A large 84% of all people who have access to the internet have some kind of social media account. That’s a lot of potential customers that you can drive to your business if you use the right marketing tactics.
It’s also a lot of customers to miss out on if you ignore your social media marketing or create an account on the wrong platform. You’ve got to go where your target audience is after all.
Once you get your account up and running, you’ve got to come up with a strategy to get people to hit that like button. Check out this guide to learn how to make your business go viral.
1. Create a Plan of Attack
A small business advertising campaign that works on one social medial platform won’t work quite as well on another. You’ve got to have a separate plan of attack for each platform you plan to use.
Before you can create your plan, you’ve got to ask yourself a few questions. Why are you using this platform of choice? Do a good portion of your target audience occupy this site?
What kinds of posts do you want to let out into the world and will this platform allow you to make posts that are fresh and unique? If any of your answers to these questions is no or vague, it might be time for you to rethink your tactics.
2. Study Your Target Audience
You can have the best Twitter campaign ever but if a vast majority of your target audience doesn’t use Twitter, your message isn’t going to reach who you want it to reach. Before you make your social media accounts, you’ve got to do a bit of research to find out which platform your target audience primarily uses.
Once you do that, you’re not done yet. You want to make content that’s relevant to your audience so you have to do further research to find out what their current concerns are. You’ve got to really connect with them.
3. Have Contests
If one thing will attract followers it’s free stuff. Contests can be a fun way to get new people to try your products and give them a chance to interact with your brand.
The best part is that it’s not too hard to get a contest going. The first thing you have to do is find out what you want out of your contest. Do you need followers or will you be content with just getting likes, for example?
Once you’ve highlighted your goals, you’ve got to find out what prize the contest winner is going to receive and decide on a deadline.
Do some research on a few successful contests that were held on the same social media platform you plan to host yours on. You can get a ton of great ideas. After you’ve got all this down, it’s all a matter of promoting the contest as much as you can.
4. Create Appropriate Content
Again, not all content is good for every social media site. You’ve got to think out your posts before you put them up for the world to see. We’ll give you a few examples.
If you want to focus on posting on LinkedIn, you’ll be creating professional sounding posts that are targeted toward a B2B audience. It’s different than if you were posting on Facebook which is much more entertainment-based.
The good thing about using Facebook to market your business is that pretty much everyone has an account so you’re probably safe to use it to reach your target audience.
If you want to post a bunch of pictures and short videos, Instagram and Pinterest are going to be your best friend. We will say that Pinterest is better for driving traffic to your blog than Insta.
5. Don’t Use Sales Pitches
You don’t see the super aggressive sales approach used much anymore and there’s a reason for that. It annoys people.
They want to know how your company can help them and what you stand for. They don’t care about the different features your product has. Granted, you should still show off product features but the keyword here is show.
Don’t tell them how great your product is or they’ll think that you have something to hide. That’s no way to build trust with your target audience.
6. Video Content is King
Tweets that include videos are ten times more likely to grab user attention than posts that don’t include them. The same can be said for Facebook. That’s why content creators are beginning to take advantage of Facebook Live.
Facebook Live videos have something that others don’t and that’s authenticity. You’re filming and answering your follower’s questions live. This humanizes you and shows people that you’re a person instead of just a brand.
7. Invest in Your Images
The promotional photos that you use on your site need to be top of the line. If they are blurry and unattractive people will pass on following you because they will think your business isn’t legit.
While outsourcing and hiring a graphic designer is the best course of action, it’s not realistic for everyone. Especially when you’re first starting out. If this is the situation you find yourself in, there are plenty of websites that will allow you to create some great looking photos all on your own.
8. Get Ready to Promote
The last step is promoting. You can make the best posts in the entire world but it won’t matter if nobody sees them. Try to cross-promote using your other social media platforms.
Reach out to a well-known influencer and see if they will collaborate with you. Do what you have to do to gain attention.
Social Media Marketing Tactics to Live By
You can provide both great services and high-quality products but if nobody knows about it, you won’t be able to get your business off the ground. With all the people who are active on social media, it’s important now more than ever to start your advertising campaigns there.
You can’t just start advertising on any old site and call it a day though. Use these social media marketing tactics to attract followers and make your business known.
Are you looking for more ways to pull your company ahead? Check out our blog daily for more articles like this one.
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