For all its value and generosity, social media has its snag. Despite its popularity, it is becoming difficult to gain visibility. Your business has to craft a social media marketing campaign to hit the right audience. Here, it is proving to be hard being a marketer or advertiser these days. Here, when you think you have mastered the game, someone goes and changes the rule. Furthermore, a new social media platform keeps on emerging every year, and you must join. In the end, it creates information overload.

First, before you implement any social media ideas, you have to conduct internal/ external audit and SWOT. You can do in-depths interviews with your employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders. In general, it will help you gauge how your employees communicate and collaborate. Additionally, it’ll help you judge whether your organizational culture needs to change. You have to verify if social media can contribute to your business objectives.

Why your business needs social media marketing

Social media novice will tell you that social media is the best way to connect with your audience. At present, social media marketing is an indispensable tool for all businesses alive. Here, you’ll engage with your customers, increase sales, and build relationships. A July 2020 report by Statista shows that 4.57 billion people worldwide now use the internet. Besides, 346 million new users have come online in the last year.

You are about to learn social media marketing ideas and strategies to market your plan. Moreover, this approach applies whether you are using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or LinkedIn. What your business gains from these platforms are exposure, which is good for growth.

Finally, there’s no magic when it comes to success in social media marketing. In short, you have to build a firm and long-lasting relationship with your customers. Share all types of content and expertise they would love to see or read. In the end, they will share it with their networks and becomes insider brand ambassadors.

To help you out, I have put down social media ideas and strategies key consideration for you.

Social media ideas and strategies

• Decide which network is the best fit for your business.

Prestigious companies with the resources do bulldoze at high gear into any platform. To emphasize, you are not them; it’s preferable to focus on one or two vital social networks. Your time is valuable. So, there’s no need to be mediocre on four or five platforms.

Without a doubt, not all platforms are going to appeal to your audience or business. First of all, unearth where your target audience hangs out. People join Facebook and twitter because of the enormous sheer size and influence. But, to your surprise, you can make a massive impact on Pinterest, LinkedIn, or Instagram. Lastly, experiment and learn about what each platform brings to the table.

• Define and test your goals

Before posting content to social media, you need to specify the aims of your strategy. Here, when you are performing a SWOT analysis, goals should follow SMART guidelines. SMART objectives are:

• Specific. Do you want to raise awareness, increase sales, or want to improve customer service?
• Measurable. What tools are you going to use for analytics to track your progress?
• Achievable. Have you put in place a realistic goal?. As beginners don’t aim too high, you will deflate your assets.
• Relevant. Your goal should align with the business vision, values, and mission.
• Timely. It is better to stick to one goal at a time. For example, I want to get new customers by 300% in the next three months.
• Shape your content strategy by performing an audit

Usually, carrying an audit will help you have an idea of what social media content works for you. Here, you will identify your audience’s desires, needs, and interests. First of all, ask yourself what problems you can help them solve. Secondly, what questions you can answer with an expert view. Lastly, what content type do they prefer? Is it text, infographics, or videos?

The best green button is to use your competitor for a nose around. As a result, you will identify gaps and use them as an opportunity.

• Use a social media content calendar to plan.

Your audiences are always thirsty for fresh, quality content. Thus, to help you distribute all these content, you need a social media content calendar. An editorial calendar will help you plan for months or even a year. As a result, you will build seasonal themes. For example, sharing a new post on Monday, hosting “Ask me anything” Thursdays, and others.

• Re-purpose your content the platforms

One Holy Grail about content is that you can distribute it in different pieces. For instance, you can market a press release as three or four content pieces. You can:

• Blog about the story
• Tweet the story
• Make a video on the story
• Turn the story into infographics for Pinterest
• Build a relationship and provide value instead of over-promoting

Usually, the vast majority of social media users are there to interact with families and have a fan. If you see them following a brand, they do so because of passion. Now, posting your latest blog every single moment won’t build any love. Thus, your mission is to convince them to enjoy having your business as everyday normal.

That is achievable if you change your attitude from “what can we sell you” to “what we can do to help you.” In summary, your content should touch your audience on a personal and emotional level.

• Listen with a social media audit.

From a broader perspective, it is a systematic examination of your social media data. In other words, it is where you take a snapshot of all social media activities in and around. Then you check all the information you have gathered.

Listening to what happens around you is very crucial. For example, please take a look at Dave’s song about United Airlines’ mishandling of his guitar in 2006. That song received three million views within a week and was on CNN and BBC. After that, United Airlines’ stock dropped by 10% because they did not make things right.

Summary

Being active or your business having social media accounts is not that difficult. But, your business may have had a Facebook page since its inspection. Yet, understanding how to use that page is quite another game. It is a game you can triumph if you take your time and plan an active social media strategy.