The impact of social media on a global scale continues to grow, creating a need for businesses to reinvent their traditional marketing channels and look into the opportunities of social media marketing. Social Media does not only influence consumer buying behaviour, but due to the increased visibility of issues in the social, ethical, environmental and political environments and brings issues onto our mobile screens, giving people the chance to respond and share immediately with their following. Now the main question is how can you use social media marketing to reach the right people and turn your followers in to paying and loyal customers?
Different platforms require different approaches, making research and strategic planning an essential part of the social media marketing process and force businesses to invest in their online presence and branding. Unfortunately for businesses, there is not on uniform platform that enables you to reach everyone who is active on social media. There are over 20 different platforms, with Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter being the so called “big five”. Other platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat and TikTok are growing daily, and so is their marketing potential for your business if your customer segment is present on one of these platforms. In order to select on what platform you as a business should be active, you must research your online customers behaviour and identify key platforms and interactions of this segment. Once you have that information, you can compare you results with the generalised profiles per platform type and select which platform is the most appropriate for your business.
To convert followers and likes into paying and loyal customers there are a few elements that are required. The first one being the type of content. Over the years, technology has improved rapidly and enables to edit and take high quality photos without having to invest in professional photography equipment. This has set a high standard for content on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, forcing businesses to put more conscious effort into their content creation process. Photo and video editing are a required skill that is needed to sell your products and services on these social media platforms.
Other than high quality content, engagements are a great indication of your social media success and conversion potential. With an engaged following, regardless of the network, you are creating a connection with existing and potential customers, which can lead to one of the most successful marketing “domino effects”: Word of mouth references. Once a connection is established through e.g. reactions on comments, your followers are more likely to repost and share your content, exposing your product and services to their respective following.
Social Media Success is hard to achieve, but definitely not impossible! There is no such thing as just winging it when it comes to your Social Media Marketing. This is why there is such a large increase in the demand for social media marketing agencies like Be Sociaal to take away the increased workload of managing the continuously changing landscape of social media marketing. The 80/20 rule is very important in determining the success of your social media marketing. 80% of your social media marketing is researching what others are doing, how they do it, and what you can do. Learn from other peoples successes and mistakes, and apply it to your content whilst making it relevant to both your customers and your business.
There are 3.80 billion active social media users and this number continues to grow by the day!
Make sure you are leading the pack, instead of following!
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