitter is best for news oriented messages, focused on current events, though the network is known for sharing mundane things as well, like what people have for lunch. If you are on Twitter, be sure to monitor it constantly. This social media platform is popular for complaints to businesses, and users expect quick responses. Ignored messages on Twitter are tantamount to ignoring the customer. But if you can stick with positive messaging and respond to your customers quickly, it has a highly engaged user base that might be happy to buy your product or service.

Pinterest: Pinterest allows users to add “pins” of images from around the web. These images can lead to clicks through to websites, videos, products, and more. It began primarily as a site for women to share things like recipes, home decor, and wedding planning ideas, but has grown to include many male friendly topics as well.

YouTube: If you can come up with high quality educational content, video performs very well online. As smartphones get more powerful and phone internet speeds get faster, more and more people hop into the YouTube app to watch videos both at home and on the go. Providing a mix of those will help you grow your audience. If you hit it just right, you might make the next viral business that brings your business to a much bigger spotlight. Successful videos generate millions of views, and that can easily translate into sales.

Snapchat: Snapchat doesn’t work for web users, it is focused entirely on its mobile app. But that doesn’t stop entertainment, automotive, lifestyle, and other brands from reaching out to its millions of users. A good example of a Snapchat business account is Red Bull, which promotes its energy drinks through fun, high adventure, and other events around the globe, and fills its feed with images and videos from these and other events.