Business owners everywhere are probably sick and tired of
being told about the wonderful opportunities social media provides to them –
after all, it seems we’re only ever told about the existence of these
opportunities, and never about how to exploit them. The truth of the matter is
that many social media gurus who claim it can help you enhance your
profitability skip town too early and fail to reach valuable lessons with
practical examples.
Here are 5 concrete ways that you can actually use social media marketing for your business, and what mistakes to avoid when leveraging these strategies if you want to avoid scandal.
1. Hire a dedicated
content producer
The first and most effective strategy for harnessing the power of social media platforms is to hire a dedicated content producer who can specialize in churning out well-optimized content that’s very likely to strike a positive chord with your target audience. Make sure you get the right logo size for any advertising the producer uses. As a business owner, you’re obviously competent and capable of running the show from your creative workspace in Soho, and you likely have a deep understanding of your customer base, but that doesn’t mean you’re a digital guru who can deftly exploit social media platforms to the fullest possible extent. That’s why it’s important to know your own weak points, as only hiring a specialist who knows what they’re doing can truly help you tap into social media.
Review a helpful guide on the production of excellent
social media content to know what to look for in your candidates. Then, start
spreading the news that you need an excellent specialist and wait for your
now-excellent content to go viral.
2. Stay away from
influencers
It’s crucial to note that social media specialists who focus
on producing excellent content and influencers are two different things.
Influencers have no real understanding of the ins and outs of marketing, but
rather are simply popular individuals with large followings that they’ve
managed to successfully monetize. Despite the fact that they have many
followers, it’s imperative to realize that most influencers aren’t nearly as
influential as they claim, and even the most popular of influencers seldom
produce the results that they promise to brands.
One trend alone, the prevalence of fake influencer
followers, is expected to cost brands a whopping $1.3 billion this year alone. Young consumers
are also well-versed in the world of social media influence and are unlikely to
actually fall for it in the first place, despite what influencers will tell
you. You should thus give influencers a wide berth if you want to produce real
results for your business instead of throwing your money down the drain.
3. Focus on getting
emails
Another concrete method to orient yourself around is turning
social media followers into subscribed members of your email newsletter. Email
subscribers are the holy grail for most marketing operations, as individuals
who deliberately go out of their way to sign up to continuously receive
messages from you are ideal members of your target audience likely to spend
money on your products or services in the future. Converting the average social
media user into an email subscriber is easier said than done, though.
Email is perhaps the most frequently used electronic media,
and most people trust the contents of their personal inbox much more than they
do the content of their social media newsfeed. Given that they’re proven
revenue-boosters, too, email lists can go far in supercharging your marketing
department. Spend some time reading a deep dive on turning social media followers
into email list members if you’re invested in achieving excellent results with
your marketing.
4. Understand the
power of a good story
One field where stories make a large impact is in the legal arena. Personal injury firms especially can encourage potential clients by creating an engaging narrative about the cases they’ve won. For those in similar situations, seeing the outcome can influence them to click through and find out more.
A more generic but still helpful tip is to remember the potency of stories; humans are naturally born storytellers, and we love to spread hopeful or daring tales of our exploits with others. By orienting your social media marketing campaign around unparalleled storytelling, then, you’ll be engaging your audience like never before while incentivizing them to spread your messaging to their friends, family members, and coworkers.
Make storytelling into a priority, and your social media
messages will transform into engaging, useful parables that everyday users can
actually relate to rather than ignore. Keep this in mind when hiring your
social media content specialist, too, as excellent storytellers are hard to
find but worth investing in.
5. Have a scandal
patrol
Finally, it’s important to have a scandal patrol if you want
to avoid calamity. Sooner or later, every social media marketing campaign
becomes outdated, especially since time and trends on the internet fly by much
faster than they do in real life. Regularly auditing your old posts and
whatever’s in the pipeline to be posted in the near-future is essential if you
want to avoid using an offensive hashtag or chiming in at the wrong time.
Keep these concrete strategies in mind, and soon
your social media pages will be producing better results than ever before.
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