Gone are the days when social media was only used for, well…socializing. Nowadays, platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube are amongst the most powerful marketing tools for any type of business. The reason is quite simple to understand – they provide the best environment to engage with customers, promote brand values and raise brand awareness.
Although there are many social media platforms that you can promote your business on, keep in mind that not all of them may work for you. If, for example, your products are not directed towards businesses, investing time and energy into a LinkedIn account may turn out to be counterproductive, rather than generate sales. At the same time, each platform works a certain way, and the type of content that is suited for YouTube may not be suited for Twitter as well. Below is a list of the top 3 most effective social media marketing strategies, for every big platform.
Instagram has become the most used social media platform amongst the young generation, so if your target audience includes mostly millennials, this is your place to shine. This is precisely why there is an extraordinary number of marketing strategies that work, most of them being focused on visual content.
- Get creative with stories
Stories are short videos that are available for 24 hours but can later be included in highlights and kept on your profile for as long as you like. Use them to show your products at work, or to engage with the audience, by showing behind-the-scenes captions of your brand.
- Contact influencers
Influencer marketing is the big thing nowadays, because people look up to them and, as opposed to celebrities, they are viewed as a more relatable and trustworthy source of inspiration. Partner up with influencers to promote your brand and gain access to their audience. Of course, there’s no need to spend a huge amount of money on this either. You can use tools like Twiends that help you to get in contact with influencers and other people that would be interested in promoting your product organically.
- Organize giveaways
People love giveaways, so from time to time, give them something in return to show how much you appreciate them. Simple contests based on sharing your photo on their profile, along with an engaging hashtag, work the best. You can then gather up all posts, generate a random number, and choose the winner this way.
YouTube
YouTube is the place where influencers were born, not to mention that video content is extremely hyped right now. People like to be told a story, and what better way to do that, in the era of technology, than through beautifully-made videos. Plus, YouTube videos are sharable, which means they can reach a great number of people extremely fast.
- Create engaging titles and thumbnails
The first thing you see when you look at a YouTube video on the home page is the title and the thumbnail, so make sure they are engaging enough for people to want to click on them. Create a thumbnail that sparks curiosity and a title that is both relevant to the content, and tells a story.
- Develop partnerships
Since YouTube is the birthplace of influencers (or gurus, as they were called back in the day), partnering up with some of them, to create content together and gain access to one another’s audience, is a highly effective strategy. To put it simply, it is a win-win situation for both parties.
- Upload constantly
If you don’t keep your audience engaged, they will simply forget you exist, so make sure to develop an uploading schedule and stick to it. You can upload content weekly, or even more times a week, but make sure you stick to a schedule, so people know when to come to visit your channel.
Facebook seems to have lost a bit of popularity over time but is still a proficient way to generate leads and keep in touch with your audience. You need to keep in mind that demographics have changed quite a lot, and if in the past, most Facebook users were teenagers and young adults, nowadays the highest number of Facebook users are aged between 25 and 44. This means you need to tailor your content to appeal to a more mature audience.
- Ads and promoted posts
Paid advertising is still highly effective on Facebook, as the platform has invested a lot into targeting the right audience and exposing your brand only to those people who would take a high interest in your products. Facebook Ad Accounts have access to a wide variety of targeting options, such as age, location or type of device used.
- Facebook Groups
With Facebook, building a private community is very easy, as you can set up groups that can be joined by your customers. Inside the group, you can spark up discussions, communicate with your audience, or simply provide a place for people with the same interests to connect.
- Messenger Chatbots
When you’ve established a large audience base, keeping in touch with them and answering their questions can be quite demanding. This is where Chatbots can come to help. You can set them up to respond to frequently asked questions, to help you manage time much better, and only intervene when your help is truly needed.
Although overlooked by many people, Twitter is one of the easiest ways to interact with people. You don’t even need to follow someone, to engage in a conversation, and this is more powerful than you think. This way, you can bring your brand forward to people in your niche, which are not yet aware you exist.
- Use hashtags
Twitter basically invented hashtags, which makes it the perfect environment to use them. Be careful, though, only to use those who are relevant to your brand. If you keep adding every trending hashtag to your tweets, your brand message will get lost, and you don’t want that.
- Join conversations
The easiest way to keep in contact with people on Twitter is to join conversations. Choose trending conversations that are relevant to your brand and contribute to them. This way, you will get more visibility and show people you can provide valuable information.
- Respond when you are mentioned
Each time you are mentioned in a tweet, take the time to respond. Big brands do that all the time and the results are quite impressive. It’s the best way to raise brand awareness and make your audience feel valued.
