Mastering social media is what sets businesses apart today. Competition is fierce between brands, and attention is scarce. Establishing identity and a sense of community through social media is key to standing out. Done well, a goal-driven social strategy will yield positive results for your business. Countless brands have been created from scratch through social media. Managing your social media strategy can be difficult with so many moving parts. This is especially true if you are completely new to space, but if you have a good plan, you can achieve success.
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Social networks continue to grow rapidly
Improved mobile connectivity globally has increased social activity on the go, from updating friends to sharing content and watching videos. Some of the social media usage studies measured why people connect, and socializing is one of the key factors:
With people spending more time on social media and viewing more content than ever before, you might think this space is saturated and participation is unwarranted. Fake! Creating a targeted social media strategy will help you focus on using relevant platforms to connect with existing and new customers while avoiding additional noise.
Buying decisions influenced by social media
If the first era of social networking was about building and engaging with audiences, the current era is about commerce and personalization. All major platforms have invested heavily in their advertising solutions to engage marketers with the promise of innovative APIs and smart targeting, including the ability to upload mailing lists to run personalized remarketing campaigns.
Friend recommendations have the biggest influence on Christmas gift purchases, more so than blogger or celebrity endorsements. Because of how important a spike in deals is to overall sales goals, you need to plan how to get people to share and talk about your product. Without a clear strategy, how do you know what role these networks can and should play in the customer’s buying cycle? If you need help and base your business in the UK, you have access to social media marketing services in London, as they can create personalized strategies for you, especially with social media, personalized marketing strategy, social media management, content creation, digital marketing, etc. There are subtle differences in the role each social network plays in the buying cycle. For example, Pinterest is a great place to find inspiration and works well as a visual product storyboard. Facebook is great for people who want to share content and look for promotions.
The lack of strategy gives the competition an advantage
It’s rare to find an organization without a social media presence, and companies are increasingly developing social strategies that clearly align with their business goals.
If you invest in your social media presence without a clear strategy, you won’t know if your campaign will be successful. For example, if you’re just posting content to appear to work, how do you know that it’s making a positive contribution to your business? What if it actually drives people away from your brand?
Without a structured approach to communication and measurement, you run the risk of wasting resources on undirected activities. Meanwhile, smarter competitors will work smarter to attract customers based on clear goals, objectives, and targets, whereby performance is measured rather than reported.
Your customers are active on social media
Mobile, social, and fundamental technologies have combined to provide an environment where people can access, use, and share information according to their conditions. People rarely read blogs or emails; they use Facebook as their content feed. Removing content intermediaries requires understanding the role social media plays in communicating with customers.
Even if this is only a subset of your total audience, chances are some customers will want to receive information from you through social media. A prime example is the rise of customer service as an effective channel to learn about and solve customer problems. This doesn’t mean ignoring traditional forms of customer service but updating your customer service framework to take social interactions into account.
This is why you need a strategy. Deciding how to contact customers is not a tactical decision, it requires strategic thinking. Society needs to link to other communication channels so that its role is defined and understood and processes and tools are in place to meet needs. If you let the social marketing team do the work without a prior strategic vision, you run the risk of underperformance and inaccuracies.
There are important influencers on every social network
Don’t underestimate the power of peer and influencer referrals. For years, retailers have known that customer ratings and reviews can boost conversions through peer influence. Feedback from other customers is generally considered reliable. Expert endorsements also increase brand credibility. For example, in highly specialized technology markets such as audiovisual, expert advice is highly sought after and can make or break a product.
Social media has influencers, from obvious celebrities to self-made social stars like video bloggers. Large retailers often employ trending influencers to amplify their marketing messages.
If you are not part of their world, you are not involved. You risk losing your reputation to competitors who are more socially conscious and willing to be bold and innovative in their marketing campaigns. And if none of the key social influencers in your target audience are interested in your business and its products, it will be much harder to get your message across to your end customers.
Reputation can be improved or destroyed on social media
There are good things we can attribute to social media, mainly in giving a voice to people and groups that previously struggled to be heard, and making information available should be transparent and easy to carry. However, it also amplifies disgruntled voices, and lashing out is not uncommon. Jumping into the angry crowd is also something that social media seems to regularly include.
How will you react to the wave of negative tweets? Due to the increasing frequency of social media bugs in previous years, companies are now using fake bugs to engage their audience and start an online conversation about their brand. There are many good examples of companies facing backlash on social media and trying to respond effectively, even those whose social media strategies include crisis response struggle to do so. So what damage can be done to your organization if you don’t even have a strategy? That’s a risk you shouldn’t take.
Today, an active social media presence is expected, and there is no exception for companies.
The tips and best practices above provide a solid foundation. With the right goals and the right mindset, social media can have a positive impact on your business.
