4 Steps to Dominate Your Social Media Strategy

It’s 2018, and social media is king of the marketing world. No longer can companies simply make a Facebook page, add their info, and maybe post a few times a year. A strategy is essential to a brand’s social media. Being present is simply not enough anymore. Social media accounts must also be engageable. No one will follow any company that never posts or only provides uninteresting content. With this in mind here are 4 Steps to Dominate Your Social Media Strategy:

Set Social Media Goals

What exactly do you want to accomplish for your company? Do you want to drive more sales? Are you trying to stand out in the market? Whatever it may be, your social media should reflect what you want your company to improve on. Here are some ideas on possible goals you should strive for.

-Better Targeting

Social media allows a brand to find exactly the audience they’re looking for. The ideal customer for your product/service is simply a click away. Facebook’s algorithm makes this process easy. You can search for specific demographics for your social media ad. Maybe you’re a wedding videographer and are interested in marketing to females who have recently been engaged in your area. You can input these stats while you’re making the ad. Your target market is then reached right from the get-go. Using Instagram, you can search for hashtags that you think define your brand. People who have used that hashtag will pop-up in your search, allowing you to see people who are interested in that topic. Be sure to follow them, and the user will have to check you out.

-Increase Brand Awareness

If you’re a small business just entering the market, this is probably one of your biggest goals. Starting to advertise your brand from scratch may be tricky, but it can also be very fun. Chip, the late-night cookie company, in Utah County has done an excellent job in using their social media to gain brand awareness. They were a brand new store entering the food service market just over a year ago. Now, they boast 26.2k followers. So what launched them from newcomer status to having such a large following? Social media. Chip emphasized its uniqueness to its audience. They catered to their niche of late-night cookies through their posts. For their social media, they hired a photographer to take professional images of their cookies, they posted every day, they hosted giveaways, and they catered to their audience. They went from 40 likes a post to 1,000. Proof that social media spreads awareness!

-Easier to Watch Competitors

When you’re involved in social media, you can see what your competitors are posting every day. Their marketing tactics are on full public display. Take advantage! See what type of content they’re posting and how successful those types of posts have been. Check out what wasn’t successful as well and be sure to avoid their mistakes. However, don’t specifically copy them in their content. Your fans will notice that you’re mimicking someone else and will unfollow you. Be original, but don’t be afraid to get inspired.

-Build a Loyal Fanbase

GoPro and Anthropologie are great examples of building a loyal fanbase. GoPro lets their customers market the product themselves by submitting photos and videos to the GoPro marketing team. The best of these pictures are featured, and audiences get to see the camera’s real results. Anthropologie also highlights the lifestyle of its customers. Not only do they post images of women wearing their clothes, but they also post pictures of centerpieces with flowers, the exterior of a cabin on a snowy day, and even a stack of blueberry pancakes are featured on their social accounts. Both brands know who their fans are, and they post images that they know they’ll like.

Who’s Your Audience?

Rather than just posting loads of content right off the bat, you need to know who you’re marketing to. It would be pointless to use millennial jargon and images when you’re advertising an old folks home. Do your research, and find the types of people who are using similar products and services. Get inspired by the big brands and try to learn from what they may be doing right or wrong. Find out what intrigues your audience, and incorporate it into your social media. Stir up an emotion for them, and show that there is a person and a message behind the brand. Intermix these posts with your product or service. Why does your audience care about your line of toothbrushes? Give them content that will make them remember you and give them a reason to follow you.

Build Up Content

Daily content is getting more and more common. If you don’t have the time to dedicate to post every day, still try to post as often as you can. As I stated above, use the interests of your audience to your advantage. Don’t be afraid to post something that isn’t an exact picture of your product or service. However, do make sure that it fits the feel of your company and the lifestyle of your audience. For example, Monster Energy Drink uses both posts of their energy drinks and images of BMX bikers that they sponsor. Their audience is interested in extreme sports, and it fits in with the message of an extreme drink.

Try to do more than just write a blog. Give them quizzes, host a poll, maybe even curate a slideshow. The more engageable and enjoyable your content is, the better.

Engage With Your Audience

If a customer talks with you in person, you’re going to answer them. Same goes for social media. If they engage with you, be sure to answer them! Even if you simply ‘like’ their comment, engaging with your audience will definitely build up brand loyalty. However, don’t engage hate with more hate. Of course, if they have a complaint use PR to fix the problem as best you can. Maybe comment asking what you can do better next time or send them a free product for them to try. But if they are spiteful and can’t be persuaded, ignore them. You’ll never change their mind. So instead, you should focus on those who love your brand as well as your swing group. Netflix does a great job with social media engagement. They often host a discussion like “what was the first show you ever binge-watched?” and they are sure to respond to the customers’ answers. They act just like a friend, and their followers eat it up. Be that source of interest for your customers. Since they are on their phones all the time, make sure that your posts are engageable not only for them but for you too.