5 Proven Initiatives to Boost Your Social Media

Author: Kaitlyn Wilcoxson Category: B2B, B2C, Marketing, Social Media & Digital Date: August 24, 2018

Social media marketing is everywhere. Over the last several years, it has become practically second nature for businesses to want to integrate a social media marketing strategy into their overall marketing plans.

The most effective social media marketing campaigns – the ones that really grab our attention – are well-thought out and highly strategized; but unfortunately, many businesses don’t realize the full scope of work that’s involved in creating such a push. They see their competitors maintaining a presence on Facebook and LinkedIn and figure they should do the same, incorrectly believing that all they have to do is create a profile and the followers will come. But the reality is, without a dedicated social media marketing strategy in place, that facet of your marketing plan is going to fall flat and result in little to no return on your investment.

Also worthy of noting, social media marketing is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. So, the strategies that work for another business may not work for yours. A hotel, for example, does not have the same social media marketing strategy as a payroll processing company. Still, there are five proven initiatives that will help boost your social media presence regardless of the type of business you’re marketing:

1. Establish a set of key performance indicators.

When clearly outlined, a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) will help your business decipher just how well your campaigns are performing. Analyzing these metrics gives you the inside scoop into whether your social media marketing strategy is panning out as planned, or whether you’ll need to make some adjustments going forward.

There are nearly infinite metrics available to measure on social media (it goes way beyond how many likes you have!), but for many companies, the most important numbers to examine are:

• How many people are seeing/hearing about your brand?
• How often are those people actually engaging with your company?
• How many of those engagements are turning into conversions?

2. Always make engagement one of your KPIs.

Although audience engagement on social media is one of the toughest KPIs to achieve, it is far and away one of the most crucial for establishing an effective social media marketing campaign. Here’s how it works: Engagement leads to more views thanks to algorithms and viral logic. More views lead to higher brand awareness. Higher brand awareness leads to a more recognizable brand across a larger audience.

To create more engaging content, there are a couple of points to consider:

• Remember you are talking to real people, so be personable and engaging, and ask questions just as you would in person. Asking people what they think is a great way to get the conversation going.
• People like competition – it’s in our nature – so you may consider presenting a game or other promotion that offers a prize at the end. Even a small token of victory can go a long way.

3. With your KPIs in mind, set some goals.

Without goals, you’d have no point of reference on how to approach your social media marketing strategy, making it impossible to determine any type of success. Instead, you want to establish a clearly defined objective, and make it one that has the ability to be measured according to your KPIs. And don’t be afraid of setting a realistic timeline!

For example, maybe you’d like to convert 10 sales within 30 days. You may choose to approach that goal by posting a clear call-to-action once a day on Facebook, backed by a $50 clicks-to-site ad budget. Your objective and timeline for reaching your goal are clearly defined, and you’ve chosen an approach that can be easily measured.

Of course, you’ll want to revisit your goals regularly – either after each campaign, or at predetermined intervals, whether that’s every month, quarter or year. And because you’ve established KPIs, your progress will be clearly trackable and should tell you whether you are hitting your goals. Each time you pull a report, it’s a good idea to not only analyze the data, but also extrapolate action items for the next campaign or elsewhere down the line.

4. Research your target audience.

Before you put your plan into action, you should have a solid understanding of exactly who it is you’re targeting with your social media marketing strategy. Who is your ideal customer? What are their interests? Which social media sites do they most frequently use? What type of content do they like to read? What are their pain points? What speaks to their emotions? What is going to grab their attention?

5. Plan your execution strategy.

Developing a social media content calendar is the most effective way to keep track of what you’ve already posted and what should come next. It helps to ensure the content you share is timely, relevant and in line with the goals of your social media marketing strategy.

If you start with these five initiatives, you will be able to not only determine how well your social media marketing strategy is working, but by determining what works and what doesn’t, you’re also able to calculate an ROI and boost your social media strategy going forward.

For help getting your business’s social media marketing strategy off the ground and onto the next level, contact Paradigm Marketing and Design today to schedule a consultation.