Did you know that there are over 3 billion active social media users globally? That’s why many brands and businesses are scrambling to build attention-grabbing digital brands through social media marketing.
Here are 5 smart social media marketing tactics you can use to cut through the clutter and give your digital brand an enormous boost!
The World Is Online
Over the past two decades, many people have scoffed at and have been skeptical of the rise of social media. Although people have several opinions about social media, both positive and negative, we cannot deny its influence. If you want to have success in business, your business has to be on social media sites.
According to the Pew Research Center, over 81% of Americans now own smartphones. We use smartphones for researching products, finding businesses, interacting with brands, and online shopping.
Thousands of businesses want in on the action, which makes the competition for consumer attention online tough. Use these 5 social media marketing tactics to make your digital brand a true powerhouse.
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1. Make Genuinely Valuable Content
Most Americans own smartphones, laptops, or desktop computers. If they have a question, they have multiple ways to access answers in seconds. They value and trust online properties that provide them with genuine, factual answers to their questions.
To build trust among your audience and attract new customers, make your business a resource and an authority on subjects your business specializes in. For example, if you own a solar company, write articles about topics related to solar energy to establish your website as an authority on that subject.
While it is important to take SEO into account, hammering out lifeless content in the name of keywords will not get you very far. After all, people might be more likely to find your content in this way, but if the content they find is not valuable, they will be unlikely to stick around.
Remember, the whole point of social media is being social. If no one ever interacts with your content, your brand is basically talking to itself online. This will not yield the results you want.
Your content must serve both your brand and your target audience. Social media gives you an exciting opportunity to talk to and with your target audience, so don’t be shy!
When starting out on social media, you might feel pressured to join every social media network at once. After all, casting the widest net possible will yield the most results, right?
Not necessarily. In fact, only having an incredibly active Twitter account with an engaged community will do way more for your business than 10 inactive accounts on different platforms.
If you choose to start out with just one account, you must consistently post on it in a way that cements and spreads your brand voice. All of your content needs to be consistent in tone.
This Applies To Visuals Too
And, if you choose to spread your brand across multiple accounts, that consistency must hold. If your brand is professional and authoritative on Instagram, it should not be goofy and absurd on Twitter, but politely casual on Facebook. You should have a professional and authoritative brand image across all Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
If you favor a modern minimal aesthetic for your branding on Instagram, your Facebook profile should match. Whatever colors, logos, filters, and design elements you use need to be the same or similar across all platforms.
You want people to see your colors or particular design aesthetic and immediately think of your brand. It will be impossible for them to do this if your design aspects are conflicting, random, or confusing across different social channels.
Nike Gets It Right
Nike is one brand with incredibly consistent social branding. Every post on their Instagram feed is distinctively theirs:
You should also maintain the same consistent brand image within each individual channel. Nike maintains brand image consistency on its Instagram page by creating graphics that are similar in style, colors, and tone.
3. Research Your Audience
You need to know your brand to represent it well, but you also need to know your audience. Once you understand your target audience, it’s so much easier to develop eye-catching content that keeps them engaged.
Try Out This Exercise For Clarity
Think about your brand as if it was a person making social media posts. If you were friends with your brand on Facebook, how would you feel about their content?
Based on their posts, would you be excited to see their posts and likely to take their suggestions? Or would you hit snooze or unfollow because you feel like all of their content is bland or a blatant sales pitch?
If your brand was a person, would your ideal audience be excited to interact with their posts, or tune them out?
Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll be able to improve your social media strategy and create engaging content for your audience.
Understand Your Demographics
You need to define your brand, but you also need to define your target audience. When researching your target audience, be sure to record their demographic information.
Not all demographics apply to every business and product, but it’s always better to have more information than less. After all, if you sell engagement rings, your ideal customer is likely a working adult in a serious relationship. However, if you sell workout gear, relationship status will probably not factor highly into your target audience.
Here are some demographics you can research to inform your social media strategy:
- Age
- Location
- Gender
- Employment Status
- Relationship Status
- Education Level
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Preferred Social Media Network(s)
4. Try Influencer Marketing
The whole point of social media is to get as many people aware of your products and services as possible, so you can get more sales. If you are just starting out and don’t have a lot of eyes on you, partnering with influencers can be a great way to raise brand awareness.
However, you don’t want to partner with just any influencer. The main reason brands partner with influencers is to access their audience. You want to partner with an influencer whose audience you want to reach, not just a popular or well-known influencer.
Some influencers have widespread appeal, while others have more passionate niche audiences. Some influencers have millions of followers, but little to no engagement among those followers, and some influencers have smaller numbers of followers, but a highly engaged audience. Your ideal influencer will depend on several factors, including what audience you want to reach and what goals you want to achieve.
What To Look For
You want to partner with an influencer who has an excellent reputation and high engagement, whether they have a few thousand followers or hundreds of thousands.
Do your research. Has your influencer had any recent or past scandals? How do people interact with their posts? Do they have a lot of genuine engagement, or have they purchased all of their likes? Steer clear of influencers who appear to have purchased likes or followers. Those who have purchased likes and followers have an army of bot followers who will never notice your brand or become long-term customers.
If you want to learn more about utilizing influencer marketing, look at our Cheat Sheet For Working With Social Media Influencers.
5. Spice Up Your Bio
Many brands focus so much on churning out content they forget about their bios on their social platforms. This is a big mistake.
Think of your bio like a micro elevator pitch that does the work for you. If people see your posts and enjoy them, they will probably look at your profile before deciding to follow you. You want to make sure your bio inspires them to click follow.
Depending on your brand, this might be straightforward, short, and sweet like the Instagram bio of New York City-based shoe brand iRi:
Or it can be spicier, like the notoriously sassy Wendy’s Twitter account:
With social media marketing, you need to know your brand and know your target audience first. Only then can you reach that audience with eye-catching and relationship-building content.
There are many methods of social media marketing, but regardless of which method you choose, keep these 5 tips in mind:
- Create Valuable Content For Your Audience
- Maintain Brand Consistency on All Social Channels
- Research and Understand Your Target Audience
- Try Influencer Marketing
- Spice Up Your Bio
Do you need professional guidance for your company or your brand’s social media strategy? Digital Delane develops highly targeted and relevant organic and paid social media campaigns that help businesses maintain positive relationships with their target audiences. Get in touch with our team to get a customized social media strategy for your business or brand.