Social media. We either love it or we hate it, but we all use it, be it for personal, for business or for both. But just how big and useful is it, and more importantly, how can you successfully utilize it for your business?

Well, let’s start with some key statistics.

Ok, so social media is a BIIIG thing. But who’s using what and for how long?

So there are a lot of users and lot of time spent on it. But why is social media important?

Allows you to understand & connect with your customers.

How much do you actually understand about your clients? Key details such as their preferences, requirements, behaviors, and hobbies, are vital for enhancing your social media marketing approach and making sure that the material you’re producing is appealing to your target audience.

Increase brand awareness.

A successful social media marketing approach will raise your company’s visibility. When you provide intriguing, pertinent material, people will share it with their followers, thus expanding your exposure and reach. The more people that see your brand online, the greater the likelihood that they will get familiar with it and subsequently make a purchase.

Know what your competitors are up to.

Why waste time, money and resources with trials and errors when you can learn from your competitors what is and isn’t working for them? Utilize this information and incorporate it to create a social media campaign that actually works, without having to put much effort in!

Spot market trends & quickly & cheaply undertake market research.

Social media platforms are some of the largest data repositories in the world, with new data (ie posts, stories, tweets, etc) being added every minute. Having access to all this data to identify market trends and undertake market research quickly, easily, and at your fingertips, and more importantly for free, is like stumbling across a gold mine.

Speak to your suppliers.

Did you know 1 in 3 employees state that use social media to communicate with suppliers and vendors on a weekly basis. If it’s easy to do, and both parties are happy to do it, then why communicate via something else?

Bring in the dough.

By combing the above steps and ensuring they’re done correctly, it should help boost leads and increase your overall sales.

Understanding your business

Before you can start a social media campaign, you need to thoroughly understand your business. If you don’t do a full analysis before planning your campaign, you will most likely create a campaign that is irrelevant to your business and it’ll be a waste of time and effort.

Are happy with your current branding?

If you aren’t now is the time to change it and make sure the campaign is aligned with the brand.

Review your current social media platforms.

which ones are you on/are not on? Which are working and which aren’t? By reviewing these, along with understanding which platforms your clients are on (we discuss this a little later on) you can decide which platforms will be the most suitable and effective for your clients and business.

Review your current products/service offerings.

Are those products/services viable? Are they selling? No point in advertising a product or service that you either don’t have or isn’t economically viable or even worse that is both of those!

Revisit your imagery.

Is it up to scratch? Are they high-resolution quality images? Do they accurately portray your brand & message? Did you know people are only likely to remember 10% of the information they hear 3 days later, however, this increases to 65% if a relevant image is paired with that same information?

What are your keywords?

Are they targeted? For example, there are already 35.5m posts on Instagram with the hashtag #sydney – you are extremely unlikely to reach your target audience by using such a widespread hashtag. Instead, use a more targeted one such as the suburb of your business (#Darlinghurst has only 214k posts – which makes it much more likely for your post to be seen by your target audience).

Understand your target audience.

Who are they exactly? What do they do? And more importantly, how can you target them? Don’t know how to find this out, create buyer personas!

So what is a buyer persona?

A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal client or target audience. You identify key variables, such as demographics, pain points/frustrations, personality, goals and responsibilities, and what motivates them to build this detailed profile of your customer. You then use this information to ensure you put their wants and needs ahead of your own, whilst helping you create more relevant content for them.

Once you have this information you can then use social media statistics, such as the below table, to find out which is the best platform to reach them.

Campaign Summary

Only once you have done the above can you actually start creating your campaign, with 4 simple steps and remember to keep in mind who will listen to your campaign, who will amplify it, and most importantly don’t expect immediate results; results take time, so be patient.

Step 1: Identify the goal of the campaign.

What do you want to achieve out of this campaign? Is it purely brand awareness? Is it to increase clicks to the website? Is it to increase sales?

Step 2: Who is your target audience?

Different buyer personas may require different campaigns. Identify which buyer personas you are targeting to ensure the highest effectiveness.

Step 3: What is the content?

How long is the campaign? What is the message you are trying to get across and how will you do that?

Step 4: Channels & Strategies.

What platforms will you use and will it be organic or paid?

Organic vs Paid

Unsure what the difference between organic and paid advertising is? Check out the below image which gives a great overview of the benefits of each and both. It is important to note, you can’t rely purely on one type of advertising, in order to get the best results, you have to use a mixture of both organic and paid.

The Perfect Social Media Recipe

Now it’s time to create the jaw-dropping, eye-catching, unbelievable and totally shareworthy content your brand so deserves. But how do you do that?

Well, just like your nanas famous, mouth-watering, scrumptious chocolate cake, you need the secret recipe (well not so secret anymore now we’re telling you!)

The best social media posts include a mixture of the following 6 ingredients:

Emotion:

When we care; we share.

Social proof:

Let’s face it everyone loves to show off just a little bit, especially if it makes them look cool & groovy.

Practical proof:

Knowledge that’s new to you which is useful is one of the most shared social media post. Education is cool.

Story to tell:

People don’t share information, they share stories, so make sure you have one.

Consistency:

We’re not talking about doing the same post over and over again, but consistency in regards to the voice, the message, and the branding. Consistency is key.

Bite-size content:

This isn’t a dissertation for your PhD, no one has time to read essay after essay. Keep it short. Keep it sweet.

But how do we go viral?

You may have the best campaign, the best engagement but you’re still not getting the desired results. Well, you’re not alone. In fact only 1% of all Facebook videos will make it viral. And even then it may be short-lived and be the only video you ever do that does get that sort of exposure.

However, fear not, whilst we can’t guarantee to make your videos go viral, we can tell you the top 5 variables which make them.

Rich media:

We’re a visual society, we easily get distracted by bright shiny objects.

Humour:

Who doesn’t love a good laugh?

Shock:

Not scary shock but shock as in can you believe that, that was amazing sort of shock.

Guest stars/influencers:

You may not be afford Snoop Dog to do your advertising, but for Menulog it helped them increase sales by 104%.

So you’ve got amazing content but when should you post?

Different users, different locations, different usage, along with a whole heap of other factors, means that each platform has different timings of when to post. According to SproutSocial, the below table states the best and worst days to post according to user engagement, however, if you would like to dive deeper, you can also identify the best times to post by checking out their article The best times to post on social media in 2022

What Tools To Use?

Think this is all amazing but don’t have the tools to do so; fear not, there are some amazing tools that are super easy to use and don’t cost a fortune; check them out below.

Found this extremely useful and want to get onboard but just don’t have the time or patience to do so? Speak to us today to see how we can help maximise your social media and grow your business.

Gerald and Rose has a team of experienced digital marketers and creative designers who can assist you in taking the right steps towards a successful marketing campaign.

If you are in need of one-off services, we also provide website, social media or digital advertising packages to can help you take your business to the next level.

Maximising Social Media For Your Business