Social media has been the main free promotional tool for most businesses. With small businesses it’s usually used for promoting products and services whose main objective is to gain recognition and to drive sales. For big corporations, they may use social media to upkeep engagement with their customers.
Social media platforms can be a beneficial for:
An efficient way to come up with a plan of action would be to sit down and discuss with your team (whomever that may involve) and talk over the brief of what’s involved. Write up a document which includes a list of S.M.A.R.T goals. Establish the tactics of each of the goals and how you’re going to achieve and track them. Other things that need to be taken into consideration would be:
With S.M.A.R.T goals, it’s important to ask yourself:
S – Be specific. A rule of thumb that’s beneficial would be to get to the point of your social media post. Don’t beat around the bush, be clear and precise about what you’re trying to promote or inform your audience about.
M – Is it measurable? How will you know if you have achieved your goal? Having regular meetings with your team to ensure that everything is on track.
A – Is it attainable? You need to ask yourself the question of whether what you’re striving for is actually achievable. Remember and take budget and time into consideration. Being realistic with your timeframe and money is fundamental.
R – Relevance. When you’re creating your brief for your social media campaign, ask yourself, is the content relevant? Take your demographic and objectives into play. You wouldn’t want to waste your time and energy on a project that doesn’t match up with your goals. Establish who is working in what field of the campaign, and make sure they are experienced in that job role. Keep your project simple, it should be obvious to the viewer what you’re trying to portray.
T – Timescale. Have an agreed timescale for your campaign having an agreement with your team that is attainable and realistic. If you are working on a project that was agreed to be finished in a week’s time but in all likelihood, it will be finished in a month’s time – you may need to reassess your time.
Discover Your Brand’s Tone of Voice
Firstly, establishing your brand’s tone of voice is vital. Knowing your demographic is a great indicator of this. If your business is wanting to portray a more professional execution then speaking more formally to your customers would be appropriate. Typically if your customers are from an older generation or are regarded professionally would be spoken to in a more serious tone. If however, your target audience are from a younger generation you may perhaps want to approach them in a more casual, conversational tone of voice. This way is far more relatable to this demographic and can increase customer satisfaction. This will encourage more engagement such as likes, shares and commenting (which are all great things as it shows interest in your business.)
Curate Quality Marketing Material
Each social media platform content should be different. If each platform displays the same content – this shows lazy marketing. If your business doesn’t curate varied content then you won’t reach the appropriate audience. The reality is that each platform attracts different demographics. The content you would post on Facebook wouldn’t be the same as TikTok. Tiktok users are from a much younger generation than Facebook users. Being creative with your ideas for content is vital. For example, instagram users respond well to humorous content that encourages them to ‘double tap’ that post and share to their instagram stories. Again, with Tiktok content should be a mixture of humorous, visual and exciting content. If someone in your team can create an experimental, original and fun video that helps your business stand out from the crowd – this can be extremely beneficial for your brand. Companies tend to keep their Linkedin more professional and serious. Keep your content clear and business like. You want your Linkedin viewers to take your brand seriously. Twitter is generally for sharing posts that are relevant to your business. This gives your audience an indication of what your brand’s values are, what you stand for and what your company is interested in. Twitter is also a great platform for updating your customers with what’s new and responding back to customers who may have queries that need answered. You can also discover your brand’s voice with how you want to respond to them.
Track your Social Media Performance
You can track how well you are performing on beneficial and informative apps such as Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a brilliant way to streamline all your social media under one dashboard. By scheduling the perfect times to post your content, you can reap the benefits of potential viewers clicking through, viewing and hopefully investing in what your business has to offer them. This is a great way to save time so you can focus on other aspects of your business. Hootsuite is also a very insightful way to find out what your customers really think and what they really want from you as a company. By seeing the metrics and data from each platform you can take aspects of what’s working and change and adapt the ones that aren’t. Communicating with your staff members under one platform is an advantageous way to exchange ideas and information.
