How can we start a social media campaign for a business?
Start with your basic objectives for using social media
Before you can really begin to leverage social media, you need to ask yourself some key questions about why you’re doing it. What are you hoping to accomplish? Are you hoping to increase sales, or improve customer service? Or alternatively, are you just looking to create a little more visibility for your brand?
You can also hire an expert like SocioLoca to look after your marketing needs
Start small, and be selective
There are numerous social platforms. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest – the list goes on. If you’re ambitious, you’re probably anxious to get your business up and running on most of them. But the reality is this – you can’t (and shouldn’t) try to create your social presence on each of these platforms overnight. You have to start small (think crawl, walk, run).
Be selective at first. Choose one or two sites to start out – the ones that make the most sense for your business. Then, once you have enough time and money to commit, begin to scale your efforts and social footprint.
Hone in on a target audience
As you’re developing your social strategy, choosing sites and content strategy, etc, you’ll probably be guided by one key question: Who’s your audience?
This will influence everything. Take your site choices, for example. If you’re trying to cater to Millenials, you might want to emphasize YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat more than other networks. If you’re targeting moms, Pinterest works great. Facebook is broader, appealing to everyone.
Which social site is the best match for you? It depends on what your business is trying to accomplish. Research your intended audience before you make any final decisions about where you will focus your social efforts.
- Come up with a memorable handle
What’s in a name? Ideally, it’s one that’s catchy and memorable. When it comes to your social presence, you’ll want to create a handle that people will recognize across all of your social brands.
It might be just your company’s name, or it might be something a little more elaborate, just to emphasize a certain aspect of your brand. For example, the BBC uses the username @BBCBreaking for its wildly popular Twitter account, reminding people of their abundance of breaking news. Samsung uses @SamsungMobile, which encourages consumers to buy their mobile devices.
Have a schedule, but show flexibility too
Once you’ve figured out how many times to post on your social sites, the next question is when.
Timing your social posts is part science and part art. On one hand, there are certain optimal time slots – people love to browse social media sites during their lunch breaks and in the evenings after work. But if you adhere to a rigid schedule just to hit those sweet spots, you’ll start to seem too automatic, like a robot. You’ll want to mix it up for variety’s sake.
Be authentic and personable
Mingling with people on Twitter isn’t that different from doing so at a party or social gathering. In both cases, you make friends by being yourself and being authentic and nice.
Keep this in mind as you’re posting online. People don’t want to cozy up to a brand whose social presence sounds rigid and corporate – or worse yet, unpleasant. Show a human side, interact with people kindly and develop a personality. People will appreciate that, and the following will come.
Develop a content pipeline
A cute or funny post can grab a viewer’s attention for a minute or two, but what really keeps them coming back is engaging content. You want your social presence to link to sites and articles that people will find interesting, or that will add value to their lives. If you can do that, you can secure consumers’ loyalty.
So develop a pipeline for your content. What types of content will you post? When and where will you post them? Map out a plan and stick to it for a while, but don’t be afraid to adapt if you think it’s not working.
Mix up your social media marketing content offerings
You’ve got to have a plan for sharing content, definitely. But what type of content? Ideally, you’d have a combination of different elements. Try to balance your own original content with valued, content curated from other sites. Search for those “nuggets” of content that your audience will value, but might not otherwise find.
Balance your original content with the content you curate and share. If you only share content from other sources, you’ll just seem like you’re leeching off of others’ hard work rather than doing your own. If you only share your own content, you’ll seem too promotional and sales-y. A nice balance will make you appear knowledgeable, worthwhile and humble