Pro tips to using Social Media as part of your Online Marketing Strategy

Social media has become an integral component in online marketing for any business seriously committed to generating results. It is an incredibly powerful platform that can influence hearts and minds, from swaying opinion to significantly increasing conversion volumes. If you’re using social media as part of your online marketing strategy then these are our top tips for getting it right.

Define your business objectives

Social media is an incredibly powerful way to achieve business goals but you have to start by defining those objectives. What is it that your organisation is currently striving to do? Once you’ve identified what you’re aiming for then you can start working out how to use social media to help you get there.

Identify others in your industry (and beyond) using social media effectively

Part of the process of evaluating whether you’re getting the most from social media – and where changes could be made – is looking at how others are doing it. This could be an examination of competitors or just looking at the approach and effectiveness of brands that have done particularly well when it comes to using social media to get their message across. In particular, look into the methods and messaging used and which channels have been prioritised.

Create or update social media strategy

If you’re using social media as part of wider online marketing, it’s important that you have a social media strategy that dovetails into your digital marketing planning. A good social strategy should include the following:

What are you looking to do with your social media?

These are the objectives that are specific to the platforms you’re using. They could be anything, from making more of an impact and generating profile through to increasing engagement and building an audience.

Identify the messages that you’re looking to communicate

This is what you want the people you connect with on social media to take away from interacting with your account.

Define your approach

Great social media management requires a careful balance of a range of different factors. For example, it’s crucial to ensure that your content is educational or inspiring, entertaining or informative – brands that sell, sell, sell on social media rarely do that well. It’s also important to make openness and authenticity the foundation of your approach to social media – this is what users are most likely to respond to.

Who is your audience?

Identifying the people you’re reaching out to will give you more understanding about how to do it more effectively. Key factors here will be social behaviours, interests and demographic information relating to the users you’re hoping to target.

Pick a channel (or channels)

It is better to focus on one channel and do it really well than to achieve little across every social platform going. Once you’ve identified the right channels then consider your approach for each – it will be different depending on the platform. Instagram, for example, requires great imagery and the live content of Stories can be very effective while YouTube is ideal for those with the resources to create video. If you want a fast paced environment when you can post frequently, Twitter is a better option than Facebook.

Social media is essential as part of a broader online strategy – once you start getting it right the impact can be transformative.

Get in touch to find out more about our Social Media services today, on 020 7100 0726.