How do I make my post go viral? How do I sell my products on Instagram? How can I get more people to see my Facebook posts? What’s the best thing to post about my business? What days and times should I post for the best marketing results? How do I get people to go to my website from my social media pages? Hey Siri, help me with my marketing!
As a marketer, have you found yourself asking these questions? We hear them every day! Most business owners and their marketing team want straight forward answers to these questions… but trust us…if we had the magic day, time, type of post answer, we’d share them with you.
What we can tell you is that the best social media marketing strategy is to expect the unexpected, (ahem… TikTok ban, anyone?) but still have a plan and outline some goals to work towards. And then be flexible.
Study your Analytics
Need your posts to reach more people? The best way to make this happen is through some testing. Testing almost always brings about some unexpected results.
First look at what you’re posting and make sure your audience (the people you want to buy from you or engage with you) would want to read the post. Short and sweet is almost always king, unless you’re creating long form videos for YouTube. Shop talk and industry language doesn’t usually work unless you’re only connecting with people within your own industry. In short, speak the language of customers.
Next look at the engagement of your past posts. Which ones got the most clicks and which ones got the least? Are you surprised by the data? Review your data year to year or month to month. Are you always busy in February? Figure out why and play up those reasons or topics. Extra slow? Create reasons for people to engage with your pages.
Use Social Media as a Sales Tool
Yes, we do always emphasize the fact that you don’t want to be salesy on social media. But, make sure your pages have a way to drive customers to your website or brick and mortar store. Make sure your links work and your address and phone number and hours are accurate. Don’t assume people know how to make the leap from liking your videos to buying your product. You live your business; they see it for just a moment in time. If you just expect them to know how to reach you, you’ll definitely miss out on sales. And you may be surprised to see some posts reach more people than you expected; help them get back to you.
Social Media Could Disappear
A little too much doom and gloom? Maybe. But it is a reality when you put your stock in a source that you do not own. TikTok’s here, then it’s not, then it is. One thing we know for certain is that nothing is for certain in social.
Social media sites go down for various reasons all of the time and it is never expected. Always frustrating and always at the worst time. As a marketer, you want to make sure you have other avenues of selling your products and promoting your business. Email is a great tool for this! It keeps the communication lines open and allows you to push information to your clients in an easy manner and you’re not just waiting for them to come to you. Have your plan for social media but be ready to pivot to another medium if necessary.
Expect Social Updates
Doing what you’ve always done and expecting the same results or better is a plan waiting for disaster. Meta is notorious for changing up simple actions on their platform and confusing even the savviest of social savants. You have been doing something one way for weeks, months and sometimes years and boom, the option isn’t there the next day.
Be ready to think outside the box and create new ways to get the information out to your customers. Don’t spend hours trying to find the “old way” of posting, adding permissions, etc. Go with the flow and/or see above and try another medium to market to your clients.
If we haven’t convinced you yet that unexpected situations will arise in the world of social media marketing, you’ll end up seeing it for yourself. And if you need support, our team of social gurus is here to help. From creating content, social ads, reviewing data and more, we’re here to help.
