Social Media Day: How To Succeed On Social Media!
Our top tips for succeeding with your social media strategy!
Today is Social Media Day! The official celebration was created by Mashable back in 2010 to help acknowledge the impact social media has on our day-to-day life. Here at M4B, we work with a wide range of social media platforms every day. So, to celebrate Social Media Day, we have pulled together our top tips for succeeding with your social media strategy, for both paid and organic activity. Keep reading to find out how to make your social platforms the best they have ever been!
How to Succeed With Paid Social Media Marketing
We are first going to focus our attention on paid social media and how you can use these channels to reach your marketing goals! Here are 3 top tips for success when advertising on social media.
High-Quality Creatives
When creating social media adverts, no matter which platform you choose, your creatives must be eye-catching to stop your target audience just scrolling straight past! Ensure that these are on-brand and shout your USPs (unique selling points) so the customer can see exactly why they should be engaging with your services.
You have just a few seconds to capture your audience’s attention, so do so with intention. Using design tools such as Photoshop and Canva can ensure your designs are high-quality. Also try a mix of ad types, for example still image and video to see which performs best.
Demographic Targeting and Audience Creation
Platforms such as Meta for Facebook and Instagram advertising, LinkedIn and Twitter (amongst many, many others) let you be really specific with your audience targeting. If you know your target demographics, their interests and buying behaviours be sure to include these in your audiences. This is important as you don’t want to be sending traffic to your website or your form submission page who are not likely to convert, as this is a waste of your budget.
We also recommend trying custom audiences, such as retargeting and from this lookalike audiences. Retargeting is a great way to re-engage old customers and you can choose your exact parameters (for example, people who have bought from you in the last 90 days, or those who visited your website but did not convert).
Maximise Your Budgets
We have already touched on how to maximise your budget with accurate targeting but there are also so many ways to ensure you are guaranteeing ROI (return on investment) using the data social media platforms provide.
Regularly check the statistics of your campaign and use these insights to form your future marketing plan. Look at how much you are spending on the different platforms, devices or even ages. Are they converting or not? If not, try reallocating your budget into the areas which are converting for increased ROI.
One question we often get asked is ‘how much should I be spending on social media advertising’. Platforms such as Meta recommend a £30-40 a day budget for each campaign you run, but for smaller accounts this can quickly add up so the budget you allocate can be lowered to fit your business. You can start small and always increase when you see your conversions start to come through.
Be aware though, some social media platforms, such as Snapchat and LinkedIn, have a minimum daily or campaign spend so be sure to make note of this when deciding which channels to advertise on.
How to Succeed With Organic Social Media Marketing
Although organic posting on social media is less likely to drive those hard sales or leads, it is crucial in the digital age that your company is posting on social media. Did you know that a staggering 74% of customers will use social media within their buying process, be it checking out a brand’s profile or reading/watching reviews?
Post Often
Posting as much as you can during the week can help build your online presence and showcase your brand’s personality to your customers. It can also help build trust if a customer sees a recent post on your timeline, as opposed to a post from a year ago. Hootsuite’s Social Marketing Manager suggests that posting daily can help grow your following 4x faster! Creating posts for every day of the week can be a lot for a small business, so we recommend at least 3 times a week if daily is not an option.
Make use of scheduling tools such as the calendar in Meta Business Suite or Hootsuite for scheduling success. This way you can set aside a morning for content creation and scheduling and have these go out automatically to save you time.
Add Variety and Create Engaging Content
We have seen a massive shift across many social media platforms and algorithms to the preference of video content. Since TikTok’s meteoric rise to fame, many platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have seen a similar shift, introducing Reels.
With Reels, you can make use of added text, stickers and trending sounds to help boost the reach of your posts. For many clients of ours, we see a noticeable jump in organic reach of Reels, when compared to standard posts or carousels.
Plan ahead and make use of all post types to ensure your feed remains engaging and fun! Click here for our guide to creating engaging social media content.
Be Authentic and Tell a Story
Our final, but arguably the most important, tip for organic social media success is to just be yourself. This nugget of advice is not just something you Mum or Dad told you when you were making friends at school! Today, there is a business for nearly everything and therefore standing out is more difficult. Aside from a stellar service and high-quality product, it is your brand which will set you apart.
Share your story with your followers. We love sharing facts such as when the company was created/ how long you have worked in the industry (this works great for B2B companies to showcase their expertise in their field). Introducing key players and staff members can also help put faces to a brand and foster a personal connection between brand and consumer.
Need Further Help with your Social Media Marketing?
These tips are a great starting point for social media success (if we do say so ourselves), but if you would like further help and advice on how to grow your business using social media marketing, please get in touch. Our consultants have over 25 years of combined experience working within digital marketing and CRM and will be happy to assist you.
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