Social media has taken the world by storm, there are now 3.5 billion social media users worldwide. With such a vast number people on social media it has become an essential element in many companies marketing strategy, but how can you ensure you maximise your social media efforts?
In this blog we give you our top 5 tips to maximise your social media efforts.
1) TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SMART GOALS
A SMART goal is a clear and reachable goal you set yourself. SMART is an acronym for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Timely
A SMART goal is a vital step in maximising your social effort as it acts as the guidance and benchmark for measuring your success in the future. If you embark on a social media campaign without outlining what success and failure looks like you will end up working with no purpose and direction.
What is the difference between a SMART goal and a normal goal?
To help give you some guidance we wanted to quickly highlight the SMART goal and a normal goal. The key difference is the perimeters that form a smart goal: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. When setting a SMART goal these are considered. Look at the examples below:
Normal goal: I want to grow my social media following this year.
SMART goal: I want to increase my social media following by 20% each quarter of 2020 equating in a total following of at least 5000.
2) CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT PLAN
Content is king! Think, without interesting content, social media would not be anywhere near as popular as it is. If you do not believe us check out this great article by Steve Olenski.
A social media content plan is planning what content you would want on your social pages and what social media channels you would want to engage them on. Planning is vital as it helps organise and structure all of your ideas.
It also ensures you are delivering the right content, for the right social media channel, at the right time. For example, a blog post would be more appropriate for a site like Facebook, whereas YouTube it would not. This makes sure that you are delighting your consumer with content that they want to see.
3) HOME IN ON YOUR AUDIENCE
Your audience is essential for advancing your social media efforts. If you can successfully identify and then target the right audience, you will see interactions increase and conversions skyrocket. Your aim should be to delight your consumer and you can do this by delivering the right content at the right time. By understanding your audience, you can create content that does exactly this.
You may be thinking how do I find my audience? To find your audience you can follow these steps below:
- Create a buyer persona – Create a fictional persona from the customers you have dealt with in the past. Visit Hubspots blog to find out how.
- Join forums within your community to find out where your audience hangs out online
- Create survey for the people already visiting your website collecting relevant information
4) USE DOWNLOADABLE OFFERS
A downloadable offer is the perfect tool to convert a free social platform into a lead generating, money making machine. If you can create a piece of content in the form of a downloadable e-book, webinar or any other format you can exchange your knowledge for information.
It is important to determine the most valuable content that you need for your business and your sales and conversion process. The more you can get the better, however do not overwhelm a visitor on your social channel.
Social media is also full of amazing content, so you need to ensure you make something that stands out. Firstly, you must make an offer that adds value to your audience. Secondly you need to create attractive visuals and texts to promote it on your channel. If you delight a customer with free information, they are likely to return to your channel and website in the future.
5) ALWAYS REFER YOUR EFFORTS BACK TO YOUR RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)
It is always important not to get caught up in investing too much time and resource into something that you will never see the ROI you expected. Each industry and social channel will have the potential to return different amounts of leads, revenue or interactions. Ensure you are picking the social channels that offer the highest ROI and focus your time and money there.
A good way to work out the best social channel is to consider your audience and work out where the majority spend most of their time.
We hope our blog has been helpful in helping you maximise your social media marketing efforts. Remember:
When thinking about maximising the Social Media Marketing Services on offer concentrating on the five things below will give you a fighting chance of getting as much out of your campaign as possible
1) Take advantage of smart goals
2) Create a social media content plan
3) Home in on your audience
4) Use downloadable offers
5) Always refer your efforts back to your return on investment (ROI).
For further insights and guidance, we invite you to explore our blog at 07hm.co.uk/blog. Here, you’ll find a wealth of information tailored to the needs and challenges of SMEs navigating the digital landscape. Additionally, if you have specific questions or need personalised advice, don’t hesitate to reach out to us via email at info@07hm.co.uk or telephone on 01702 410663.
