If your company or brand is not on social media then you are losing business to a competitor who is on social media. It’s that simple. Social media and the internet have become the new marketplaces. If you don’t have a quality presence, you are not leveraging your brand’s full potential. Therefore, having a successful social media strategy is imperative in growing your business.
Social Media In A Nutshell
A social media account is simply an extension of one’s identity. Users can communicate, express themselves and remain connected with people and things that they care about. Each user shapes their social sphere to their liking by following accounts of their choosing and sharing what they desire. In short, it’s a customizeable network of information. As a business, breaking into this sphere (or network) and garnering attention is probably the toughest thing to do, but is necessary to sell your product and grow your brand.
Social networks produce a stream of information that people can browse and interact with day or night. This stream can be compared to a busy interstate freeway. Imagine millions of people constantly commuting down this freeway everyday. When a commuter passes by a billboard that they find interesting or useful, they take the exit ramp to check it out. If the exit ramp leads to something truly valuable or beneficial they will signal for their fellow commuters to take the exit. Eventually other commuters start seeing the traffic building up at the exit ramp and take it upon themselves to investigate what’s going on.
These same principles can be applied to social media marketing. Instead of advertising on a billboard next to a freeway, you are advertising within people’s news feeds. The exit ramp that they take represents your website where your potential customers can buy your product or service. The most successful ads are well thought out and engage customers on a deeper level by providing some sort of benefit to them. This can come in the form of a breaking news article or discovery, a “how-to” post or video, or a campaign that benefits a greater good. By providing users with an instant benefit they will be more likely to share your information, and ultimately your brand, with other potential customers.
It sounds easy. But in practice, it is difficult to continuously create content that engages and benefits consumers everyday which is why many big businesses invest millions of dollars in content development and social media marketing each year.
A Successful Social Media Strategy In One Word
There is no magic plan that will make your business king of the social media world. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google are constantly updating and tweaking their algorithms so that no one can “game the system”. If someone was able to manipulate their advertising system, it would lead to that platform’s eventual downfall.
However, there is one common aspect that continues to surface within successful social media strategies and that is: consistency.
Every successful social media strategy is consistent. Consistency does not mean posting and sharing random, irrelevant “click bait” articles or spamming the same picture or message over and over. Consistency in social media refers to continuously putting out content that matters to people, learning what is effective and adapting to feedback. It should be a constant cycle. If your business has 5 followers or 50,000 followers it will not have meaningful growth without consistency.
The consistency of quality content is a direct reflection upon the brand producing it. People on social media are exposed to all levels of quality content and can discern one from the other quickly. When you visit a social page with really poor content, it is readily apparent. Sometimes pages can have huge followings with poor or mis-targeted content, but how meaningful are those followers if they have little to no relation to your business or industry?
The Cost Of Consistent Quality Content
Quality content doesn’t come without a cost. To create great content on a consistent basis takes lots of creative thought, planning and strategy which translates into lots of time. For business owners, this is simply something that they do not have. Sometimes business owners attempt to take on the role of social media marketer anyway which usually results in inconsistent performance, mis-targeted content and wasted money. In many cases business owners think they know what their target audience is and what they want to see. However, they end up way off because they don’t know how to measure their results or take the time to adapt their strategy.
That’s why its especially important to hire an experienced professional who understands social media marketing. They will dedicate time to learn your audience, create content, measure results and adapt to feedback as well as changes in social media platforms.
If you have questions about how to implement a successful social media strategy, don’t where to start or would like an audit of your current strategy contact us today.
