I often hear from people that they don’t have much success with generating business from using social media. I think the main cause of this is that they don’t have a coherent strategy for what they are trying to achieve. When using social media to grow your business, it’s crucial to track your progress, and then change what’s not working to drive better results. When I talk to clients, I always say “What gets measured gets improved!”
What are your objectives from Social Media marketing? How will you use it to encourage people interested in your business to buy or use your product or service? This is something you need real clarity on.
Conversions, or call-to-action points, are meant to encourage people to take a specific action in relation to your business. This might be adding an item to their cart, downloading an app, registering for your site, or simply making a purchase. You need to be able to measure your results, identify what isn’t working as well as it should, and change your strategy as required.
For me, social media is just another form of communication, in real time. So, to improve the message you are trying to get across, you need to focus on what I call the 3 R’s. These will help bring your social media marketing back to life.
So what are the 3 R’s?
1. Reputation (Brand)
What are your objectives in generating interest in your product or service? For starters, think about how you portray your business to increase potential clients or customers for your product, service, or brand. What makes you stand out from the crowd? Make sure anything you do on social media is congruent with what you are trying to do, and the reputation you want to achieve.
Then, think about reach. Show your ads to as many people as possible, then check to see who most resonates with the type of content you create. Or you may decide to pay more attention to the group you wish to target, and create content specifically for that group.
Think about brands that you are currently aware of in your specific niche. What are they doing to get noticed? And, perhaps more importantly, what did they do to get noticed before they had a larger budget geared towards brand awareness?
2. Relationships
When trying to nurture relationships and boost engagement, think about what you would like people to think about your business.
Where are you currently getting Likes, Comments and Shares? In many circumstances, this is where brands start to pivot in small ways in order to better please their growing audience. Make sure to engage with those who take the time to comment on your posts and content to really build that relationship.
Then, look to lead generation. Create posts/ads to collect information from people interested in your product. The most common example here might be getting people to sign up to a newsletter. To keep the relationship going, you need to make sure that either your newsletter offers something different from the competition, or is wildly entertaining and informative, so that people actually want to open emails from your business.
This is also true for any other type of message or communication for your business. It’s also an area where you might need to think outside the box or engage professional help to pinpoint a strategy and create great content.
3. Results
Social Media is a great way to demonstrate to potential customers what you have achieved for other people, and you can incorporate photos and videos for greater impact. In addition, you need to make the most of social proof. Testimonials, case studies, awards, ratings and customer referrals are all great and cost-effective ways of spreading the word about how amazing you are at what you do. Social proof is an invaluable way of using the ‘herd mentality’ to encourage the many to follow the evidence of the few. Nobody wants to miss out on something good going on, or as the kids say ‘FOMO’ (fear of missing out, which I’m sure you already knew! )
So to summarise, be measured about tailoring a social media marketing strategy to your business goals and audience needs. Focus on the 3 R’s when creating & implementing this strategy. If you need some help making sense of it all, just get in touch.
