Social Media Marketing Strategy: The Ultimate Guide

Social media marketing is vital to a good digital marketing strategy. Over 3.6 billion people in the world are on some form of social media! It is an effective way for anyone to get news, stay engaged and interact with pretty much anyone. Businesses can take advantage of social media and use it to market their goods and services to potential customers. According to Hubspot, businesses that have used social media marketing believe their efforts have been “somewhat effective” or “very effective.” In addition, users often use social media to research products—54% of social browsers to be exact. Your performance on social media is important—whether you use it to answer complaints, interact with followers, or put out paid ads. However, with all forms of marketing, social media marketing needs a proper strategy which requires some research and effort. To help you get started, the pros at VitalStorm have prepared the ultimate guide to social media marketing for your business!

1. Decide Which Social Media Platform Works for You

While all social media apps and websites have the similar goal of increasing interaction and engagement worldwide, they each have distinct capabilities and features. Businesses should take the time to research each social media platform and main audience. According to Hubspot, Facebook, which consists of millennials and Generation X and is the most commonly used social media, is best for building up awareness of the brand and putting out ads. Twitter is best for customer service and allows businesses to directly respond to any complaints. Instagram is ideal for influencer-marketing and user-generated content, whereas YouTube is best for entertainment and how-to videos. Consider what each social media site is best for and market accordingly!

2. Plan Out What Content You Want to Market

Consider what content you want to market on social media. Do you want it to be a place where users have better access to your blogs and written content? Do you want it to be a place where users can easily access you if they have questions, complaints etc. Think about your brand but also think about your competitors and the content they are creating—you might get some great ideas. Once you decide what content you want to market and the brand voice you want to use, set a schedule of the posts you want to put out. Having a calendar can really help organize your content for each day, without worrying about what posts you will put out at the last minute.

3. Set Social Media Goals for Yourself

One of the ways you can progress with social media marketing is by setting realistic goals and deadlines for yourself for each week or month. How many visitors do you want coming to your social media channels? How many followers do you want by the end of a specific date? How many leads do you want to generate on social media? Thinking about what you want to accomplish is a part of social media marketing strategy.

4. Consider Using a Social Media Management Tool

Having a social media management tool can make your social media marketing strategy more effective and efficient. There are many tools that you can choose from:

• Hootsuite

This social media management tool allows you to schedule your posts on all your social media channels at the same time. It also helps you measure ROI on each post.

• Hubspot

Hubspot offers an effective social media management tool that allows you to queue up your posts ahead of time and provides detailed, in-depth reports of your post’s performance.

• SproutSocial

Like other social media management tools, SproutSocial allows you to plan your content and get reports on analytics. However, what makes it stand out that it is a lot more team-oriented and collaborative.

5. Pay Attention to Analytics

Facebook, Twitter, and Google Analytics are all useful tools to use when it comes to paying attention to the amount of engagement you’re getting on your posts. It’s one thing to post content on social media, it’s another to sit down with your team and go over the stats behind each post. Analytics and engagement reports will give you information on what times are good to post, how many likes, comments and replies each post is receiving, exactly how many followers you have gained each day, etc.

6. Figure Out the Best Times to Post

Content isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to social media strategy—you want to make sure you pick the right time to post. Use analytics and engagement reports to figure out the best times to be active on a certain social media site. If you have customers messaging or interacting with you, make sure you respond as quickly as possible. According to SproutSocial the best time to respond to customers is within a 10 hour window. Lastly, make sure the content you post is relevant. If there is an event happening or news breaking in your area and it is relevant to you and the community you interact with, make sure you mention it in a post as this might be the one that increases your engagement!

7. Be Patient

In the beginning, the results of your social media strategy might seem slow and you might feel like you’re not seeing results at all. A lot of social media marketing requires trial and error. It might take some time for you to decide what posts, content or posting times work best for you and your company. During this time, it is important to be patient, do your research, keep learning and keep moving forward. Once you figure out what strategy works for you, you’ll start to see results and get the leads you want.

Want to know more about how you can improve your social media marketing strategy? Get in touch with the pros at VitalStorm. Our team of professionals help our customers with all things digital marketing and would be more than happy to assist you. Call us today at 877-311-5695 or schedule a service with us on our website! We are looking forward to hearing from you!