In this day and age, social media is an essential part of reaching out to audiences and potential consumers. When it comes to a social media marketing strategy – especially for small businesses- it can be tricky to avoid all the clutter of excessive noise and misinformation that can also result from using social media.
There are many entrepreneurs and marketers out there that have successful social media strategies that can help highlight some of the best tips for building and retaining an avid audience on social media.
1. Know Your Goals
The first tip is all about understanding your audience. The initial step in creating a social media marketing strategy involves understanding the purpose of your social media efforts. This involves asking questions like:
- Are you trying to raise awareness of your brand?
- Do you want to increase web traffic/sales?
- Do you want to increase customer loyalty?
There even may be many goals that you are trying to reach. It is important to be aware if you are trying to reach multiple goals with the same or similar strategies so as not to confuse yourself and stray from the initial strategy.
2. Choose The Right Platforms
The second tip is in regards to picking the right platforms. Once you have decided on the purpose of your social media marketing strategy, it’s time to choose the right platform(s) for the job. Not every business needs to have its presence on every single social media site, just the ones that matter to your brand and your audience. When choosing a social network it is important to consider time, resources, and audience demographic.
Be aware of how much time is needed for each social site. Sometimes it is best to just start off with a couple of sites you can devote full attention to. As things take off and you wish to use more social networks, there are sites like Buffer App to help save time. Also keep in mind that some sites may require more resources than others. For example, visual sites like Pinterest and Instagram will need access to images and photos related to your business. Audience demographic is important to note as well. Things like what sites your audience use most and at what time they use them at are key indicators of which social sites to use.
3. Always Be Alert
The third tip is to never forget that social media is 24/7. Working with social networks is not a normal day job. Content is constantly being read and shared and talked about at all hours of the day. More often than not, off hours (late at night/weekends) are when consumers are most scrolling through their feeds. Because of this it is important to update your accounts on a daily basis and constantly monitor the activity happening to stay engaged with the online community.
Want to learn more on how to build a social media audience for your business? We’re here to help! For more information, schedule a visit with our team. We’d love to share more social media marketing strategies with you!