Are low-engagement horrors on social media panicking you?
But you did successfully post on all social media platforms, so what went wrong?
Here’s a truth bomb!
Social media marketing is not an easy game; you have to do more than just post to engage your audience and cultivate brand presence.
So, how to promote your business on social the right way?
You need to boost your social media marketing efforts through organized strategies that aim at increasing engagement, visibility, and the ultimate goal of converting your followers into your paying customers.
But is it even worthy to give so much attention to social media marketing?
Yes, it is!
Rundown these social media statistics that prove the importance of social selling.
- 92% of marketers strongly agree that social media plays a key role in their marketing strategy.
- More than 85% of marketers have witnessed an increase in the visibility and exposure of their businesses through social media.
- 78% of marketers have reported an increase in their traffic through social media.
These make it clear that using social media for marketing has immense potential when it comes to growing your business.
So we have come up with 9 unfailing ways to spice up your social media strategies and drive better results.
Let’s start!
1. Choose the Right Social Media Channels
It is easy to lose yourself in the process of selecting the right social platform to work on. Generally, you can go for the social media space where your target audience spends most of their time. To find this golden stage, you will require solid probing.
According to a study by Pew Research Center, Facebook’s user base has a significant number of people across every age group. The latest statistics show that the monthly active users on Facebook are nearly 2.85 billion. So considering this platform is often an excellent place to start for all types of brands.
Facebook is best if you want to increase brand awareness or generate leads. On the other hand, if you want to expand your network of influencers and professionals, then Twitter and LinkedIn may be the top options. In contrast, TikTok and Instagram are prime choices to appeal to younger demographics.
A wine producer from Canada, Volcanic Hill Estate Winery, tries to educate their wine enthusiast audiences by posting wine-drinking tips. They use Facebook as a medium to share their tips regularly and to connect with their audiences.
From the above example, we can understand that the objective of your social selling campaign will also play a key role in your selection of the right social media channel.
2. Harness the Power of Live Videos
Live videos are increasingly becoming popular among brands that wish to engage their audiences. In fact, a Livestream survey found that 80% of the audiences prefer watching live videos from a brand to reading their blogs.
Additionally, 67% of people who viewed live videos are more inclined to purchase tickets to an event after watching a live video or a similar event.
So if you’re going to improve your social media marketing efforts, a live video should be an important part of your marketing mix. You could live stream brand events, interviews, behind-the-scenes, etc., to increase the audience engagement ratio. Make use of video creation tools to make videos easily.
To know it in a better way, let’s see what Bob Heilig has to share.
Bob Heilig initially engaged his audience by talking about topics he was passionate about before he started selling anything.
This went on for six months until he finally decided to monetize his business using Facebook Live and Kajabi, a knowledge commerce platform to create, customize, and sell online courses.
Bob says he earned more than $200,000 in revenue within his first month of launching. That’s the thought leadership and customer acquisition power of live video.
3. Leverage Social Media Marketing Tools
Ever wondered how to stay on top of your audience’s feeds? Well, social media marketing tools are the secret weapons that most marketers use on a daily basis to mark their territory on social media.
There are tons of tools for social media that can help you with powerful marketing functionalities like scheduling posts, analyzing performance, capturing lead opportunities, engaging with clients, and more.
SocialPilot is one of the leading social media marketing tools that is used by thousands of business owners to streamline their posting calendar on more than 8 social media platforms.
Now, manage all social media in one place , making marketing effortlessly. Be it scheduling or curating content, managing campaigns, or accommodating the last-minute changes, you can do it all under one roof and make marketing a smooth sailing experience.
4. Craft a Compelling Brand Story
The way you portray your brand has a huge impact on how people feel about it. Prominent businesses have resorted to effective storytelling for the success of their brand marketing.
Stories always help to develop an emotional connection between your brand and the target audience.
Apart from what and how you say it, the medium through which your brand communicates its story is also important. Social media is a highly effective platform for sharing your brand’s stories and connecting with people.
Here, taking an example of Intel’s inspiring stories will help you get a clear idea.
Intel shares inspirational stories of the company and customers with their audiences on Instagram. By posting stories, videos, testimonials, interviews, and fun facts, the company is able to maintain a high engagement rate.
5. Tap into User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is one of the most powerful ways to promote your products or services. People trust other people more than marketing gimmicks or the claims of brands themselves.
With UGC, your target audience will get honest feedback directly from other customers instead of having to trust your brand claims. This is a form of social proof that helps position your brand as trustworthy.
User-generated visuals are more trusted than other forms of content. More than 50% of respondents agree that UGC visuals are more influential and impactful than a brand’s own pictures or videos.
Hence, always give your users a platform through which they can brag about their purchases. Make it easy for your loyal fans and customers to share stories about why they are in love with your products or services.
Check out an example of BMW presenting an ideal illustration of this.
