05/10/2018
Looking to find out more about social media marketing? Well, you’re in the right place. Find out the basics of SMM, right here.
We realise we’re always banging on about social media, but it’s because it’s our job… Yes, it is a phenomenon, and nothing on the internet has quite grasped the world like social media has. It’s its own beast, and social media marketing is now an essential part of digital marketing strategies. Is your business making the right moves in social media? And, are you even making any? Before you start working on your social media marketing, there’s a few things you need to learn…
So, whether you’re looking to keep your social in-house or outsource to a wonderful digital marketing agency, like us, you’re going to need to at least understand the basics. Why? Because any smart business owner knows they shouldn’t invest in something they don’t understand. In the spirit of that, we’re going to run you through the social media marketing basics.
We’re covering everything from what is social media marketing, to why you should invest in it and how you can get yourself started. It’s a really important part of digital marketing, especially for businesses with younger demographics (e.g. those that can use a smartphone or computer…)
Stick with the Revive team and we’ll show you the way of social media marketing.
That’s a damn good question. Social media marketing is fairly self-explanatory, it’s a form of marketing on, you guessed it, social media. This includes sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and so on. Utilising social media for marketing generally falls into 5 key ‘parts’. Everything from paid advertising, managing communities, posting, growing and monitoring. We’ll go into detail of all of them, below.
Advertising on social media is one of the most effective methods of advertising that is known to the modern world. Well, from a business perspective anyway. It’s because your business can target a select ‘audience’ on social media. Yes, you can make up an ideal demographic to advertise your business to. Whether you’re selling cat flaps in Essex or dungarees in Dundee, you can target social users through things like age, location, interests, and more. It’s an advertiser’s dream.
Larger brands and businesses on social media will have ‘communities.’ What is means is that their all their followers and those interacting with their page are a community. Community management involves making sure your brand is represented correctly on social media, interacting with customer users regularly. This can be responding to enquiries, requests and even complaints. But above that, it’s about making sure that your business’ goals are in line with how you’re using social media marketing too.
You’re only as good as the amount of people that follow you… Social media users can be fickle, and can follow and unfollow businesses and brands at a whim. But, to make sure you’re reaching as many users (potential customers) as possible, it’s key to always work on growing social following. Whether it be through like campaigns, competitions and giveaways, getting people on board with your brand/business on social is key to expanding your business’ reach.
Most social media platforms, once you sign up for a business account, allow you to monitor metrics and data behind your account. This is another key part of social media marketing, as it allows you to see both what is working and what is not. You can see how many followers you’ve gained/lost, when people interact with your account and how much engagement your posts attract (likes, comments, shares etc.). It’s important for your business to be successful that you monitor analytics, because it will help you understand what your business needs to do and what it’s doing well on social media.
THE BARE MINIMUM. Posting on social media is what every business should be doing. It gives you a presence, shows that you’re creating content and can be really useful bringing traffic to your website. If you’re not sold by all of social media marketing, or don’t have the budget, what you should do is consistently post on social media.
You may have seen us use this graphic already, but we love it so we’re using it again…
Yes, with a whopping 32million users on Facebook in the UK, is social media marketing something you can afford to miss out on? You can reach a whole new pool of customers through social media marketing and bring in tonnes of potential business for your company. YouTube and Twitter both have over 19million users, with Instagram at 14million. So, if all these millions of active users aren’t convincing you to invest in social media, then maybe targeted advertising will…
We can’t stress enough how great targeted advertising is, because it allows you to maximise your budget by specifically aiming your ads at a select demographic. Old advertising methods such as TV and Print aren’t as effective, because your dream audience may not see it. With social advertising it’s never been more effective to advertise to your demographic.
But hey, the least you should be doing is posting regularly. It’s not enough to properly utilise social media platforms but it gives you a presence on the channels at least.
So, you’re ready to invest with a winning digital marketing agency (ahem, us) OR keep your social in-house. What you’ll need to do is hit the ground running, setting up your social accounts with the basics. Here’s our 3 tips to get you started.
So, not every social media platform is right for every business. It’s about finding and researching the ones that will work for your business. If you’re b2b, you should definitely be on LinkedIn. If you’re a business that markets ‘visual’ products, Instagram is the one for you. It’s commonplace that everyone should be on Facebook because, let’s face it, 32million active users isn’t one to be missed. But, find the social platforms that work for you. Of course, the big brands are on all of them, but some are less popular with their consumers than others. So, find the ones that are appropriate for your business. You don’t want to waste your time posting on loads of different services when there’s one that is probably more beneficial for your business than others.
With your socials selected, and your accounts set up in part, it’s time to make sure your branding is consistent. By this, we mean that your socials match up to your website. A lot of work goes into branding (well, it should), and it’s essential to make sure you’re being consistent with it. That means getting your banner image, profile picture, tone of voice, colours etc. right on your selected social platforms. Luckily, at Revive, our expert design team offers branding services, to make your business look as good as you know it to be!
Ask your mum, dad, sister, brother, dog, cat, fish, friends, nan, grandad, people in the street – everyone! You should ask everyone you know to like and share your business page. Getting more followers right at the start puts you in a great position to help you grow, so invite them all to like your page. If you’ve got a business mailing list, work on email marketing campaigns to get some likes through to your business’ social pages.
If we’ve made your head spin with all of this social media marketing info, relax. Take a second and give us a call. We’re experts in digital marketing and can offer you social media marketing as part of our service. Outsourcing is a great way to make sure your time is managed effectively. Give the Revive marketing team a call today to discuss your social media marketing. We’ll be waiting…
