Blog

For many companies, Social Media is a huge part of their digital marketing strategy and so it should be.  Popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat have become marketing giants in their own right and if used correctly, can add value to your business. So when you’re thinking about how to include social media in your digital marketing strategy, follow our simple social media guidance – do’s and don’ts.

Do Interact

Once you have decided on the platforms that are right for your business, use them to interact with your customers. Facebook and Twitter are excellent platforms for customer interaction. Businesses need to find the right balance of self-promotion and interesting content. If you bombard your audience with too much self-promotion they will become disinterested, instead, try to engage with your audience. Ask questions, start polls, post interesting blogs, reply to relevant posts and never ignore your customers. If you have been asked a question, or someone has made a comment or mentioned your brand – respond in an honest and positive way.  If for example, you have received a negative review, you may be tempted to bash out a quick, clever response, but please wait and think about what you’d like to say and how you will appear to other customers. ReviewTrackers blog has some great examples of businesses that have responded brilliantly and professionally to negative customer feedback.

Don’t just stick to one platform

You may think that managing just one social media platform is enough work, but each social media network is different with separate ways of promoting your content, and different users. If you’re unsure about what will work for your brand, have a look at Sprout Social Social Media Demographics to help you decide. Sprout Social along with many other platforms will help you to easily manage your company’s social media sites all at once, enabling you to post on multiple social media networks in one go and view performance analytics.  

Do use visual content

Treat your customer’s eyes to stimulating images and video that complement your content. Customers are more likely to connect with a company if imagery is used to grab their attention. Smartphones have made uploading images and videos so easy and effective, which is great if your business is very visual and you have lots to take pictures of. But if your service is intangible and you don’t have any products to snap, there are many sites where you can purchase stock imagery, like istock or Adobe stock images. If you’re not convinced, have a look at Hub Spots blog on Visual Content Marketing Statistics.

Don’t just let anyone represent you

It may be tempting to think that getting everyone on board to share your brand messages is a great strategy to improve reach and brand interaction. But by doing this you will be giving up control of your brand; it’s very important that the voice of your social media strategy represents who you are and what you believe in as a company. Remember, the personal views of your staff may not represent the company values. They may post pictures of wild nights out, or share political views or negative views of your business.

Always remember why you’re using social media in the first place

Set goals to manage your strategy effectively and monitor results. You may find that your goals will change over time when you begin to notice what is and isn’t working for you. If you’re struggling to define your social media goals, think about what you want to achieve, do you want to:

• Drive traffic to your website? Using social media effectively can help to achieve this by including links back to your site and helping to increase SEO rankings.

• Increase Customer Engagement? Ensure your brand is at the forefront of your customer’s mind on social media, this will help you to encourage sales and influence purchasing decisions.

• Improve brand awareness? Set goals that will help you to build your build brand identity so you stand out from your competitors.

If your business requires social media guidance, we can help to implement it into your digital marketing strategy, get in touch and we’ll see what we can do to get you effective results.