How to succeed at social media marketing? – Part I

Today, because of the development of digital technologies, almost all people in different ages spend a lot of time on surfing the Internet as well as in social media or evaluating and buying their products through it. Undoubtedly, the amount of time spent in digital area is constantly increasing. Today, for all businesses in different shapes and sizes, social media or in general, the digital platform represents the most widely used marketing tools available. It’s easy for many companies to use, instantly enhances brand visibility and a hell of a lot cheaper than exposing company’s name across a 20×40 feet billboard. Additionally, digital parts of a company such as social media channels, the website as well as a blog are the showcase of each company. This showcase should always be updated, attractive, and comprehensive.

According to this important fact, the business world has been witnessing the emergence of new jobs in areas such as digital marketing divided on many subset expertise like analyst of the performance of campaigns in each digital platform, social media strategist, marketing, content marketing as a copywriter (creating content as well as updating website information, blog, and social platforms), expertise of managing posting activities, tracking and answering customers’ demands as well as questions, SEO specialist, and so on.

Since, there are a lot of social media marketing as well as tools available, the question for most firms is which digital platforms are appropriate for their company, and how to best perform a meaningful and engaging approach that generates outcomes. Therefore, marketers must also make efficient decisions and define the certain tactics to avoid. While there’s no key answer to this question, businesses should adhere to a set of guidelines and structures that can be used to boost chances of success and, just as importantly, keep away from complicated content-related issues.

While not exhaustive, there is a list of a few of social media dos and don’ts that kindly consider the mentioned tips.

Social Media Marketing Do’s

1. Consider which social media platforms are right for the business:

The digital marketing manager might have been left wondering which social media channels are appropriate for the company. The answer of this question is completely related to the target market of the company and its strategies. For example, social media usage in Estonia can be different to Germany or UK. So, being present in some platforms which are not popular in Estonia, is wasting time and money for an Estonian company. To figure this out, it’s a good idea to have someone who is responsible for selecting effective social media channels, takes notes on each social media platform according to its demography, functionality, channels of audience reach, cost, and moreover whether the platform matches in any way with the company or not. For instance, a photography studio may find it easier to influence its customers on photo sharing platform such as Instagram, while someone who teaches English or is a managerial lecturer might find a video-sharing platform, like YouTube, better for attracting followers. Or LinkedIn is very useful for B2B businesses while Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. help ensure B2C and B2B marketing, depending on the target base. As a result, the company’s audiences, goals, and the industry, which the firm operates in, play an important role in choosing platforms.

2. Interaction and try to engage customers with company’s brand:

Keeping an intelligent balance of self-promotion and captivating content- stimulating action can be very beneficial in using social media. To do this, the company can run campaigns which encourage customers to get involved. Customer engagement could also mean asking a challenging question that inspires a response, or taking a picture with the company’s product and sharing it on social platforms using a hashtag or writing a letter to the company , and so on.

3. Use analytics and track the results:

A targeted marketing plan is always designed based on customer segmentation and company’s strategies. Hence, not only analysis of customers’ attribute is very critical for a company in customer segmentation, but it plays a significant role in analyzing and predicting customer behavior and also getting to grips with the more basic analytic functions of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be useful. Depending on the type of campaigns and digital platforms where campaign is held, the metrics and the analytical tools can be different. For example, content marketing on a blog or social media such as Instagram, and FB, customer engagement is an important parameter, so some metrics like the number of likes, comments, followers, impression, reach, post savings, sharing the post, engagement rate and so on should be measured. But in advertorial advertising or analysis of website, some metrics like CPC, bounce rate, impression, page view and exit rate can be measured by Google Analytics. These analytics can give the company a deep insights into its customers such as where users are located, how they reached company’s site, how long they spend on each page, whether they’re using mobile or desktop, and so on.

4. Follow the rules:

It means that design and contents of each platform should be compatible with that social media platform. For example, if the company uses Instagram, it should try to apply visual component to its every post. The company needs something to catch customers’ eye. A post that includes a photo or a video gives the company a much better chance for the post being seen among lots of photos. In other words, it’s crystal clear that posting a text content which is completely suitable for blog format, is a big mistake in a photo-focused social media platform like Instagram. In addition, posting the same photo with the same caption to all social media platforms on which the firm uses, seems lazy. However, using hashtags to reach new customers on Instagram or less on Twitter might be a good idea, it looks unpleasant to include those same hashtag on Facebook. Acknowledging previous point, figuring out firm’s audiences on according platforms and creating right content for them can help a company to get the best results.

5. Be original and creative:

Although being creative is difficult, it can be one of the competitive advantages of the company which completely makes it unique. While reaching creativity is more challenging, it can’t be copied easily. Additionally, that’s exactly what makes a company distinguished from its competitors. Setting brain storming meeting among employees, reading many articles on different topics, observing  surrounding  or other ideas precisely open new perspectives for looking different and leading to barking novel as well as innovative ways to connect with customers. Sometimes, the contents are similar but the way that a company or a person conveys those to their audiences is interesting and different. For example, searching on YouTube individuals can find many videos about same subjects but the only thing that makes them unique is the way that its producer conveys it. When main purpose is attracting customers, a company has to make people remember it.  Sharing the same message again and again is cheesy and in poor taste that has a negative impact on audiences.

6. Responding to customers’ messages:

Take some time to comment, reply to direct messages, as well as interact with current clients and prospective clients are also very significant, and it can show that the  company cares about what customers are saying. In the end social media is about being social, and a company should be a part of it. Social media is great for entertaining and informing audiences rather than selling the product or service. A company can use these platforms as an opportunity to interact with followers and show them how they are able to address positive and negative situations.

The following articles have been used to write this article.

 

 References

1. Lindsay Tjepkema. (2016, October 27). The Top 10 Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media for Business. Retrieved from http://www.inboundmarketingagents.com/inbound-marketing-agents-blog/bid/332506/the-top-10-do-s-and-don-t-do-s-of-social-media-for-business
2. Mary Pomerantz Advertising. (n.d.). Dos and Don’ts of Social Media Marketing. Retrieved from https://www.marypomerantzadvertising.com/blog/dos-and-donts-of-social-media-marketing
3. Samuel Edwards. (2017, February 22). Social media is an immensely powerful tool. Here are the 5 do’s and 5 don’ts of social media branding. Retrieved from https://www.business.com/articles/10-dos-and-donts-of-social-media-branding/
4. Satyendra Tewari. (2018, February 5). 30 Social Media Do’s and Don’ts | Learn Social Media Marketing Etiquette. Retrieved from https://www.digitalvidya.com/blog/social-media-dos-and-donts/
5. Spunkydigital. (2018, April 24). Social Media Marketing Do’s and Don’ts for 2018. Retrieved from https://www.spunkydigital.com/social-media-marketing-dos-and-donts-for-2018/

 

Editor: Kärt Mättikas