Tips for a Growing Social Media Marketplace

The recent global health pandemic has shifted consumer purchasing behaviors and media consumption. The shutdowns of 2020 caused events to be canceled and limited personal contact. Consumers were unable to go out and easily shop their favorite stores. They also had to find new ways to socialize with their friends and family. This led to an uptick in the number of people online purchasing products and perusing social media sites.

For businesses to adjust to this new normal, they must be able to fully embrace a new way of understanding their clients and how their habits have changed. As the world was forced to be physically distance, social media bridged the gap and kept consumers connected to family, friends and their favorite brands. It only makes senses for marketers to focus more attention on their social media marketing strategy.

Social Media Marketing

 

Hootsuite’s fifth annual report on the latest global trends in social media states “MORE THAN HALF OF ALL BUSINESSES (60%) are planning to increase their Instagram budget, and almost half are planning to do the same for Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.”

The report is based on a survey of more than 11,000 marketers. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed stated “increased acquisition of new customers” as their top outcome for social media in 2021. This is a 58% year-over-year increase!

Focus on One Social Channel at a Time

It is undeniable, utilizing social media as part of your marketing strategy has great potential based on the current trends. It can be very tempting to try advertising on as many social platforms as possible. However, it can be a daunting task to launch and manage five or six social channels all at once. Remember that phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none.” This could be the end result of focusing on too many social channels at once. A better practice would be to master one social channel then, analyze the results and move on to the next.

10 Steps to Effectively Develop Your Social Media Strategy:

  1. Start by defining your target audience. Age, gender, income, location and level of education can all be determining factors in selecting the first social media platform to focus on.
  2. Research you buyer persona. Buyer Persona(s) are the semi-fictional representations of your ideal customer. More specifically, having a deep understanding of your buyer personas is critical to driving content creation, sales follow-up, and really anything that relates to customer acquisition and retention.
  3. Identify the social media platforms used by your Buyer Persona(s) and start with the most popular one.
  4. As part of your competitive analysis, determine which social sites your competitors are advertising on.
  5. Produce content that addresses Buyer Persona pain points. Your customers’ pain points are problems they need to solve that are addressed by your products and or services. These are usually issues like not enough budget or money, lack of resources, physical pains, and even trying to find ways to accomplish their leadership’s ambitious goals.
  6. Create a content depository. Here is where you will put all of your related assets, i.e. pictures, blog posts, videos, infographics, quick tips, etc.
  7. Develop engaging posts that build relationships. Social media can be a great way to engage with new, current and prospective customers in a more casual setting. For example, if a customer purchased a piece of jewelry from your online boutique and tags you in a picture on social media of them wearing it, you can engage with them by commenting and liking their post. Taking it a step further, you could ask their permission to post their picture on your social page. This can promote customer loyalty and encourage others to purchase and post pictures wearing your products.
  8. Maintain a consistent content publishing cycle. In many cases this can be accomplished by creating scheduled posts using the assets in your content depository.
  9. Whenever possible, share expert content. This can help you gain more social followers, while boosting your brand’s reputation with the relevant content of an expert.
  10. Evaluate your results and adjust your strategy as needed.

Lastly, there is always the option of hiring a creative agency, like IGM Creative Group to produce your eye-catching graphics or to help you plan and implement your next Social Media marketing campaign.

About IGM Creative Group

IGM Creative Group provides advertising solutions, marketing strategy, web development and professional SEO services for Fortune 500, mid-market and small businesses.

Contact by phone at 973-709-1126 or send an email to creativeteam@igmcreativegroup.com

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