Thanks to social media, the way we do business has changed forever. You can now use social media platforms to connect with your audience. With roughly 3.2 billion people worldwide active daily on social media, it is no wonder it should be a part of your digital marketing strategy.
The major social media platforms (for now) are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat.
Whether you have a product to sell or a brand and service to promote, you can discover how to leverage the power of the big social media networks. If you use social media right, it will continue to play a huge role for businesses and brands.
What is Social Media Marketing?
In a nutshell, social media marketing is about using the various social networks to build up a buzz about your brand or product. It is a platform that will help you build your brand, increase sales, and drive traffic to your website.
It is important to understand social marketing across the major social networks and share your content effectively. It is vital to have quality, engaging content that your followers will interact with and find to be of value.
If people see great content being shared, then the chances are high that they will want more of it, and that they will click through to your website to learn more about what you and your business have to offer.
We realize that coming up with a social media content strategy is difficult, especially if you are too busy running your brick and mortar business too.
However, if the thought of content being key to your social strategy makes you nervous, it might be time to investigate the power of storytelling or using a company like ours to help you.
Why Storytelling is your Secret Weapon
Simply put, people respond to stories, and storytelling is one of the best secret weapons you can have when it comes to social media marketing. This storytelling technique is what creates a buzz and brings followers and fans to your business.
When you start telling a story it shows that you are coming out and reaching to people. It makes you and your business more human. Social media users do not want to interact with a business that is anonymous and has no face. However, if you start telling stories of your business in the form of images, videos, and written commentary, you actually start showing the human side of your business and brand which makes it more attractive to your target audience.
Measure Your Social Media Success
One of the great benefits of social media marketing is that you can measure its success by leads and customers, rather than the more traditional web metrics, such as page views, time spent on a page and bounce rates, etc.
Each of the social networks has its own analytics to help you assess the impact of your efforts. For example, on Facebook, you can instantly see how many times a post has been shared. On Twitter, you can see how many times your most recent Tweet has been re-tweeted. Each platform has built-in analytics/insights that will highlight your performance and let you know if your social media strategy is paying off.
A major advantage of social marketing is that there are no charges to post on social media networks, and provided your posts are interesting and they are being viewed and shared, your message is getting out there without you having to pay for it.
Of course, it doesn’t come without some cost because while the medium is free, your time isn’t. You will need to invest a significant amount of time in your social marketing efforts if you want to get it right.
You might have noticed that social networks are placing a lot of emphasis on displaying adverts or charging companies to promote some of their messages. Your initial reaction might be that it does not make sense to pay for a promotion if you can get your message out for free with good content. However, we do recommend that you consider social media adverts as an option. Facebook advertising and promoted tweets can be very cost-effective in the right circumstances. We can advise you or give you some assistance if this is an avenue you want to take.
Use Social Media to Drive Website Traffic
Social marketing must lead somewhere. Even if you think it is just your job to promote your brand and to get it into as many people’s minds as possible, somewhere there is a product you need to sell, and most of the time that product is on a web page.
A landing page is a place where anybody engaged with your social marketing will arrive when they click on a link to your website.
Do not let them arrive by accident. It must be part of your marketing strategy. To help make your customers experience your website as good as possible you need to have a specific message or product to view once they arrive there.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember about social marketing is that it constantly evolves. At the moment, Facebook is by far the largest social network, with Twitter nipping at its heels, but the social media landscape could look very different five years from now. It is possible that an entirely new medium for social media could emerge and take over the social space.
Photo sharing networks such as Instagram appear to have strong momentum right now, and Facebook’s expensive purchase of WhatsApp demonstrates that instant messaging shows signs of becoming a dominant communication medium.
Inevitably. Social networks will continue to evolve and it is those businesses and brands that evolve their social marketing message at the same pace that will succeed.
Make the Most of Social Media with Boat Marketing Pros
A few years ago, nobody really understood the power of using social media for their business. These days everyone from the government to your local restaurant has an online presence on several social networks.
If it is handled well, social media can deliver a huge online audience that hangs off your every tweet, but that audience does not come easily. Growing and managing the interactions that come your way can be a full-time job.
If you find the prospect of social media marketing daunting but really want to make the most of the social media channels at your disposal, do not despair because help is at hand.
We can provide you with all the social media advice and help you plan a remarkably successful social marketing campaign. With our expertise, we could help you generate engaging content that will help you build your brand, increase sales, and drive traffic to your website.
Why not contact us today to find out how we can help your business!
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