Social media is what links us, as a society, together. Everyone has a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat profile; some users have signed up with each of them. And there are even some that have multiple accounts on the same social media platform.The reasons for this vary; some people like to showcase their work on a professional account, others like to showcase their interests or animals. Sounds strange, but animal accounts often have hundreds, or even thousands of followers. Remember Grumpy Cat?But I digress…The primary purpose behind social media is to instantly connect with the world. Everyone has a social media account, and loves to follow others, so tap into this opportunity by marketing yourself on social media!
First off, you need to create and stick to a content calendar. It’s recommended to post twice a day, but hey, it’s just a recommendation. How often you post will ultimately be decided by you, the nature of the business, the content you choose to post, and your relationship with your followers.Whatever you decide, at the very least, you should be posting 3 times a week. Posting this often as a minimum keeps your business relevant and active. After you’ve created a content calendar that works for you, the next step is to fill it with amazing content! Word posts, videos, illustrations, infographics, republishes, you need to schedule it all. Have a variety of content to keep your channel interesting.As you’re planning out what content to publish, apply the 80-20 rule. Spend at least 80% of your time on social media posting interesting content, following users, and building a community. Spend no more than 20% of your time on self-promotional activities.Why the rule? If you’re constantly shoving your business in the face of viewers, they will get annoyed. Users are human, after all, and don’t like to be heavily advertised to.
Marketing is made easier on social media than other forms of marketing, since business profiles can carefully narrow in on their audience when spending money on a boosted post. Goodbye, days of wasting money advertising to a large, random audience!If your business already has social media profiles, then it’s time to consider Promoted (or Boosted) posts. These posts don’t show up on your profile; instead, they appear as advertised posts on your target audience’s News Feeds.Take, for instance, Facebook. Creating a Promoted post can be done in 3 simple steps:1. Log onto your Facebook business page and click ‘Create Saved Audience’2. Select your demographic (age, gender, race, location, hobbies, interests, etc.). The more specific you are, the more beneficial the boosted post will be. But don’t do too crazy—too many specifications, and you’ll be advertising to a nonexistent audience. 3. Choose a Lookalike Audience based on your saved audience.And that’s it! Note that the Lookalike option can only be used when you spend money to boost a post. When you write a post and publish it organically, only those who follow you will see it.While these are the steps for Facebook and Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms have a similar process. As you figure out which social media your target audience is on, spend more time researching how to market specifically on that platform.
Besides the paid, boosted posts are your regular day-to-day posts. It seems simple on the surface-just write out your thought and post it! Well, yes…and no. In order to successfully market yourself on social media, it’s a bit more difficult.There’s a science to word posts. From word count, to topics, everything needs to be carefully planned out. Typing out a post and publishing it without a second glance is not the best way to market yourself… think of all the typos you may have missed!Specifically for Instagram and Twitter, focus on the post’s keywords. Use hashtags in your keywords, directly in the post instead of listing out hashtags after you’ve finished typing out your piece. Hashtagging the important words makes the posts easier to find when users look up keywords. Every so often, take a step back. Ask your audience open-ended questions to get a conversation going. Follow your followers back and spend time ‘liking’ their posts and getting to know them. Create a relationship with your customers in a way that can only be done on social media.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media="50082" media_width_percent="100" media_ratio="sixteen-nine"][vc_column_text]
Spending all this time building up your social media channels doesn’t do any good if people don’t know about them! Advertise around your office and website to promote your social media channels.Don’t be shy! People won’t follow you online unless they 1) Know you have social media and 2) Are motivated to follow. As you get your social channels up and running, test them out by offering an amazing deal that can only be found on social media. Count the number of likes, shares, and ultimately redemptions the code gets to measure their effectiveness. Social media is essential for business growth, with our tech-savvy society. The large number of active users, wide variety of people, and the ability to pay for Promoted posts to appear in front of your target audience makes social media a key marketing tool for any business. But more than the paid posts is a consistent content calendar; posting often and with a variety of content is a sure way to market your business.
