Social media transformed marketing by shattering monoliths into a thousand pieces. TV, print, and radio were the big three once upon a time, and now a brand has to be conscious of marketing spend on dozens of different channels.
The audience is similarly fractured, meaning firepower is less important than accuracy when it comes to getting your message and your brand out there. The good news is that there’s a social media platform for every audience, and most platforms will help you find your audience (with a little expertise).
Today we’re going step-by-step through social media marketing strategy and execution, and linking to the resources that can help any brand create, launch, and refine their social media presence.
Choose the Right Platform for Your Social Media Marketing
“Social media marketing” is an enormous net to cast: it’s important for brands to choose the platforms that match their message and their audience.
Rated by monthly active users, these are the top three social media platforms (and what they’re best at). We’re going to skip chat services and primarily domestic Chinese platforms.
Facebook. As the largest social media platform, Facebook is still a strong play for any brand. Images and videos play well here, but their targeted ads might be your best choice. Contrary to popular belief, Facebook has plenty of young people, and is a prime marketing platform. In fact, 51% of active Facebook’s 2.9 billion monthly active users are 18-34.
YouTube. It’s a no-brainer, but video is the one true king here. Ads in front of relevant videos is great, but video content of any kind helps make connections. Product education, entertainment, demonstrations, coverage of live events, and interviews relevant to your brand should all go here.
Instagram. Reels, reels, reels. But all content is good on Instagram. Stories offer the FOMO-factor that’s especially useful for “miss it and it’s gone content,” posts are perfect for content you want to be found easily at any time, but reels tend to take the best advantage of the algorithm as Instagram actively pushes them to other users.
Additional reading:
- Maximizing Your Instagram Strategy with Insights
- Why You Should Be Pushing Content to IG Reels and TikTok
And now that you’ve got the platform to speak, you have to ask yourself: what will you say?
Create Engaging Social Media Content
Brand accounts can’t just be a place to announce products and sales: they have to provide value in-and-of themselves.
Your brand’s feed isn’t just a chance to get the word out, it’s where you connect with your potential audience. Think of that connection you want to make as a bridge, and every piece of content you create and share is another brick in that bridge.
Visual content should be well-designed and easily digestible. There’s a reason the top three social media platforms are primarily image and visual rather than text. A good creative department is your most valuable asset in creating this kind of content.
Video content gets attention. Again, there’s a reason the top three social media platforms have such a focus on video. A recent study shows that while people often only retain 10% of the meaning of text, they retain up to 95% of what they saw in a video.
User-generated content (UGC) engages your audience to help. Get your followers to participate in contests, or entice them with a prize. Even just photos with a hashtag at an experiential marketing event or convention booth count as valuable UGC.
When it comes to the content you make, your three watchwords should be authenticity, creativity, and consistency.
Additional reading:
- The 75 Hard of TikTok
- When Should You Jump on a Social Media Trend?
- How Brands Can Utilize Audio on Social, And Why It’s Important They Do
Build an Engaged Following
You have a platform, you have content: just like the old movie says, “If you build it, they will come.” Right? Well, yes and no. The content draws in followers, it builds that bridge we talked about, but you have to meet them halfway on that bridge (to stretch this metaphor to its absolute breaking point). You have to go along the journey with them.
We do that by accepting that social media isn’t a one-way radio where we just broadcast into the ether. It’s a channel for back-and-forth communication. Here’s a quick list of what your community manager or social media team should be doing:
Posting consistently. Consistency is key: brands that stop posting regularly tend to be forgotten by both their followers and the algorithm. We musn’t anger the algorithm.
Replying to comments and messages. Yes, even negative ones. Especially negative ones. It’ll lend you authenticity, and if it’s done with class and aplomb you can win over not only the original poster but those watching the interaction.
Engaging with complimentary and/or similar brands. Brand-to-brand communication can be funny, it can be thought-provoking, or it can be playfully antagonistic. Communicating with similar brands, or thought leaders in your field will spark conversation not only between the brands but amongst the audience.
Additional reading:
Partner with Influencers and Borrow Their Expertise
Influencers are a valuable component of social media marketing because they combine the last three tactics into one channel. They know the platform they’re on, they know how to make content, and they’re experts at keeping their audience engaged. The right influencer at the right time is like hitting three birds with one stone.
One of the most important things to remember about influencers is that you don’t have to land the biggest fish. In fact, smaller influencers might be a smarter target. Over 50% of influencers have fewer than 25,000 followers, and they have a higher engagement rate than mega-influencers.
Just remember that nano- and micro-influencers may have less polished content, which is obviously a trade-off. Whatever the size of the influencer you partner with, authenticity is key. Are they trusted in their niche? Is their engagement high? Do people look to them as a trustworthy source of information?
Additional reading:
- How to Approach an Influencer, a Practical Guide
- Building Trust: Combating Deinfluencing Through Authenticity
- A Complete Guide to Influencer Outreach
And Knowledge is Power
There’s a lot more to social media marketing, of course, but with these basics you’ll already be positioned better than many brands out there.
To learn more about implementing social strategy, or to talk to our experts at Inspira Marketing to help you make and execute a plan of your own, reach out to us today.
This article has been published in the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Marketing Knowledge Center. Click here to visit their blog.
