Are you engaging in social media marketing, but wondering if it is really working? How do you know whether it’s worth your time to keep posting and sharing? Your goal was to build a following through social media. Is your strategy helping you meet those goals?
Let’s talk about how to build a following through social media.
Ask Yourself Why. Before you jump into a social media marketing campaign, you need to ask what may seem like a ridiculously obvious question. Why are you in business? What are you offering that others find valuable?
There’s a second level to this step. You need to know why you’re specifically targeting social media marketing and what goals you are trying to achieve. More than to “gain a following,” you need to know what events will tell you that you’ve achieved that goal. Do you want to see a certain number of shares on your posts, or will you measure followers?
Define Your Differentiator. This one is slightly trickier, because it forces you to zero in on what’s special about your brand. There are likely a few companies that do what you do, but what would cause a customer to choose your brand over another? Maybe your service is what sets you apart, or maybe you’ve got a feature on your product that makes it more convenient to get the job done. Know what your differentiator is and be prepared to talk about it a lot.
Create Your Messaging. Your brand message is how you tell your story, but it is communicated in a lot of ways. It’s the colors in your logo, the “voice” you use when you write or talk and it’s the look and feel of your posts. Your brand message may be a bit on the serious side because you’re in an industry where trust is valued. It may be zany, because you cater to the under-12 audience and you’re competing for their affections as a birthday party venue.
Your social media marketing campaign is a perfect place to showcase your messaging because you can do it in a variety of formats.
Publish Content. All that prep work is about to start working for you as you create content that highlights what makes your brand special. You may create how-to videos or walk your customers through your facility in a live behind-the-scenes story. Or you may want to provide an in-depth look at a hot topic in your industry. This is the time to display your expertise, all within your brand messaging.
Measure and Analyze. In your initial “why” stage, you determined the reasons and goals attached to your social media marketing strategy. Many companies make the mistake of creating a strategy and then maintaining it, without ever asking if it’s working. If your campaign isn’t increasing your following, or if you don’t know that it is, you’re probably wasting resources.
Take the time to analyze the return on your efforts, and then refine what isn’t working.
If this sounds like a lot to you, don’t worry; at SJC Marketing, we not only help you get your strategy going; we’ll also manage it for you so you can reel in all those new leads.