These days, almost everybody uses social media, whether it is for business, or blogging or just to be aware of the latest trends.
Social media has overtaken the traditional platforms of marketing as well. However, many businesses opt for social media marketing only as per their requirements.
Most of the time, it is an impromptu decision. Businesses are aware that they should be on the social media platform, however, many of them do not know what is to be done.
A few firms hand over the access to the social accounts of the firm to junior staff members, just because they feel they are more aware of social media.
But, what is essential for a business is to create a good strategy for social media marketing and ensure the social accounts of the business are operated in a very thoughtful way.
If this is not taken care of, your competitors will have an edge over you in terms of exposure and market traction. One thing is certain, businesses cannot simply ignore social media.
Though might be adaptive to the concept of influencer marketing, some social accounts have to be operated on your own. Influencer marketing should just be an extension of the social marketing strategy of your business.
When it comes to social media, a very significant problem that is faced by a lot of businesses who are involved in it is that the businesses have barely spent the time to fix realistic goals in social media marketing.
Businesses know that they must be on these platforms, however, there is no awareness as to why is it needed.
When you set up goals for your strategy related to social media marketing, you must ensure that it complements your business goals. There are a few simple tips to follow when you design your strategy for social media marketing. They are:
Your Goals Have to Be SMART
Most of the time, goals are set for a business without any meaning and they are not even scrutinized. You must bear in mind that goals should not be created for the heck of it.
They are created to help you come up with a social media strategy that is best suited for your business. Hence, you must create SMART goals, which means your goals have to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
If your goals are SMART, then the chances of achieving them are higher. Even though you wish to challenge yourself, remember that the goals have to be realistic and attainable. For instance, it would be great to have about a million followers on Facebook, however, this will not be possible in a year for most of the businesses, even the top performers. So, it is important to fix a few limitations.
Also, do not try jumping into all the social media platforms at one go. You have to ensure your performance is high on the social networks where the target market spends most of its time.
Some SMART goals which can be set by your business are:
(i) Increasing brand awareness
(ii) Attain higher sales
(iii) Improving the ROI
(iv) Growth in the fan base
(v) Drive people to hike up the in-store sales
Determine the Relevant Metrics
A lot of businesses create their online presence and end up spending a lot of time and resources on the managing of social media accounts, without understanding if it is successful or not.
However, social analytics differ from different businesses. The relevant social metrics of business will be related to the goals set for the business. Remember not to get diverted by easily measured metrics like the follower count of a person or business.
There also exist fake followers which are a really bad idea. You have to consider the marketing goals that you set and decide on the metrics that will help you understand if you are achieving the goals.
For instance, if the goal is related to increasing brand awareness, a relevant statistic would be Post Reach as it will let you know the spread of your content across the various social channels. In case you have sales-based goals, you could opt for a number of Clicks.
Decide on the Target Social Media Audience
A very common mistake made by businesses on their social media is they assume that every follower is good for the business. Follower numbers are just vanity metrics. Having somebody as your follower makes no sense if they do not have any interest in your content.
This is a major issue when you buy fake followers, as they do not engage with the account. Sometimes, they are just bots and will not be your future customers for sure.
These fake followers will not buy your products and are not valuable. If you sell beauty related products, then you must not target football players or their fans. In case you are selling products in any geographically distinct market, you need not have followers from those regions or countries where the people will not be able to purchase your products.
You Must Understand the Social Media Audience
Every social media audience is different. Social media is used in different ways by different people. If you wish to achieve your goals, then you have to make use of those social media networks which are being used by the target audience.
If you wish to get involved in influencer marketing, then you have to engage those influencers whose audience is a match with your target market.
If you understand the demographics as well as the psychographics of the target audience better, you can reach them in a better way through the social channels of your business.
Get the Correct Social Media Network for the Audience
A few of us might worry regarding how they have to go about this whole process and how they will be able to dedicate time and resources to every social network.
At times, all you have to do is understand which is the correct social media platform for your business. You must understand where your target audience spends a maximum of their time.
For this, research is crucial. In case you are not aware of your customers, you could conduct a survey and enquire about the social accounts preferred by them.
Once this is done, you could begin with targeting the most preferred network of your audience, and then you could include a few more accounts on other platforms where there are a large number of customers active. Usually, you will not require more than 3-5 social networks.
Conclusion
Every business must make use of social media platforms to be successful these days and to ensure they reach their target audience more effectively.
These tips will help you track success. If the tips are able to show you that the content you create is quite popular and well-shared content, you can create similar content.
However, in case the content isn’t performing that well, you can note what works well and focus on the material or content preferred by the followers. You must never be afraid to accept and make changes in case it improves the success of your business. If you have any opinions or suggestions, please let us know in the comment section below.
SMM concept -DepositPhotos
