10 Social Media Marketing Tips to Help You Get Your Act Together

The beauty of marketing on social media platforms is that the possibilities are endless. Returns can be exponential and at relatively low cost, especially compared with traditional methods.

And once a marketing campaign has been released, it can have potentially long-lasting effects, continuing to draw attention to your product or service long after the promotional period has ended.

To help you get started, keep these 10 tips in mind before, during, and after you start any type of marketing activities on social media:

Before the social media marketing campaign

Before you begin a social media marketing campaign, start with research. The more you know about your audience, the better you’ll be able to reach them. Nobody wants to be pushed on a product that they don’t need.

During the social media marketing campaign

During your social media marketing campaign, keep a close eye on your audience and respond as necessary.

After the social media marketing campaign

After your social media marketing campaign has come to a close and you’ve completed all the steps in your plan — improvising where necessary and managing any PR crises that may have come up — this is the perfect time to reflect. Review your results and apply the most effective strategies to your next campaign.

10 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TIPS

BEFORE YOU BEGIN:

Define your goals

Some campaigns are designed to generate conversions and revenue while others have the goal of increasing awareness about a particular product / service. Clearly define your goal and then you can devise a plan with steps that will help you achieve it.

Gather information

Join groups or communities on social media platforms that are related to your product or service. This is where you can:

• Identify your target audience, i.e., find people who have an actual need for your product or service.
• Observe and listen to the way that your potential customers communicate with each other.
• Locate the platforms and hours where your target audience is most active.
  

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Use tools to maximize efficiency

The information above is crucial, but collecting it can be a huge time suck. A social listening tool is a super useful weapon to have in your marketing arsenal. Your time would surely be better spent analyzing information rather than tracking it down. How can you find more hours in a day? Like this:

Instead of scrolling through an infinite amount of conversations just to find those that are relevant to your interests, utilize a social listening tool (like Brand24) to do this for you.

Just set-up your project, input keywords / phrases you’d like to monitor, and the tool will pick up instances where they’ve been mentioned. Narrow down your search by using the Required / Excluded keywords option and avoid picking up irrelevant conversations. After you’ve done your research and have identified your target audience and their needs, you’re ready to develop a social media marketing strategy.

Create a schedule

Most likely, your social strategy will consist of more than a single post, even if your plan is to promote one main piece of content. Based on the information you’ve gathered, you can create a schedule for your team.

• Different types of posts do better on different platforms. A post on LinkedIn might have a different tone than a post on Medium, even if based on the same content. Assign different platforms to different team members, depending on their writing styles.

• Your target audience may be active at different times. Depending on age, industry, time zone and more, different members of your target audience may be active on social media during different parts of the day. A schedule which divides responsibilities among team members according to most active hours can help ensure that your campaign reaches a wide audience.

DURING THE CAMPAIGN:

Remain vigilant

In case any problems or questions arise, you need to be ready to address them as they appear. The best way to do this is by tracking mentions of keywords from your campaign in real-time so that you can also respond in real-time.

Be ready to improvise

If your content isn’t reaching many people, you may be targeting the wrong audience. Social listening tools have more than one use, but they won’t do all the thinking for you. Put some thought into your selected keywords and engage an interested audience from a previously neglected sector.

For example, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art is currently running exhibits From the Imperial Theater: Chinese Opera Costumes of the 18th and 19th Centuries and Late Antique Textiles and Modern Design until early October. New York Fashion Week (NYFW) happens to be taking place Sep 6 – 13. To generate interest in these exhibits, I would suggest setting up a project to monitor keywords related to both the museum as well as fashion: fashion, NYFW, fashion designers. Then you could promote these exhibits in channels where people are discussing Fashion Week or fashion design.

The person who made this comment on Reddit might be happy to attend the exhibit on textiles, and you can easily respond to them by clicking on Engage from the Project dashboard. Other fashion fans may be interested in learning about fashion’s historical aspects (trends often come and go in cycles, explaining the return of the fanny pack). And a designer might find inspiration from a display on Chinese opera costumes.

Humanize

More than just a buzzword, communicating your personal or company culture can draw in your audience. Aside from producing only pitch-heavy content, give your audience a chance to get to know you. Whether your brand image is based on humor, seriousness, or professionalism, find a way to communicate this on social. It will help you develop a relationship with your audience.

AFTER THE CAMPAIGN:

Review feedback

Did you achieve your goals? Were you able to generate conversions or interest?

Analyze

Naturally, you kept track of the results for each step in your campaign. By jumping into this information, you can see what worked and what didn’t.

Improve your product and strategies

While monitoring mentions and responding to any urgent ones, you probably came across some like “I wish this product / service included this feature.” Now is the time to take these seriously. If it’s a good idea and popular among your audience, consider implementing it in the next / upgraded version of your product or service.

I hope you’ve found these helpful. Feel free to share some tips and strategies that have worked for you!

For more resources on social media marketing:

• How to find the best social media sites for marketing your business
• How the Facebook algorithm works

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