What Is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media marketing is about building brand awareness, promoting your business and converting readers in the hope for profit. Think of it as ‘soft selling.’
It’s no surprise that so many businesses are now flying their flag across multiple media platforms.
It’s a great marketing method that has the potential to reach a range of demographics.
Reaching An Extended Audience
Digital marketers have taken to social media in droves in order to reach an extended audience, especially the coveted millennial generation.
At the moment Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram are the go-to social media channels. Even dating app ‘Tinder’ has been used for some subtle marketing which was a clever move – reaching out to audiences via their smart phones.
The social bandwagon of Facebook, Snapchat, Linked-In (the list goes on) just keeps on rolling, with new businesses hopping on for the ride into profit town.
Social Media Marketing Strategy
Before you start tweeting, pinning or sharing, you will need a Social Media marketing strategy in place. This is to ensure that whatever you are posting gets seen by the right people as well as helping to grow a solid ‘follower’ or ‘like’ base.
This is where Social Media management comes into place.
Social Media Management
You would have to have been living under a rock not to have noticed the expansion of Social Media. Most businesses have now taken to hiring a dedicated Social Media Manager or team to help with their social marketing efforts – it’s a tough job to do alone.
Why? If you don’t have the right Social Media marketing strategy, then sadly your efforts will be in vain. Without a savvy Social Media marketing plan then you will struggle to reach and build an audience.
Getting the right social strategy is hard. This is why people pay other people to do it. You really need to think about who you are targeting, how you market to them and how to get them to follow you back.
Building A Social Following
As a business owner you want lots of followers on social media and you want them now. Not only does it give your company authority, it also allows you to promote your core business values to a greater audience.
When it comes to Twitter, many businesses will follow people in the hope they follow back – nothing wrong with this.
It’s a tried and tested method which works but…it’s not hugely reliable and won’t achieve fast results.
Thinking of buying social followers? I’m not even going to go into why that would be unethical and terrible for your business.
The 6 Social Media Principles To Follow
I read a great article on ‘what makes people share’ and I think the points that the author makes can also be applied for social marketing in general.
According to the article, there are 6 principles that make people want to share and they are:
- Social Currency: people share things which make them look good.
- Triggers: the more a person hears about something, the more they will talk about it.
- Emotion: when a person shares it means they care.
- Public: if more people have shared an article, the more likey we are to share it too.
- Practical Value: people like to share useful things.
- Stories: everyone loves a good story.
In summary: if people like what they see or read then they will share it!
Thinking Outside The Social Box
With more and more businesses taking to social media and posting online it can be hard to stand out from the pack.
When it comes to social, you want your audience to be engaged and to follow. Your audience will be tired of recurring motifs which is why you should look to create something new. If your business has a great story – share it!
Keep Your Audience Engaged
There are many ways to attract attention on social media. Reaching out and asking questions, creating polls, contests and sharing pictures are all brilliant ways of declaring your brand and getting it noticed on the social waves.
Using social media for the opportunity to show the softer side of your brand is also another great marketing technique. Getting involved in a worthy charity event or organisation is very good publicity.
You need to give your audience a reason to feel good about making the decision to share, follow or like your business.
Social Media
Have you thought about showing them how good you are?
Using multimedia is a great way of showing off your talents. With Twitter and Facebook ripe with video sharing, creating short but sweet clips for people to share can be an effortless way of promoting your business.
These clips have to get your message across without sound – sound is a bonus and not everyone is scrolling their social feed with it turned on.
Make your short clip engaging, maybe even funny. If you think about it, if all those advertisements on TV were just images and flying text of ‘we offer these services at these prices’ people wouldn’t be buying into the M&S adverts or Peter Andres Iceland frozen fantasy.
Digital marketing in effect, is not entirely different from offline marketing. The same principles apply.
Social Media Marketing Campaign
Creating a social media marketing campaign or creating ad sets on Facebook can be highly profitable and there are countless way to make them effective for your business.
Audiences Are Aware
It’s clear that the vast majority of people on social channels are selling a product, service or themselves.
Your audience is constantly being bombarded on Social Media with advertising-most of it bad. My newsfeed is full of it. And after a while you tend to just ignore and keep scrollin’, scrollin’, scrollin’.
Sometimes Being Subtle Works
If you bombard your audience with blatant advertising (and we are talking everyday) you will end up clogging their newsfeeds and start to resemble a cajoling market stall owner.
A good friend of mine in Australia told me about a particular sock advert and how everytime it comes on TV she presses mute. It’s shocking, boring and completely see- through.
Be Smart
Audiences aren’t how they were in the 50’s, they are clued up and expect to be sold to. Adverts have become smarter, preying on our emotions to get us hook, line and sinker.
They have become slightly more subtle in their approach and ‘no no, we aren’t selling to you but look at this adorable xmas advert about a boy and his stuffed penguin and BUY ALL OF OUR PRODUCTS.
John Lewis enjoyed a very successful online marketing campaign and a lot of love went round for Monty The Penguin that Christmas.
Remember: not everyone on your social media is there purely as a consumer. Instead appeal to their interests and they will be more likely to engage and respond.
Talk To ICAAL
Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook – all valuable forms of Social Media but which one is right for you? ICAAL can help.
It’s all about choosing a Social Media platform which is right for your business and target market. Find out more about our social media services.
If you want to stand out against your Social Media competitors then contact ICAAL for a free consultation.
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