Gone are the days when social media was great for staying in touch with your high school friends. Social media channels have gone way past the nascent stages to becoming a powerful advertising tool. If you have your marketing and advertising strategies planned out, you can benefit from each social medium. However, with platforms like Instagram and Facebook changing their algorithms regularly, it can become tough to make a strategy that stays winning.
The first mistake some marketers make is to try every trick in the book. Such efforts fail because you do not take into account the specific needs of your brand. It also doesn’t help when the brand fails to stay ahead of the competitors. So, what are the competitors doing differently?
If you spend some time scanning the most successful campaigns on social media, you will find one thing in common. All of them spent a lot of time and effort on researching clever strategies that resonate with the brand. Consistency, timeliness and engaging with the audience is what gets them popular with their target customers.
These are just a few pieces of the puzzle. We have more tips and tricks to share with you to get your social media branding on the front row. Here are some tricks that will earn you more leads.
1. Sharing and Re-sharing
Forget the thought that sharing a blogpost once is enough. For more engagement, it is good to share the blog posts frequently on the social networks you use. You can be a little creative in the way you reshare the post again and make sure that it gets the maximum coverage.
The next time you post, you can add statistics or an enticing caption to make people click. If there is a trending topic on social media, you can use it to relate and share the post again. But the rule of thumb is to make the reshare look natural and not forced. By doing this little tweak, you can grab the attention of people who might have skipped past your post the first time. That interesting hook you add the second time should compel people to see what’s going on.
Moreover, you can also bring some old posts to life by posting them on social media on a relevant day/hour/event.
2. User-generated content
Who said that only marketers have to create content? It is not a one-way street. The old mix where you post content and the audience consumes it is changing. Make sure that you give the podium to your audience and hear what they have to say. Encourage your target audience to talk to you, share photos and videos with your products. Promise them that you will share their content back, and fulfill that promise. There are various benefits of this strategy.
You let your audience take on the role of advertiser for you when you open the floor for user-generated content. When you shine light on user generated content, the audience comes into the limelight and also loves you back a little more. Moreover, it also makes the public engage more with your content. Soon, you have a community around your brand that is organically curated and engaged.
3. Use Hashtags that Matter
If your content is brilliant, why aren’t people seeing it? This is where hashtags come in. Integrating hashtags into social media strategy is essential in today’s noisy feeds. Hashtags are a wonderful way of reaching more people and getting more traction. To create that kind of impact with hashtags, you need to research well.
Do not load up a post with a ton of hashtags, that is something which gets you no-where. Use hashtags that your target audience loves to see. Also keep an eye on the search volume of those hashtags. For example, hashtags that go into millions means they are high competition and will limit your post’s visibility.
4. Partner with Influencers
There are two entities that have a lot of following on social media- big brands and social media influencers. If you wish high engagement for your post like social media influencers get, just partner with some influencers. But first, you need to research about the relevant influencers in your niche or this can become a bad idea. Influencers whose niches align with your brand should be your first pick.
Brands also create an outreach program to connect with relevant influencers. When you go through the first project, you will get a lot of learning and know how to execute such campaigns well. The best kind of campaigns let the influencer use their creative liberty while staying true to your brand guidelines.
5. Work on Social Causes
Show people how your brand truly cares about a social cause. Something that is truly in sync with your brand values is good to get involved in. While some brands shy away from taking a stance on bold causes, others step in to do their part. The fear of losing a few followers should not keep you away from supporting a good cause. When you show your responsible side to the audience, they trust your brand even more. You show that the brand is socially conscious. It is a game-changing strategy but also one that requires the most thought and research, so proceed with caution.
6. Offer Great Customer Service
Most business owners accept that the customer is king. But there are only a few who create a system that empowers the customer to voice their thoughts. Some strategies that can help keep your customers happy include cross-selling, up-selling, post-sales follow up and maintenance services. Monitoring your competitors and their process around customer service is also a necessity for each business.
Feedback from your customers is one of the best branding strategies now. No matter what your industry is, customer service plays a crucial role in solving issues, retaining customer base and improving brand image. If you want to hear from your customers more often, user feedback and polls are a great way to begin. You can also create surveys using your CRM and choose to send different emails to customers at different stages of their journey.
Eventually, customer satisfaction leads to a profitable business and helps you gain the customer’s trust. If your service is prompt and readily available when required, you get more benefit. Conversations on social media happen right in front of you, and are open for all to see. Good responses get you more brownie points and any negative response can bring your brand under the knife.
Conclusion
Social media is such a powerful tool that it helps you connect with your customers on a personal level. If you find the right mix for your branding strategies, you will have more chances of building a valuable brand. There is a lot of noise in social media platforms, and you need some solid ground rules to remain prominent. Stay observant of your competitors and their tactics because that will keep your brand in the game. Build your very own strategy but make it flexible enough that you can learn from past mistakes and improve existing strategies.
Which social media strategies have worked for your brand? Share them with us in the comments. Let’s grow together!