Where does your target market hang out online? Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube? Our goal is to find them.
Social media can get great results, but it can depend heavily on what you have to sell and who your market is. Gauging your suitability is the first step in any social media marketing campaign. The second step is to experiment – no one knows what will work until we try it, so expect a lot of low budget experiments early on. Once we find something that works we try to repeat the results on the same network, the same audience, or type of post.
Set up and customise your social media pages
The first step is to set up all your required social media accounts and link them to your website and any social media management platforms like HootSuite or Sprout Social. I can help create graphics for your profile and cover images.
It’s also beneficial to try and find a consistent username for all platforms. Ideally you can be found at facebook.com/yourbrand, twitter.com/yourbrand, Instagram.com/yourbrand, etc. If your usual brand name is not available then you can get creative with it to find something available on every platform.
Everyone’s heard of the usual social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and more – but your focus will change depending on what content you plan to create, and who your audience is. Business services might focus on LinkedIn, while consumer products are great on Facebook. Anything visual with a younger audience can do well on Instagram. YouTube and TikTok are essential if you create video marketing content.
Google Plus might be dead but don’t forget about Google My Business – for any business with a physical address it’s hugely important to get on the local map. Especially as you get SEO benefits for keywords where the Google Local map listings are shown above the organic listings.
Running your social media marketing campaign
It takes a joint effort to run an effective social media marketing campaign. You’ll need some inhouse resources to manage your social media pages, while I can advise on content strategy, social media management platforms, paid advertising, and general advice. Here are the key areas of social media marketing.
Experiment with audiences
Who is your target market? I’ll help you select some key demographics such as age, gender, location and niche interests to help find your ideal customers. We can do low budget experiments to find the most receptive niches. Once we find an audience that works we can reuse it.
Boost and promote your blog articles
Your blog articles are your most important content. You can pay to boost these on Facebook and reach the niche audiences that we identify. Boosting these posts also helps your SEO – Google likes content that has more visitors. In theory having lots of people reading an article it means it is a good article.
Supplement with additional social media posts
As well as the core blog articles, you should also share content like photos and smaller updates for your followers. Your team should be constantly posting – potentially multiple times per day. Share posts from other related pages that your audience might enjoy. These pages might also share your content back.
Engage with your followers
Interacting with your followers is an essential part of building an effective social media presence. Comment on posts to help start discussions, ask questions, and reply to messages and enquiries in a timely manner. You’ll need to manage this part with your inhouse team.
Your brand can be more sociable. Let’s talk about social media marketing.
