Getting Started With Social Media Marketing

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Social media is without a doubt one of themost important advances of the last couple of decades. It has connected peoplearound the world in meaningful ways. Users are sharing elements of their livesand gaining insights into the nuances of different cultures. It’s also beeninstrumental in raising awareness of vital social causes and politicalmovements. While social media has not always been used positively, it is stillan incredible communicative tool. 

As such, it’s also valuable for marketingpurposes. There is a global audience ready to interact with your content andlearn about your brand. Social media is one of the most accessible andaffordable tools for businesses of all sizes. This doesn’t mean to say it’seasy to succeed with this approach, though. One recent report found that 93% of small businesses struggle with social media.If you want to succeed, you’ll need a thoughtful social media strategy that youcan execute intentionally, just like with any other marketing campaign.

We’re going to run down a handful of key areasyou should focus on when getting started with social media marketing.

Commit To Consistent Visuals

There’s often a sense in social media that youneed to follow the appearance and style of the trending posts of the moment.However, this can come off as unreliable and inauthentic. Social media userswill spot in an instant when a business is riding the tailcoats of a trend.

One of the most important things you need todo when getting started with social media is to be consistent with your brandvisuals.

Your efforts for consistency here areimportant because social media is such a powerfully visual approach tocommunication. This is particularly relevant when it comes to platforms likeInstagram, TikTok, and YouTube, which are primarily visual. It’s important tocreate eye-catching graphics that immediately gain audience engagement and makeit easy for users to tell it was created by your company. It can be wise tocreate tailored templates for your post visuals. This could be backgrounds fortext posts or branded borders for photography.

Choose a color palette that compliments yourcompany logos and existing digital materials. Often it can be most effective tolimit this to a single main color and a couple of accent hues. Select one ortwo typefaces you can utilize, though it’s wise to keep the text on any imagesto a minimum. This sets expectations for your users and makes your contentinstantly recognizable, no matter how many times (or places) it’s shared.

Create Journeys to Conversion

Your social media marketing can’t just beaimed at the vague idea of going viral. This might eventually put some eyes onyour content, but it often doesn’t lead anywhere. You have to be moreintentional about how the content performs as one part of the customer’s routetoward conversion. This produces better outcomes for your company and tends toprovide better value for your target demographic.

Wherever possible, use your social media as anopportunity to elevate the customer experience (CX) journey.The engagement and loyalty of customers today are more dependent upon theirhigh expectations for their experiences with your business. Seek to meet andexceed these expectations using your digital media at every stage of theirjourney toward conversion.

This could include posting content thatasserts your expertise during the awareness milestone. Get more personal duringthe consideration stage by providing posts that show how your product orservice addresses their needs. By the time your customers reach the retentionstage, you should be having meaningful interactions with them in the commentssection of posts.

In essence, you should strategize yourcampaigns around bolstering these customer journeys. This doesn’t mean to sayyour posts can’t be fun or they shouldn’t respond to current events. Yourcompany should also show its personality rather than be hyper-focused on thesale. However, it’s also important to consider how you can shape your contentso it also has a role to play in helping your customers toward conversions anddeveloping long-term relationships.

Utilize Your Analytics at EveryOpportunity

One of the common mistakes businesses makewhen starting with social media marketing is in treating it like a bluntobject. If you’re just hitting your user base on the head with your content,you’re not utilizing social media to its full advantage. It’s a more nuancedtool than this, particularly when it comes to leveraging your engagementanalytics.

Almost all social media channels now provideusers with valuable data on how their posts are performing. Instagram andFacebook will do this if you’ve signed up for a business profile. You’ll gain arange of demographic information in the “Insights” section, alongside dataabout how users interact with your content. With YouTube, you get theseelements plus deeper analytics into how long people are watching your videocontent and the moments they become disengaged.

Your social media marketing campaigns shouldbe using this information at every opportunity. Don’t just wait until the endof a campaign to review the overall insights. Look at the types of content yourtarget demographic responds most positively to, and lean into these on yournext posts. Look at the days and times the majority are responding to yourposts and use this to inform your posting schedules. These analytics give youthe power to be agile from the outset, so use them.

Conclusion

Social media marketing is an essential toolfor businesses of all sizes today, and there are many ways you can use it toyour advantage. However, it’s important to take the time to be intentional inyour approach. Use consistent visuals that compliment your unique content whiletelegraphing your brand connection to users. Strategize your campaigns tosupport an elevated customer journey toward conversion and retention. Utilizeyour real-time analytics to make agile adjustments to your campaigns thatmaximize engagement. Social media is one of the most accessible and powerfulmarketing tools at your disposal, so it’s worth taking the time to use iteffectively.