Why do businesses, big and small alike, spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on social media marketing? Why do they feel the need to invest in content curation, social media advertisements, and maintaining a vibrantly engaging feed?
It’s simple: social media allows brands to connect with their audience through conversational and personalized marketing. Modern-day consumers are hooked on customized marketing and sometimes mundane tactics that deliver results. They want brands to communicate with them, attend to their needs, and most importantly, understand their preferences.
Social media platforms open a wealth of branding tools to get creative with storytelling tactics to hook your audience. You can use these tools to funnel your customers with lead-generating content and enjoy higher marketing ROIs.
Keep reading to explore practical strategies to harness the power of social media to grow your brand and instill brand loyalty.
Covered Topics
1. Setting Goals & Defining Milestones
Unfortunately, social media success isn’t guaranteed for all brands that funnel hundreds of dollars into running ads. Surprisingly, many brands manage to make headway without investing a penny in advertisements. Mindboggling, isn’t it? The formula is relatively simple: it takes a strategy to reap results.
It’s crucial to approach social media with a strategy that defines your goals and milestones. What do you wish to achieve from social media? And what kind of skills would you need to accomplish these goals? For instance, do you want to acquire 1500 followers on Instagram within a month? Or do you want to build yourself into a seasoned social media marketer with multiple brands thriving under your expertise?
Suppose you wish to turn your creative endeavors on social media into a career that brings financial stability and creative independence. In that case, it makes sense to pursue an online digital media degree to help acquire market-relevant skills and an in-depth understanding of the field. Social media algorithms are changing dramatically, and they demand a well-rounded skillset with analytical and data-driven expertise.
Marketers can only set goals when they are capable of understanding insights to boost reach and engagement. Luckily, the online learning infrastructure allows you to educate yourself in digital marketing with superior convenience and flexibility. Continual learning and digital certifications will empower your strategy with tactful insights to achieve your branding goals with precision.
2.Choosing the Right Platforms
Choosing the right social media platforms is of the utmost significance to build a vibrant and thriving brand. However, this endeavor demands you conduct extensive market research and connect with your audience. Which platforms enjoy popularity amongst your target audience?
For instance, brands targeting parents, older and senior adults find Facebook a lucrative platform. In contrast, brands targeting millennials and Gen Z gravitate more towards Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube. Twitter is the ultimate platform to engage socially charged and politically active audiences.
You must approach social media marketing by choosing the right platforms to connect with your audience.
3.Humanize your Brand
Consumers do not engage brands to invest in their products or service. No, they connect with brands to embrace a lifestyle that empowers, uplifts and encourages them. They want to make mindful choices that align with the lifestyle they are trying to create. Modern-day consumers want to use their buying power to uplift entrepreneurs and form lasting connections.
Do you want to enjoy support, love, and loyalty from your target audience? We advise you use social media as a branding outlet to humanize your brand. Share the story of your entrepreneurial journey, and inspire your audience with your struggles and achievements. Share the vision and values that power your brand, define your supply chain and win over their trust.
For instance, the live feature allows you to host a virtual party and engage in non-scripted conversations. Stories allow you to share unfiltered highlights of unfinished processes and behind-the-scenes madness. All these features and tools encourage brands and marketers to humanize businesses instead of fixating on perfection.
4.Develop a Content Strategy
Do you make random social media posts with whatever content or captions come to mind? Or do you work with a strategy that defines schedules, content variation, and proofread captions?
Robust social media engagement demands a variety of content to engage all kinds of users. It’s crucial to work with a content strategy that streamlines all social media posts and activities ahead of the week. It will help you reduce the burdens and prevent engagement from falling without the awful hassle.
You see, some people enjoy lengthy blogs and articles packed with information and insights. In contrast, some people don’t have the patience to read and prefer watching videos packed with infographics and interactive animations. Likewise, the majority of social media users are drawn towards rich and immersive visuals.
Essentially, social media is a platform driven by visuals and graphics, and brands must capitalize on this trend. Video marketing is emerging as a much more powerful alternative to written words, bringing higher ROIs and high-quality leads. However, that doesn’t mean you should neglect crafty captions and blogs altogether.
Then once in a while, do something quirky and exciting, such as a virtual party, giveaway contest, or panel discussion. The goal is to prevent monotony and keep things fun and exciting by mixing up your content with variety. Remember, predictability is the death of excitement!
This is where you’ll need a result-focused content strategy to help you find a meaningful balance and present each user with a little something to build and maintain engagement.
5.Consistency is Key
Harnessing the power of social media isn’t possible without consistency. The algorithms demand consistency to keep your brand relevant and upfront. It’s easy to lose engagement and rankings if you neglect to post for a few days. In contrast, posting and engaging your audience will help position your brand in the minds of the consumers more effectively.
Consistency is the key to social media marketing and ROIs. It’s wise to schedule posts and make time to avoid last-minute hassles. If you struggle with these duties, you can always employ an in-house professional to perform these responsibilities.
Conclusion
Social media marketing is no longer an option that brands can consider if it aligns with their marketing strategy. Today, it’s an absolute necessity to build trust and win over consumer loyalty. You see, modern-day consumers do not trust brands and websites they cannot find on social media.
Your consumer will hunt you on Facebook to read reviews by existing customers before investing their hard-earned money. Consumers also use hashtags to investigate the digital reputation of a brand. Simply put, social media lends integrity, credibility, and authority. All brands must harness the power of social media to grow and flourish.
