People are discovering the power of social media for online marketing in a big way. LinkedIn reported that 59% of marketers say social media is critically important to their campaigns. Why? Because it forms a direct connection with potential customers through to personal profiles and content that is often authentic and genuine.
What’s more, 41% of consumers have confessed that they’ve used social media to influence purchasing decisions while just 12% have bought products based on ads on social media.
Businesses of all sizes can take advantage of this trend and use social media to boost brand awareness, grow email lists, and ultimately, increase sales. To help you harness the power of social media for your next marketing campaign, we’ve curated a list of the top 10 marketing techniques that will help you engage your audience and grow your business.
1. Create compelling content
If you’re not completely convinced that social media can help grow your business, maybe the fact that it can drive consumers to your website will change your mind.
YouTube content is the most popular type of content on the platform. What’s more is studies have shown that people are 65% more likely to purchase a product after watching a branded video versus after reading an unbranded blog post.
The bottom line is if you want to grow your business using digital marketing, creating compelling content is the key to gaining more traction.
2. Establish your digital marketing authority
If you want to convince consumers that your brand is an expert in your industry, you need to prove it. The best way to do this is by creating high quality content that is easily accessible to your target audience.
The more you can do to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, the more prominent you will become in the eyes of your target audience. When people think of your industry, they will think of you.
To build a thought leadership position, we recommend you follow the 3 C’s of content marketing: create compelling content that is (1) collaborative (2) complementary and (3) constantly evolving.
You can start by researching and understanding your industry. What are the latest trends? What questions are your target audience asking? You can then develop content that answers these questions and that establishes you as an expert in your industry. For example, the travel industry is a crowded field with lots of competition. To establish yourself as an expert in the field, you could create content that explores the latest trends in travel and which offers unique insights for an audience of travel professionals.
3. Use social media to build a community
As we mentioned above, 41% of consumers have used social media to influence purchasing decisions. However, it’s not just about marketing yourself — it’s about forming community.
Use your social media accounts to create online spaces where people with shared interests can come together. Whether you have a standalone website or a profile on a social network, find communities of people who have a shared interest in your product or service. You can then engage with them to form a bond and turn them into customers.
There are dozens of communities that you can be a part of online. From travel to scuba gear, if you can think of an interest that people have in common, you can create a community around it. In the above example, you can see that Lonely Planet has created a community of travel enthusiasts who love to explore the world and gain new experiences.
Why is this important? Well, people love to feel like they’re participating in a community. That sense of belonging makes them feel like they’re part of something greater than themselves. This is why it’s so important to ensure that your community looks and feels like it was built from the ground up by you. Think about the brand loyalty that comes from participating in a community. Your customers will value your opinion and consider your thoughts important. Building a community allows you to gain trust and establish yourself as an expert in your industry and engage with people on a personal level.
4. Use social media to gain valuable customer insights
One of the best things about social media is the number of people you can reach with a simple post. However, this doesn’t mean that you should solely rely on the platform for customer insights.
You can use social media to gain valuable customer insights and gauge how well your marketing tactics are working. For example, you can ask customers to leave a comment after they’ve made a purchase to get an idea of what they thought about the product. Or, you can ask them about their experience with your company, its employees, and the overall service.
By listening and engaging with your customers on social media, you can gain a better understanding of what they want, how they interact with your brand, and what problems they might experience. This type of feedback is extremely valuable and can help you make improvements to your business and marketing initiatives.
5. Use social media to attract, engage, and delight potential customers
The best advice we can give you is to simply do what you do best and make sure that your social media strategy is aligned with your overall marketing plan. Once you’ve done that, you can sit back and watch the magic happen.
Your social media strategy should include a combination of the following:
- Podcasts
- Video content
- Blog posts
This is a combination of all the platforms that you have chosen to focus on. While you should not be on one platform exclusively, you should have a strong presence on each of the platforms.
Make sure that what you post on each platform is relevant to the audience (if you’re posting on a travel-related platform, make sure that your Instagram feed is filled with travel-related content). Post often and consistently across the different platforms to gain the most traction and to keep your audience engaged.
6. Measure the results of your social media campaign
The results of your social media campaign will depend on a number of factors, such as your target audience, the platforms you’ve chosen to be part of your campaign, and the content you’ve chosen to post.
To determine the effectiveness of your social media campaign, you need to set up measurement protocols. This involves recording the number of visitors to your website (or other landing pages) before and after you’ve launched your campaign, or assessing the number of leads that you’ve gained through social media and comparing this to the number of people who’ve contacted you directly.
Depending on the results that you’re looking for, you can refine and optimize your strategy. For example, if you’re looking to attract new customers to your business, you might want to consider doing things like running social media campaigns targeted at specific groups of people or using influencers to spread the word about your business.
7. Use social media to gain media coverage
If you’re looking to gain some publicity, you can use social media to get your articles, interviews, or other stories published. To do this, you need to follow the guidelines for sponsored posts on social media. Essentially, you need to pay to play.
To ensure that your audience knows that you’re paying for the post, make sure that you disclose that you’re paying for the article in the tweet or other social media posts that link to the article.
If you’re looking for more unique ways to gain publicity, you can create videos explaining the importance of your industry and showing your expertise in it. Or, you can engage with journalists to hear their unbiased opinions on your industry and how you can benefit from their coverage.
8. Use social media to increase brand awareness
If you want to increase brand awareness, you can start by simply being active on social media. When people see your name and profile picture in their feed, they will instantly recognize you as an expert in your industry.
However, this is just the starting point. To make sure that your audience knows brand name and is interested in your business, you can do the following: