More and more companies are beginning to realize the value of investing in social media. Whether in-house or outsourced, effective management of online social networking profiles like those of Facebook, Twitter and Google+, has become a necessity for today’s enterprises. Here are some tips on maximizing online networks to help achieve your brand’s goals:
1. Identify your audience.
In the past, it was enough to know the age group and general preferences of a brand’s audience. Now you have to know much more than just demographics to get their attention. Luckily, there are several applications available that can help. Of course, there are still the traditional methods like surveys and industry research, but making use of available technology will save you time and resources. You can now use social media applications to collect data and build audience personas. Try social monitoring applications such as Facebook Custom Audience. You can also tweak your site settings to track social referrals and other markers.
2. Give value.
Whatever your goals are for trying your hand at social media, you want to keep viewers coming back until you have achieved brand recall. The way to do that is to provide content that distracts them from the fact that what you are showing them is still a form of marketing. The content should be useful to them, whether in terms of information, increased productivity or savings, entertainment, or anything of value.
3. Make use of images.
Books with pictures are more attractive to most people, and the same goes for online marketing. We are living in the digital age after all. Kissmetrics , an online marketing blog, reports that photos attract over 50% more likes and twice as many comments than plain text. The best photos are those that speak for themselves – think infographics, charts, and instructionals. Stock images will not be half as effective.
4. Timing is key.
Various apps nowadays allow timed posts on social media, and they exist for good reason. If you have a target audience, then you also ought to have a target time, which is when your audience will most likely be online to see your posts. If you are targeting professionals, this may be over lunch break or after they have clocked out of work. If your audience is college students, the weekend may be the best time to post. Use apps to schedule your posts for timely online release.
5. Track your success.
Analytics are great tools that show you how close you are to achieving goals. Once you do, they also allow you to set new ones and track your progress over time. These will help you determine which strategies worked at which times and in which places, so you can perfect your social marketing strategy.
Broadening customer bases, boosting profits, and mastering the competition are only some of the benefits that effective social media marketing can bring you. The best part about it is it will only cost you a fraction of what traditional marketing methods require. Once you have it up and running, you will be marketing while you sleep, and that’s not bad at all.
How Business Can Use Social Media
Image via Bing
