Top 8 Social Marketing Best Practices
Social media and social network are the new way the world works. Everyone is participating to some extent and the cost set against a business for not entering are very steep indeed.
It’s no longer good enough to just have a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google Plus page. You need to find away to monetize your effort, afterall, you are in business. We have come up with these eight Social Marketing Best Practices to help you reap all the most rewards you can from your social media presence.
Top 8 Social Marketing Best Practices
8) Define your audience – The very first thing you should do before embarking on a social marketing platform is figure out who it is you’re trying to reach. Who are your customers? Who do you want your customers to be? Frankly speaking, you can’t serve any group of demographics. There must be a group who are your perfect customers. You will want to define the demographics of your customers in terms of interest, problems, what they are looking for, their age group, ethnicity, income level, social status, etc. When you know you customer well enough, you are able to walk up to anyone of them and instantly click with them. Whether you are selling face-to-face or from a website, being able to talk straight with their minds usually secure a sale for you. Don’t sell yourself short on this first step; it can make or break your social marketing exercise.
7) Set clear and achievable goals – After the rather swooping demands of that first set of goals, the second may seem contrary. This is not true though. You don’t want to set outlandish goals which will never be achieved. If you don’t square your hips and lead with your hands then you’re never going to reach the fences. Make sure the goals you set for yourself are achievable and don’t fret if you don’t reach them right away. If you set achievable, measurable goals then you should have no problem monitoring your progress and making adjustments. Out the goals in clear numbers, like how large a network you want to grow, who do you want to reach, how many fans/likes you are going to get. Most of the time when you set a clear goal, your mind will be friendly to suggest some feelings that wil direct you towards reaching it.
6) Make your website social media friendly – Something you may think your website already is, if you’ve never dealt in social media before, it’s probably not. Don’t worry about it though; just make sure it will be ready when you launch your campaign. First thing you must make sure is if your site is good for viral effect. People come to your site and they will eventually leave. You want to make sure before they leave, they have done something that will bring more visitors to you. Social medial has made this easy. Add some Maybe you’ve can introduce a guestbook page where customers can sign in and ask questions; maybe you can introduce a blog page where you update on a regular basis your activity on social media. Another of the social marketing, best practices is of course to make sure you have icon-links to all your social media pages featured prominently on your website.
5) Know your social media realm – What is going to be the best way to promote your business through social media? Are the best means going to be Instagram live-action photos of your busy café? Short blog posts on Facebook all about your new spring line of clothing that was just featured in a regional fashion show? Elapsed-time YouTube videos of you and your team taking an empty lot and creating a home? Short, terse real time Tweet-musings about the horrible performance of the commodities market? Once you know the type of content you’re going to most heavily focus on then you can decide which of the social media platforms best suits your business.
4) Produce quality content – The carrot and stick end of the social marketing, best practices is that once you have decided where your social media is best to be digested then you need to create the kind of quality content that’s applicable to your business. If you can’t produce the quality content yourself there are scores of individuals who make their living churning out quality audio, video, text, and photo content for all manner of online platforms. But quality is key in keeping a social media audience engaged.
3) Social media/product changes – As you social media presence grows you will begin to hear people vent their opinions. Most of these comments are positive (“I loved your sweater!”) or constructive (“I may’ve used a little less frosting on your cupcakes”) though sometimes they can be defamatory. You have to censor individuals who appear to be working out of spite. You also have to listen to your customers who offer valid criticisms. If your customers are talking in real terms about their experience at your business, wouldn’t you want to hear them out? The great thing about social media is that you can invite them to share more of their opinions with you and you can learn from their experience. It’s also a good idea (though not a requirement) for you to offer the forthcoming customer something for their time. It may be 5% off a single non-sale item, it may be a free appetizer with their next meal; something small to show that you appreciate their time and you want to have them back in your shop.
2) Marketing for the social media world – Once you have “launched” a social media platform, you are “out there.” It’s kind of like when people put out their website for the first time. One of the ways you really need to capitalize on your social media brand is to sell it in as many ways as possible. Put your social media platform on your website, put links to it in all your advertising, put it on your business cards. Social media is a little bit like a phone number; no one will call you if they don’t know your number. Social media can still find you, but scores more will be interested and engaged in your marketing campaign if you introduced your business and invited them to do so.
1) Protect your brand – One of the things that everyone needs to be wary of is poachers. Social marketing, best practices are like anything else; you need to ensure that your trade secrets and your company name are protected. So don’t go putting up your covert fabric wholesaler, complex building practices, or secret soup recipes on your social media outlet, unless you want all your competitors to be copying the brand which you made famous.
Social media is the wave of the future; there is no escaping it. If you follow these eight steps to social marketing, best practices you should be able to stay relevant and connected to maybe the most important customer of them all; the customer of tomorrow who you have yet to reach.
About Daniel Tan
