Social media plays a role in most people’s lives these days, and over the past couple of years, more and more businesses have seen the power of social media marketing.
While many have tried to master the art of social marketing and promotions through independent learning, factors such as changing algorithms can make it difficult to keep up with ever evolving best practices.
To help combat this, Really Helpful Club have put together their top-level tips for social media success, even in a time of changing goalposts.
Having an objective in mind is crucial for all social media planning. So much so that research suggests you are likely to be far more successful with a goal in mind than those without. Have a plan and know what you want to achieve – are you focusing on brand awareness, trying to increase traffic to your website, or generating new leads?
It’s crucial to know who you are targeting to ensure you are getting the right content to the right people. Take the time to research and learn about you audience: what they want, where they are, what they’re interested in. Then you’ll be able to ensure you are creating the best type of content to resonate with your potential customers.
Not every business will benefit from every social media platform, as they all have their different strengths and weaknesses. Some, like LinkedIn, have a focus on business to business, whereas if you are selling a product in a business to customer setting, you may benefit more from a platform that has dedicated ecommerce functionalities, such as Facebook.
Ensure the content you post is engaging, varied and high quality. Don’t be afraid to mix up post styles, including both images and videos. Creating content that’s sharable is also essential when it comes to getting your message as far and wide as possible. If you’re not confident in writing your captions, consider working with a good copywriter who can help attract, engage and inspire your audience to that call to action.
Try to avoid the ‘hard sell’ on social channels as sales talk can be a big turn off. Instead, aim to connect with your audience by giving them helpful, informative content and reasons to trust you, such as testimonials. Once you have them engaged, they are more likely to opt for your product or service.
As more and more people turn to social media when researching a product or service, you want to make sure your posts are fully optimised to turn up on the first page of those search results. Ensure you are including targeted keywords, phrases and hashtags, with quality backlinks where possible and content that is relevant, informative and sharable.
Test, monitor, analyse and evaluate. Ensure you understand how your posts are performing, as it is only this way you can build on the data to improve your offering. Many social media platforms have their own internal analytics to help you see key metrics such as reach and clicks. This will help you understand what is and isn’t working, what your audience likes to see vs what they don’t, so you can keep planning and making the necessary changes to ensure success.
Really Helpful Club have a range of insights to help you maximise your social media success.
Alternatively, speak to one of our dedicated V-Hub advisers to get free, tailored, one to one guidance on your social media planning.
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