Marketing is all about reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time, and social media is one of the most immediate channels to do so. Social media gives you a unique platform to engage with customers and build brand recognition. To ensure you’re making the most of this opportunity, here are a few tips to use social media effectively.
Meet Your Audience Where They Are
Your business doesn’t necessarily need to have an account on every single social media channel. To make the most effective use of your strategy, consider who your audience is and where they might interact with your brand. For instance, a consulting firm that is trying to connect with business leaders probably doesn’t need a TikTok account.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the main audiences and purposes of top social platforms:
- LinkedIn: Professionals of all ages – best for business-to-business marketing, lead generation and recruiting
- Facebook: Mostly older millennials, Gen X and baby boomers – best for customer service and recruiting
- Instagram: Mostly millennials and Gen Z – best for visual content, culture sharing and advertising for business-to-consumer sales
- Twitter: Mostly Gen Z and younger millennials – best for customer service and sharing news
- YouTube: Mostly millennials and Gen Z – best for housing long-form video content
- TikTok: Mostly Gen Z – best for video content and advertising for business-to-consumer sales
Maintain Consistent Branding on All Accounts
Social media serves as an extension of your brand, so the imagery and messaging on each account should be consistent with your website and other marketing materials. You want to make sure you’re providing a seamless experience for people interacting with your business.
First, fill out every relevant section in every profile. Write a bio that accurately reflects what your business does, include a link to your website and create a version of your logo to fit the dimensions of the profile image.
Next, identify an individual or team who is in charge of keeping the account current. You need someone dedicated to keeping the profile up-to-date and interacting with customers in your company’s tone.
Finally, if you are a consumer-facing business you’ll need to establish a process to manage customer service issues over social media, especially Facebook and Twitter. These platforms have become popular resources for customers to directly contact businesses with questions and complaints, so if your brand is all about creating positive customer experiences, that needs to extend to your social media.
Post Regularly with Engaging Content
What it means to post “regularly” will depend on your business and the social platforms you use. If your audience is business leaders on LinkedIn, at least twice a week should suffice. If you’re mostly communicating with young consumers on TikTok, you’ll probably need to post at least three to five times a week for higher engagement.
Once you determine the appropriate cadence for your business, you should plan a social calendar with a variety of different content including thought leadership (like blogs and case studies), industry insights and personal stories. People love an employee spotlight or an expert opinion on current events. Social media users are very visual, so investing in good graphic design will help increase impressions and engagement on your posts.
Measure the Right Metrics for Success
Measuring your social media metrics will tell you how certain posts are performing and give you insights to adjust your strategy as needed.
The top metrics to measure are:
- Engagement. How many likes, comments and shares are you getting on each post? If a particular type of post always has high engagements – like a short how-to video or employee promotion announcement – make sure to include these every month.
- Impressions. How many people saw your post? If impressions are low, test different times and days for posting to see which ones perform best, or consider including more imagery or videos.
- Audience Growth. How many more people are following your account each month? Make sure you’re promoting your account on your website and in your email signature, and ask employees to share company posts on their own accounts to increase exposure.
Keep in mind that building an engaging, lead generating social media strategy takes time, but having any presence on key platforms for your audience and brand is table stakes. Even if your metrics aren’t through the roof and your videos aren’t going viral, there is a baseline of credibility by being present on social media versus being a digital ghost.
More Posting, Less Ghosting
Creating engaging social content is a crucial component of any marketing strategy for brand recognition, sales, customer service and recruiting. If you don’t have the resources or the bandwidth to invest in social media, consider hiring a rockstar marketing agency that can get your message to your audience in a timely and engaging manner.
Learn more about CONNECTIVE Agency’s social skills or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook to see our work in action.
