Is your social media marketing strategy falling flat? You are regularly posting but it seems as though people are not interested in what you have to offer. This doesn't mean that social media isn't a great marketing tool but just that you may not know how to use the application provided to best market yourself. This article discusses how to ignite your social media marketing strategy so you can start to communicate to the 100’s of millions of online interactive users.
Social media is a way for people to connect and for businesses to communicate to mass audiences. However, it's easy for businesses to get lost in the social media world and either do too much or not enough. A proper balance is needed to ensure your social media strategy is effective and continues to generate as well as appeal to targeted audiences. Your posts shouldn't just be to promote your brand but should also give value to the readers. Sharing informative and creative content is a great way to appeal to readers and peak their interests so that they'll want to learn more about your business. Blogs give the readers interesting articles and unlike other generic posts that just say "check out our new products," people can actually learn something new and make the decision whether or not to further interact.
Social media is an interactive online application and as a business, you can't expect people to interact with you if you don't communicate back. Therefore, it's important to regularly post and communicate with your audiences as much as possible. A great way to do so is to "follow and like" people who share and like your content. People sharing your content means they like what you have provided and can be prospective new customers. It's vital to nurture those prospects and show appreciation of their interaction by letting them get you know your business on a more personal level. You can do this by following them, liking and sharing their stuff, as well as offering them more information on the topic they were originally interested in.
Social media can seem more like a luxury than a necessity because it's an informal way of communication and frankly, they are a busy working on other tasks. However, social media plays just as an important role as other marketing components and should be used to its full potential. Just throwing something out there to stay consistent is actually going to hurt your business and lose credibility. Everything you post should be planned and out and offer value to your audience.
Social media is rapidly growing and it seems just as one site goes away another gains instant popularity. To enhance your social media marketing, you should be posting on the sites that best represent your brand and be sure to stay informed on new updates and trends. Not all updates will affect businesses but it's important to see these changes as opportunities to enhance each and every post on the sites you use. For example, Facebook used to have several limitations on promotional posts. However, it has recently been changed and several of those limitations have been lifted such as the one stating that promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or a Page App. Now that the limitation has been removed, you are able to run promotions on your Timeline or by using a third-party application (source). Now that you can run promotions on your Page’s Timeline, you can require a Comment or Like on your post for entry. Keeping yourself informed on the social media updates and changes will allow you to add more value to your post as well as being the first to add a new component to social media that draws more people in.
Just like a TV commercial or radio advertising, there are optimal times to "air" your social media posts. According to Fast Company, an article written by Jay Baer shared a strategic method for scheduling your updates at just the right time. To reach a certain audience like business workers, marketers, office workers and managers, you should post updates just before or just after the hour. The article also states that scheduling tweets around common lunch and dinner times (if you can—time zones can make this a bit difficult) is a good way to make sure more of your posts are seen.
Planning your posts can make a difference on how many as well as what audience will see them. Take the time to get to know your audience and schedule your posts accordingly for the best results.
ImageWorks social media and marketing mix employs the tips and tricks you need to harness the power of the social mediasphere – facebook, digg, twitter, Wordpress, and many others – to get found by more potential customers, develop meaningful relationships with others in your industry, and position yourself as an expert in your field. Whether you are just getting started or have an engine in place that needs fine tuning, ImageWorks can help you join the Social Media wave to get yourself recognized and generate more business. Enhance your social media marketing strategy CT, to better market yourself and your brand to the 100’s of millions of online interactive users.
Now that you have more tools to ignite your social media marketing strategy, why not see if you other marketing tools are generating new customers. Download the free tool below, to asses if your business's marketing efforts are working.