Much has been heard, talked and written about social media marketing tips everywhere. For the ones who are new to the entire scene, every word they read seems like gibberish. It is time to go back to the basics that actually work. Here you will be learning how to use and accept social media marketing as an important tool for promoting your business in 2019.

Being Committed To Social Media Marketing

For every entrepreneur who has just taken their first steps to create social media presence, the thing they need to do right away is to find it in them to be loyal to social media channels. They need to find examples of similar businesses and brands and try to emulate their successes. Social media marketing is going to be like any other form of marketing. It is going to be hard to create a following, especially during the initial phase. You will have to focus on creating great and engaging content that your followers want to view, read, and share. Give it 8 to 12 months and you will be generating a consistent flow of visitors. You want to build a strong impression on your followers and for that, you will have to get a consistent content stream going. Do your homework and figure out what exactly resonates with your audience. Do not forget to add your business or company mission statement to your Social Media Strategy and also tell your viewers in very clear words the reason they should follow you on social media. Educate your users about the kind of content you plan to create and post and what all you hope to achieve by doing it.

Pick A Platform Or A Platform Mix

Remember, not every social media platform will be suitable for you or your business. You will have to make a choice or pick a pairing or mix of social media channels to achieve your set goals.

  • Right now, Facebook is the world’s most popular social media network that boasts of more than 2 billion users. It also has the most regular users. It is ideal for B2C marketers who want to raise their brand’s visibility, promote online selling, and provide service to their customers.
  • Instagram comes next and owing to its features that let one be more visible. Most popular among teens and young adults, it spells more and instant success for you more often than you can count. Your marketing function can achieve all its goals by appealing to your audience through a visual approach.
  • LinkedIn is used by over 467 million users and is the world’s largest careers network. It’s more appropriate and generally used for B2B marketing and business networking.
  • Twitter is a quirky social media channel that does the job in less than 280 characters per message. It is ideal for connecting with consumers through rapid communication.
  • Then come the very popular Snapchat YouTube and Pinterest. Here too the primary focus is on visual content rather than the written word.

But the biggest problem that marketers and businesses face while picking a platform is defining the age and gender demographics of the users who use these channels. When you are not sure of where your target audience lies in terms of usage of a social media platform, making a choice about it can be very difficult. Therefore, it is essential to first know what channels are preferred by your customers and prospects and then plan out your content strategy surrounding the features of those channels.

Choose Quality Over Quantity

You may find that posting each and every little detail about your brand and your upcoming products is very tempting. You just want to make the most of the social platform and present your brand in the best light. But one can easily go overboard in their mission to reach out to as large a target audience as possible within a day. First of all, when you are treating your audience with too much information at one time, they lose focus and interest. In addition to that, you fail to create the much needed hype around a particular product whose launch is imminent in the next few months or weeks for example. Above all, by leaking too many details or graphics or info about any development you are clearly focusing more on quantity than quality.

Limit your activity to specific places where your target group can see you and value your presence. Provide them with value in your content and try to solve their problems with your every post. These posts should ideally also work to entertain them and come across as beneficial for them.

According to the Pareto principle, “Most of your social media content should not market your business, but provide added value to your audience.” This is what you need to keep in mind always.

Be Active And Post Consistently

Different social media channels move with different speeds. Some offer limited validity for your posts and some let you manually delete them and add something else in their place. To sum it up, if you think that by sending out one Tweet or posting one image on Snapchat per day you are going to influence your followers, think again. You will have to publish content on various social media platforms at various times of the day and week if you really wish to connect with your audience. You need to decide upon the following questions beforehand:

  • How often do you wish to publish content?
  • Is the content going to be graphic or written or a combination of the two?
  • What is going to be your frequency on each social media channel?
  • What purpose will the content serve?
  • What social media influencers are you going to reach out to?

Don’t Underestimate The Power Of The Right Social Media Management Tool

A lot of new businesses that are not aware of the right social media content publishing tools end up wasting their time and being much less productive than they can actually be. Social media tools offer you a wide range of functions such as:

  • Publishing similar or linked content across various platforms
  • Schedule all your posts in advance
  • Ability to collaborate with your team
  • Manage and update all of your social media feeds on a single dashboard
  • Tracking and measuring your results

Be More Visual – Post More Imagery Whenever Possible

Use of photos, videos and infographics are on the rise because these kinds of content are consumed more than the written word. This means you need to focus on visuals as much and as often as possible. An independent study shows 67% of marketing executives use visual content because it has a higher response rate in social media marketing. You can use images, GIFs and memes or videos but make sure they are relevant to your post and audience.

Why Should People Follow You?

They should have a solid reason to follow your company, right? This is where you need to think from the perspective of your consumer. What are they going to get by following you? A few examples of how they could benefit from your posts are:

  • Fun trivia and gossip from your behind-the-scenes videos on facebook
  • Informative content about your products and services on Instagram
  • Discount codes or vouchers on your twitter handle
  • Knowledgeable and relatable content on your industry on your LinkedIn profile
  • Real-time customer support on Twitter
  • Live webinars and tutorials on periscope

Final Thoughts

There has to be some value to each and every single one of your social media posts. They should be able to enrich your readers’ lives and knowledge in some way. Your customers should want to talk about what they learned from you after they have gone through your post. This is the only way to make it obvious that you are here to promote your product or service but without being in their face. Give it some time. When you become a master of social media marketing, you will have mastered the art of subtlety as well.