Social media is the No.1 way businesses are marketing in 2021.* So how can you use social media to market your business?
The first step is to identify which social media platform(s) is right for your business. Facebook has 2.7 billion active users, Instagram 500 million and LinkedIn 645 million users – however, it can be time consuming to manage content for all channels. We recommend you pick just one, or two that work best for your business. Even if your buyer is on LinkedIn and Facebook you may find that they’re more responsive to your content on LinkedIN than Facebook – or the other way around. It really is different for each industry and depends on what you’re selling and to whom.
Once you have decided on which platform you are going to focus on – the next step is to work out what you want to achieve from your efforts, understanding what you want to achieve will help you determine if its working for you or not.
In this article we’re going to look at 3 key marketing objectives you can use social media for:
- Brand Awareness
- Lead Generation
- Customer Engagement
Brand Awareness
With each platform having so many active users each day, social media is the perfect way to increase your brand awareness with future customers. But how do you use social media to increase your brand awareness?
Gaining a few thousand or even hundreds of followers on social media platforms is not the same as increasing your brand awareness. Many people think that if they have a good marketing strategy and gain a lot of followers, it will automatically result in increased awareness of their brand, however, this is not the case.
Social media is about engagement and like any other marketing strategy, it takes time.
Create a Facebook Business Page – if you haven’t already here are the instructions on how to do so – How to set up a Facebook Business Page. Think about the questions your customers ask during the sales process and answer all these questions in an interesting format like: images, videos and articles. Publishing content that is helpful, educational and entertaining will boost its chances of being shared by your followers, increasing you brand awareness.
Generating leads
Social media gives businesses the opportunity to promote themselves while also leading customers through the buying cycle. Because of its many benefits, social media can help generate leads in a very productive way.
If you sell a product that has a long buying process such as buying pool where people spend a fair amount of time doing research before making a buying decision – you will want to publish content that educates your potential customers by providing answers to questions they have. This will also position you as an authority on the subject and someone to trust. You can do this through ebooks, checklists, buyers guides and webinars. Promote them on social media with a link to a landing page with a form so people have to fill in their details to download the ebook, checklist, buying guide or sign up for the webinar.
If you sell something that has a relatively simple process, something like a lawn mowing service where people get a quote and make a decision quickly – let people see the work you do for other people. Share customer stories, reviews and include a call to action like: Get a quote, or Get a price. If you offer a discount or special offer for a short time this will encourage people to take action quickly.
If you sell something that has a very short sales process like buying an item of clothing online or coffee at the local café promote a sales offers to encourage people to take quick action. Something like 50% off for one day or a buy one get one free offer.
Customer Engagement
Communication is key for any business to succeed. When it comes to social media and customer engagement every update counts. Companies that are on social media need to make sure they are not just broadcasting but promoting interaction and dialogue with their customers
To get more engagement you need to encourage interactions with your posts – be interactive. It’s easy to post just a picture or video of what your business offers but to really increase the amount engagement, you should also ask questions and respond to peoples comments and other posts on a daily basis.
Discover how you can improve your social media marketing with our free digital marketing audit. Get started today.
