Be Heard On Social Media By Implementing These 3 Tips From Our Experts
You have to work through the noise to be heard.
Many businesses have adapted to the digital landscape. Of those many businesses, most have websites to which they can direct their customers and potential customers to. Fewer of those businesses, however, need to have their businesses on various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, YouTube, amongst others. This is a strategic way for one to market their business. Having your business present on social media helps you to receive brand awareness and also helps to spread word-of-mouth advertising. However, many businesses do not appropriately promote their social media pages in a way that gets the business “heard.”
There are different ways for your business to approach social media. But first, it is important to know the difference between the two types: 1.) Text-based and, 2.) Visual-based.
Social Media: Text-based vs. Visual-based
How you market your business on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and other similar text-based social media sites is going to be different than how you would market on a visual-based social media site such as Pinterest and YouTube. However, it is a good idea to keep in mind that a lot of this information will parallel.
It goes without saying that visual-based social media networks heavily rely on graphics. However, don’t be fooled or persuaded one way over the other just yet!
It is important to remember, and as you may have already noticed, text-based social media will be greatly improved by providing pictures included in your post(s).
Social Media: Keeping Relevancy
It is so very important to build a relevant fan base of existing and potential customers on your business’ social media networks. This relevant base of followers will essentially include people who are likely interested in purchasing your product or service OR they are already loyal customers.
However, if you have no need or desire for social media users to purchase your services or product, why even have them as followers or fans?
Susan Gunelius from Entrepeneur states, “it’s better to have 1,000 online connections who read, share and talk about your content with their own audiences than 10,000 connections who disappear after connecting with you the first time.” She is right. You don’t want to become irrelevant.
In addition to becoming irrelevant, another known problem is when a business receives a fake fan base. These do much more harm that the average person would believe. According to Business Insider, business pages can become rendered useless because the metrics get thrown off.
As a result of fake likes and follows, your target market will receive fewer notification of what you have to offer them. Yes, even if you are paying for online promotions. These also go unnoticed to your target audience if the audience is a false group of followers.
Of course, you can’t hand select who likes or follows your business online. You can, however, choose to refrain from following or liking other businesses who are not relevant.
Social Media: Creative Content
You want to show your business off to the world. What better way than to post about your products and/or services, as well as the specials you offer? It’s that easy to catch users, right?!
Wrong. People aren’t typically on Twitter and Facebook to research products. They are more likely to use a search engine to look up products and/or services. They may even gravitate toward YouTube and Pinterest to see the product or service for themselves or to find out what others have to say about what your business offers & to read feedback from your past customers.
That being said, YouTube and Pinterest are great for posting more about your products and services. Facebook and Twitter are great social avenues to use for that as well, however, content is very important for these types of social media websites.
Most social media users want to view content. They may want to see things that interest them, especially updates or products that will be interesting to tell their friends and followers about. Creative, engaging content is the content that users will re-post or share, therefore bringing more awareness of your brand to the general population of social media users.
By establishing your credibility using creative content, you are helping that one person who may not be ready to pull the trigger & who is waiting on the “right” information to help them make a decision, make a decision.
Andy Crestodina of the Social Media Examiner explains that “written content works in many ways. Some writing pulls your audience toward you, building awareness. Other content builds trust and compels your audience to take action. In other words, content can be useful at strengthening different parts of the conversion funnel.”
Content-based marketing is an important key when advertising on social media.
Social Media: How much content to post
There is a rule that has come up in the past few years in regards to social media marketing, particularly with Facebook. That rule is termed the 70/20/10 rule. PageModo says that 70% of what is posted should be value and relevant content. This keeps your customers and potential customers interested in your messages and helps to prevent your business from coming off as pushy.
Content marketing via Pinterest can be tricky. Here are some suggestions from Zerys on how to successfully market content on Pinterest!
- Post pictures of how your product can be used.
- Collect customer testimonials.
- Share tips and expert information.
- Share infographics.
- Tell your company’s story in pictures.
- Pin tutorials to a board.
- Let customers peek behind the scenes.
Possibly one of the most difficult ways to provide quality content is via YouTube. Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube, suggests that “while brand advertisers should optimize their own channels for discovery, authentic collaborations with YouTube creators can be a hugely impactful way to help new viewers discover their brands.”
Content-based marketing is a proven and safe way to encourage your target market to be interested in your brand, and thereby it increases sales.
Social Media: Be Visual
Eye-catching content is effective in grabbing our attention and pulling us into a message.
Bandwagon Creative proves this point when it shows that visual advertising is far more likely to be successful than just text advertising.
This is also evident from research on Pinterest. Media Post explains that “some 21% of respondents to a recent survey with a Pinterest account have purchased a product after seeing a picture on the site.” More than 1/5th of content posted on Pinterest results in a purchase. Talk about powerful!
Visual advertising does more than just increase sales in black-and-white. Visual advertising increases your Search Engine Optimization rank, or SEO, while capturing more users, according to Heidi Cohen. And, of course, if your business’s website is higher in organic results, you will have more clicks which will likely lead to an increase in sales.
The Content Marketing Institute says that “visual content can prompt upbeat feelings, drive traffic, and boost engagement, photos and video have become crucial in online storytelling.” Visual marketing increases a persons’ relationship with a brand. Intuitively, this means that a person will prefer this brand over others, which can result in long-term loyalty.
In Summary
Effective social media marketing is imperative in our digital world. Unfortunately, many businesses do not utilize it effectively. By having a relevant fan base, composing creative & visual content, you will be on the right track to increasing the credibility and success of your business!
If you have any more questions, contact us.
Amplified Digital knows social media marketing—as well as other forms of digital marketing—and our team of experts can get your business started in the right direction. Contact Amplified Digital!