There is now a staggering number of roughly 3.4 billion users on social media across all platforms worldwide. With this many people online, there’s never been a better chance to capitalise on having a what is likely to be a large portion of your target market all in one place. It’s a no-brainer that implementing a social media strategy into your business is a wise idea, but how should you use it to grow your customer base? We’ve outlined some tips below.
There may be the temptation to bombard your followers with information, promotions and case studies, but this could be challenging to maintain and runs the risk of a staggered timeline if you run out of content - resulting in an untidy and inconsistent presence.
To combat this, we recommend content schedules that expand over 2 months or even quarterly. Outline all the content you wish to cover on your platforms for this timeframe, and spread it out relatively evenly. To get you started, think about the industry you’re in and plot out seasonal events and dates that will be relevant to your followers. This will help build the framework for your plan.
You may also be wondering how you can compensate for your followers who weren’t online when you shared your latest promotion or blog. There is nothing wrong with sharing your content more than once, however you need to do it in a calculated manner so it isn’t considered tedious. A good way around this is to share the same content a few days later, but accompany it with a different message within your social media post.
Social media can be a great way to facilitate website visits, and through the individual platforms your business uses the amount of referral traffic you generate has the opportunity to greatly increase. The different platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram etc.) have their own advantages. Some handle images well, while others tidily display links better.
Tailoring your content to the right platform effectively maintains the attention of your followers, and encourages them to find out more about you through your website.
As we touched on earlier in this blog, one of the most effective ways you can drive website traffic through social media is through blogs, case studies or fact sheets that when clicked on, re-directs your customers to your website. It also impotanat to ensure that your website is going to give people a good user experience when they arrive.
One of the reasons your business will use social media is to drive leads - but improving the quality of your leads can often be a stumbling block. A potential way to combat this is by promoting gated content (which can only be accessed by people who first fill out a form with their details). For this to be effective, your existing content needs to resonate enough with your followers to the point where they’re willing to share their details with you. You also need to make sure that your gated content provides a clear benefit from the customer’s perspective - incentivising them to stay as long term leads. The key factors you need to consider are:
1. Is the content visually appealing?
2. Is my call-to-action strong?
3. Is it clear and to the point?
One of the greatest advantages social media has over other marketing mediums is that it allows for a two-way conversation. By engaging with your followers on a regular basis and responding as quickly as possible to queries, you’re saying that they matter to you. It also allows your business to develop a ‘personality’ which helps you appear more relatable.
Personalising your interactions builds rapport with the person you’re conversing with. You can do this by acknowledging their name when responding to them, then signing off with your name and the name of your business. Another relationship building tool is how you handle constructive criticism. If you respond by telling them that their feedback matters to you, and that you’ll take everything on board and implement it, the person on the other end is left with a positive memory of your interaction, and an unhappy customer can then become an advocate.
We’ve only scratched the surface here. The truth is there are a number of ways you can use your social media presence to grow the profile of your business, but these tips are a great start. We can’t recommend highly enough that you start to get active in the social media space because if it isn’t already one of the most fundamental marketing tools you can have, it certainly will be in the future!
