Nowadays, several companies are trying to use social media to boost their website traffic and generate leads, but most of them are getting no results. You might be one of those people or company, who has tried everything that so-called experts suggested you. But you still did not get the results that you have been expecting through social media.
Right?
One of the biggest reason a social media marketing campaign fails because of proper planning and strategy. In this post, you will learn how to make a winning social media strategy to accelerate your website traffic and generate more leads. Let’s get started.
Set A Goal
Before we step ahead, the first thing which you need to do is, set up a goal. Ask yourself what do you want from your social media campaign?
You will not be able to develop a perfect social media strategy if you don’t know what your goal is. What do you wish to achieve from social media?
These might be your objectives of using social media:
- Website traffic
- Build relationship with customers
- Brand Awareness
- Conversions
The above list is broad. You may not need all the above objectives so cut it down according to your need. Besides picking a broad niche, make a secondary goal that you can easily handle, optimize and measure.
Determine Your Audience
The second step of the social media marketing plan is to find the right audience. Whom would you deliver your content if you don’t know who exactly is your audience?
The understanding audience is a crucial part of any marketing whether it is an online marketing or traditional marketing. Creating a buyer persona will help you to determine your audience. A buyer persona will provide you with details about your prospective clients and their buying behavior.
After developing a buyer persona, you will be more likely to understand your consumer’s need and their problem. Once you identify your customer’s problem provide them the best solution to their problem.
You can use that data to make a perfect social media plan.
Right Social Media Platform
Choosing the right social media platform is essential for the successful social media campaign. Many people make this dangerous mistake when they use wrong social media platform and expect to succeed.
If you target the right social channel chances will be high to get successful. B2B business is more likely to use Linkedin and Twitter rather than using Instagram and Pinterest. B2C’s favorite marketing social media channel is Facebook.
If you are in a fashion industry, then Instagram should be your first choice. Pinterest is also a good option if your audience majority is female. Women are more active on Pinterest than Facebook and Twitter. So, if you have a product that is related to women, then you should invest your time and money on the Pinterest.
Create Content
You found your right social media site now the time is to create the right content according to it. If you are focusing on Twitter, then you should keep your content within 140 characters and concentrate on the catchy title. But if you choose Linkedin and Facebook then you can deliver longer content.
When you are creating content, make sure it contains some proof like data, images or graphs. It shows that you did research and people will pay more attention to your content. Visual content like graphics and images perform very well on Pinterest and Instagram.
Implement
It is not an excellent idea to post on social media whenever you want to post. But there is no perfect answer when to post, either. The best time to post on social media depends on several factors, including social media channel, regions, demographics, your goal, and how your target audience interacts with social media.
Take a look at the top 5 social media sites when people are more active in it:
- Facebook – Majority of people use Facebook at work and home through mobile phone and computer. Best time to post on it is afternoon and evening. People pay more attention at that time.
- Twitter – People like to check their Twitter profile during the work time when they are on a break. Best time to post on Twitter is 12 pm to 3 pm on Mondays through Fridays.
- Linkedin – Linkedin is built for the professionals, and they tend to use it during working hours. Best time to post on Linkedin is morning, afternoon and evening on Mondays to Fridays.
- Pinterest – 80% of users on Pinterest are females. They become more active at evening time than morning or noon. Best time to post on Pinterest is 10 am in the morning and evening hours daily.
- Instagram – People use Instagram on their mobile or tablet, and they use it whenever they like to use. Best time to post on Instagram is any time Monday to Thursday except evening time 3.00 – 4.00 p.m.
Track and Measure Progress
Measurement of social media is an important part of social media marketing. If you are using social media for marketing purposes, then you must measure it. Don’t just measure it for metrics. Instead, track and measure your social activities so that you know if you are doing it right or not and how you can improve it.
Many social media channels have their analytics tools which provide data about your social media activities. In case if you don’t find them useful then you can use a third party tool or can build your API.
Socdir is a directory with the list of 300 social media metrics tools. Using a tool is a good option to save time on measurement.
Adjust and Repeat
It is the last step of the analysis. You need to monitor carefully. These following questions are those that you should ask yourself:
- How is your social media marketing perform?
- Is it meeting your company’s goal?
- Are you missing anything?
- Was anything unnecessary or over?
Figure out what is performing well and what needs improvement. Make changes and after a period of time measure again for the new metrics you set up.
If you are implementing social media for marketing, then you need to know how you are doing.
- Is your content performing as you want?
- Are you meeting your organization’s goal with social media?
It is why monitoring and measuring social media activities is essential.
Follow the above-mentioned tips and make a successful social media strategy. I would love to know how you feel about social media as a traffic building machine?
Images: ”Traffic to your Website /Shutterstock.com“
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