This is exactly what BMW did with their customers. BMW created the hashtag #BMWRepost and invited their customers to share their stories on Instagram. The brand also reposted these customer stories on its official Instagram account.
Adopting this way of encouraging your customers can help you win their trust. You can also add their personal experiences related to your brand on your social media page, making them feel special.
6. Optimize Visual Content for Social Media
Audiences are getting pickier and rejecting the use of stock images. But how do you create new captivating images if you lack designer expertise?
For a startup or a small business, it may not be viable to hire a designer. Worry not, because there are tons of tools available to address this problem.
Tools like Placeit, Canva, Cello, and Venngage can be used to create jaw-dropping graphics. Based on your promoting channel and post theme, they offer hundreds of templates to get you started.
Also, while posting images on social, you need to consider the different image size requirements of every platform. In the endless hassle of maintaining multiple client accounts, social managers often mistake publishing wrong-sized images.
Seeing the prevalence of the problem, SocialPilot has introduced a straightforward image editor. You can use its predefined social media images aspect ratio to make your images social-ready in a blink. It also has color tuning, filters, stickers, and annotation features to make your images more creative.
And the best part – you can do all the above without leaving the SocialPilot post composer window.
7. Boost Your Business with Instagram Ads
Instagram is one of the most widely used social platforms for social selling. There are now more than a billion active users on the platform. With a huge and diverse online community, Instagram has become a powerful social media platform.
The engagement rate on Instagram is higher than on Twitter or Facebook. And with the Reels and other shoppable features, the reach is phenomenal too.
The time is ripe for leveraging the power of Instagram ads to connect with potential buyers worldwide. Make sure your ads are visually appealing and targeted at the right audience to ensure success.
Domestika took advantage of Instagram ads and posted carousel images to promote their courses to solopreneurs and small businesses. The brand already has startling 3M+ followers, and with such ads, they have become unstoppable.
8. Utilize Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to improve brand visibility. But in order to find the right hashtags to use, you need to do some research to find the most relevant hashtags for your brand. This will help you to effectively use hashtags and get the most out of them.
The hashtags should also be relevant to your targeted audience. The more specific the hashtag is, the more relevant your audience will be. This will lead to better visibility and higher engagement rates.
Always try to use variations of hashtags by including a generic one with a unique and specific hashtag. Once you figure out what is working for you, stick to it. And use similar combinations of hashtags on all social media platforms. It will be easier to identify your key supporters and track your mentions with the help of these hashtags.
Ever wished that a trending hashtag would work out perfectly for your brand or promotion?
Let’s see how Chime used the trending hashtag for its brand.
Chime promoted its exclusive meals for less than $10 by taking advantage of a trending hashtag called #NationalFriedChickenDay, which helped the brand gain visibility with its target audience.
You too can reap the benefits of the trending hashtags, but make sure the hashtag is relevant to your brand and can help you attract more audience and followers.
9. Leverage Employee Advocacy
If you want to increase brand awareness across all social media platforms, employee advocacy is one of the best strategies. Your employees also have followers on their social media handles. And who better than your own employees to help you.
Ask them to share their experiences of your product on their social media handles and grab more audience’s interest.
Because in comparison to celebrities, employees are more relevant. They are also easily approachable and a more trusted source of recommendations for your potential buyers.
According to Edelman’s Trust Barometer study, buyers trust employees more than celebrities to help with their purchase decisions.
The social media profiles of Starbucks can be a great example of this.
Starbucks features their employees as they share their journey and how Starbucks helped them to chase their dreams. They also encourage their employees to post authentic images relevant to the brand on Instagram or Facebook.
10. Master Timing for Social Media Posting
The secret behind a successful social media post is to share the right post at the right time. No matter how strong your marketing campaign is, timing is a crucial factor. You might not get the desired results if you don’t publish your posts at the right times.
For a marketer, it can be really challenging to handle multiple social media platforms. So it’s important to schedule posts for your social media platforms to make this task easier. Even if you are unavailable, the scheduler will make sure to post the content at the right time when your target audience is most active.
This is where SocialPilot comes to your rescue.
It gives you detailed insights into multiple social media activities and helps you discover the best time to post. You can then schedule your posts on various social media platforms right from the SocialPilot dashboard. Better yet, the tool helps you understand how your posts are performing so you can make further improvements.
Final Thoughts
Almost every business has been leveraging the vast user base and tools of social media platforms to realize its goals.
While your competitors are out there making a run for it, losing out on this terrific medium can cost you heavily.
It is the right time to revitalize your social media marketing efforts to drive growth and better results for your business.
The strategies outlined above are the most successful and effective ways to increase social selling and improve branding.
Get started with them to make your brand’s products and services visible to relevant potential buyers in an engaging way.
Schedule a demo or experience it yourself by taking a free trial and volte-face your branding in an instant.
