The digital world has completely taken over lives and is where we spend most of our time nowadays. Be it to find the latest music, watch movies, stream videos, search for answers to our questions, or even have a conversation with a friend, there is a digital medium enabling our lives in more ways than one.
As per Statista, the average daily time spent on social media platforms is now around 65 minutes since 2020, up from 56 minutes in 2019.
This can largely be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, but even when global economies have opened up, social media platforms continue to be popular among a large audience. This makes it essential for brands to leverage social media for their marketing and outreach or end up being left behind in the game.
If you are considering leveraging social media to grow your business, here are a few ways that you can up the game on social media and create a solid digital presence:
Schedule and strategize
Gone are the days when social media updates would be real-time and unrelated. Today, marketers use multiple tools to schedule and manage their social media posts. It is highly recommended that brands have a social calendar, which defines the content and story they want to post on a particular day and makes it a habit.
Scheduling also helps the brand share its content when its audience is most active during a particular time in the day or the week.
Know your target audience
The key to creating content that resonates on social media is to know what your target audience wants. Brands can create personas or use surveys to capture their audience’s needs to understand the target audience.
Remember, your brand is not about showcasing what you do or your products to the world but instead helping your audience know the value they can get from your brand.
Focus on what’s trending
With so many social media platforms and content sharing options, brands need to be aware of how to craft and share their content. By this, they need to understand each social media platform and the many ways to share content on each.
For example, if you are using Instagram, you will notice that reels get more attention than regular posts. So for this platform, maximize content for Instagram reels while you can continue posting videos or photos on the platform.
Also, do not forget to edit your content to perfection, using an Instagram video editor or other tools to get the job done!
Focus on value rather than selling
Your social posts need to focus on helping and adding value to the audience, which can only happen if it has a storyline or theme. The key to marketing is emotion, which works well on social media.
For example, instead of just telling your audience how your product or service helps them get X results, craft a story. Add testimonials or real-life examples if you can, so it resonates well with your target audience.
Create engaging content
Your content doesn’t have to be about new updates or events. Instead, ask your audience a question or a quiz to help them rattle their brains!
Social media content can be a lot more than plain posts, and the more engaging content you post, the more visibility and attention you will get from your users.
Think of promos, coupons, or other giveaways for your online quiz or stories, and watch your engagement numbers skyrocket!
Go all-in on video marketing
Social media marketing today is incomplete if you are not adding any videos. Reason?
- By 2022, 82% of all consumer internet traffic will be via videos — 15 times higher than it was in 2017 (Cisco)
- 72% of customers said they would rather learn about a service or a product through video. 84% of people say they have been convinced to buy a service or a product after watching a video (Optinmonster). Additionally, 79% of people say watching a video has convinced them to buy or download a piece of software.
- 86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool — up from 63% over the last three years (Wyzowl)
These numbers are enough to prove that video marketing should be the strongest asset in your arsenal. But if you have no experience creating videos or are unsure about how to edit your videos to look extremely professional, there is nothing to worry about!
With an online video maker, video creation and editing can be done in a matter of minutes.
These tools are simple to use and even come with ready-to-use templates, animations, and tons of copyright-free music to help you stand out using video marketing.
Keep a budget for paid social media advertising
In addition to posts and regular content, business owners can also think of advertising on social media. Unlike traditional advertising, social media allows advertisers to select a specific type of user and audience based on their profile, behavior, demographics, and other criteria.
Thus, social media advertising is granular and can give a much higher ROI while also reaching a higher audience, thanks to the increasing use of social media platforms.
Partner with influencers and thought-leaders
The key is to reach out to a like-minded target audience and generate higher awareness for any business. While your page or business account can only reach select followers who are already following your brand, influencer marketing can be a great way to ensure your brand goes beyond the normal.
Influencers are individuals who have built a significant following thanks to their content and expertise. By partnering with them, you can help promote your brand and ensure that your content reaches their following, helping you gain more leads and business.
However, don’t just go by the numbers when partnering with influencers. Focus instead on relevance and topics that they usually post about so that your collaboration is actually effective for both sides.
Track your numbers and key metrics
Social Media Marketing is essential for any business, but its effectiveness can only be determined by understanding the numbers. As it offers granular statistics and details, brands should regularly track their numbers and evaluate their strategy.
Use a weekly tracking sheet for the essential KPIs to understand what works and what doesn’t.
Using detailed analytics, marketers can focus their attention on posts and content creation that helps their brand get solid numbers, and your followers and audience will also appreciate this.
Conclusion
These keyways are only the tip of the iceberg, and once you go down this road, you’ll notice that you’ve opened the pandora’s box into a whole new world. You can do so much on social media, and so many opportunities waiting to be tapped.
Instead of getting blown over by all you can do, we recommend staying focused and taking one step at a time to help create a brand presence that your target audience notices.
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