Some companies are really going to town on their social media (a few come to mind: Funky Christmas Jumpers, Jameson, Aviva Stadium). At the same time, so many companies I speak to are struggling to achieve the results they are looking for using social media. Social media is best viewed as just one area of many online marketing channels. It has the amazing ability to go viral with the added benefit of being able to engage with your audience. This allows you to have meaningful conversations with your audience and show the human side of your brand and company.
As we have said before, There’s no one size fits all approach to a social media marketing plan. I have found that there are three major contributing factors to this challenge.
1 lack of know-how
2. lack of resources
3. Both of the above.
So here are 6 easy steps to take to ensure your channels are working to their fullest. You can perform these steps in any order just get them done.
If your profile picture on Facebook is your logo then ensure that it is the same on Twitter and Instagram, “Why should I” I hear you cry? Because people who like you on Facebook will know you on Twitter will recognize you on Pinterest. This consistency removes a barrier to gaining that new follower or like or +1. For organizations, use the same logo everywhere. this is the same if you’re running a campaign, use the same theme across your channels for that campaign.
Advertising used to be a fluffy art, but not anymore. Get to know your Analytics inside and out. Twitter have Google have them Facebook have them. they are there, they are free… USE them. Use these tools to evaluate your effectiveness on a load of different levels (e.g. reach, cost per click, etc.) Next, draw conclusions that help you to make better decisions through social sharing.
It’s tough to be a cool guy the whole time. We all know that guy who claims fame for that one cool thing they did a while ago and there are businesses that do the same. Re-blogging their best content over and again. While there is nothing wrong with that for a short time, people want to see more of the same, they want to talk about the new stuff. Comment, respond, retweet and engage with your followers. Mix it up: share content, retweet, respond and engage. Don’t be an automated social media machine.
People who use social media are chatty folk. They expect responses to any issues or comments they put forward. Your role as a business is to listen to what they’re saying and respond appropriately both in timeliness and manor. If you cant manage the same hour then same-day is an acceptable response time but a response that comes tomorrow or next week looks lazy and irresponsible.
While your main goal is to “be as useful as possible” across all relevant social networks, there will be times when you’ll want to promote other channels you use. Let your followers know what you’re up to elsewhere. Let them know, that when you’re running events, competitions or campaigns on a particular network, use your other channels to drive additional awareness of those activities.
image: One of our Twitter Ads dashboard for Promoted Tweets.
It’s excellent that you have so many followers and fans across your social media empire, however, did you know they’ll miss up to and over 80% of what you post (roughly)? That’s just the way it goes.
Similar to Google(and most things in life)When you pay, you get more. Paid advertising can create a higher likelihood that your fans and people that aren’t yet fans see your content. We have shown here at Matrix internet that it works for our clients.
Social media can drive so much value to your company– and, it can be a lot of fun doing it. I hope you found these tips useful and will contemplate talking to us here on Matrix Internet if you have any queries.
By Iñaki Castellet Hernández
By Jeff Sheridan
By Matrix Internet