Gaining Social Media Success

Before starting anything, you always need a plan. In this case you would need to develop a social media strategy for your business to follow. This would include everything from the platforms you decide to use, the goals that you are trying to achieve and the content that you need to post.

Finding the right platform for your business

Understanding your product, and your audience, will give you an idea of how to judge which social networking platform is best suited for your social strategy. With knowledge of the age, gender, location, buying habits and income brackets of your audience, it will allow you to discover how you can directly market your product to them through social media. So again, the question arises “which social media platform do I choose?”

Facebook is a great place to advertise your product, as more than 70% of adults who are online actively use the platform. When attempting to advertise a product or service organically, Facebook an make life somewhat difficult. As Facebook’s algorithm naturally doesn’t display a post to all who follow your Facebook page paid advertising allows your brand or company to reach a larger, fresher audience.

Additionally, once Facebook ads are running, you can see how often certain ads are being shown and viewed by the same group of people. This is known as “frequency.” When your ad has been frequently viewed by your target audience, it’s time to refresh your ad copy and ad imagery.

Twitter’s audience is slightly younger and far more tech savvy then Facebook. If you’re aiming for a more youthful audience, Twitter is most likely your best bet. Twitters hashtags allow you to find what people are tweeting about (what’s trending), and also give you the ability to craft your tweets around what potential customers are tweeting about. Twitter is also a great platform for real-time outreach.

As the ads don’t require any lag time once set up (unlike Facebook which require a period of time to check the ads against Facebook advertising rules), if something topical unexpectedly happens that is in line with your target audience, you can use the event immediately to advertise to your potential audience.

LinkedIn’s network is mainly aimed to professionals and businesses. If your product or service focuses mainly around businesses, this may be more suited for you as this platform is useful in generating B2B leads.

Pinterest is highly suited for organisations who are in a highly visual industry. This is due to the fact that Pinterest is mainly used for ‘scrapbooking’ ideas, recipes, and DIY. Mainly dominated by the female demographic, if used right it has been linked to strong retail sales.

If you are in a visual industry, like Pinterest, Instagram would be another great platform. As Instagram is rapidly growing, it helps to generate leads due to the reach being wider. Also, Instagram advertising is still in its beta stages, so there isn’t as much direct competition between brands.

Like Twitter, you can use hashtags with Instagram ads to reach the correct audience and several “swiped through” images can be used to entice your target demographic even more.

Aiming for better SEO? Then Google+ is most likely the best platform for you. As it is linked to the Google search engine, it helps to direct traffic to your website. This works well for companies in the IT industry.

When writing a Google+ post, make sure that the copy is keyword rich with words that will direct traffic back to your site. However, make sure the copy still reads naturally.

Companies with visual content, such as ‘How to’ videos would benefit more with the use of YouTube. As it is watched worldwide, it can generate a number of leads from its large reach pool. Additionally, when writing the description for your YouTube video, like Google+, make sure the copy is keyword rich.

What are your end goals?

When trying to achieve social media success, you must know what your end goal is. What is it that you are trying to achieve? Are you trying to generate leads, boost sales or simply raise brand awareness?

If your aware of what your end goal is, not only does it give you something to work towards achieving, but it also helps you to figure out the methods to use when approaching your social media platforms. Your end goal can determine the content you post, along with the places to post them all.

Type of content to post

Many organisations make the mistake of posting the same kind of content across all social media platforms. Every social platform has their own demographic, way of presenting information and tone of voice, so what may gain results with Twitter, may not necessarily be successful on Facebook.

Tailor your content to the platform which it is being posted to!

Get people interested in your brand. Post brand related content that will allow your audience to get to know your products and services on a “personal” level. Everyone feels more comfortable spending money when they know who it is they are buying from – that is known as the consumer trust factor.

Post content relevant to what you are actually selling, or the service you are providing. Avoid confusing your audience about your brand by posting content that has no association with your company. Update your social platforms regularly and consistently with relevant content.

Aim to produce content that will have your audience interacting with you. Polls, questions, fill in the blanks, anything that will gain more engagement between you and your audience will always be beneficial to your brand.

Contact us

Following the above tips and creating a social media strategy will certainly assist you and your company/brand to social media success. If you’re in need of additional assistance with marketing or social media marketing, please don’t hesitate to say hello@minttwist.com.

Happy networking!