Social media is an integral part of our lives, with billions of users around the world. Regardless of your niche or specialty, when it comes to running a business, a social media presence is an essential tool to drive sales and boost traffic. Yet some businesses perform better than others when partnering with the likes of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
To create an effective digital marketing strategy that showcases your brand in a positive light, consider ways to maximize your social platform presence – especially when competition is stiff. Below are a few ways to optimize your social channels for increased engagement and improved metrics.
Think outside the box
When it comes to social channels, it’s likely that you have one or two that you never fail to update. But going forward, it’s worth thinking of alternative social platforms you can utilize to broaden your reach and also diversify your content.
Maximizing the benefits of social media channels requires smart forward-planning and using the right social platforms for your business news is crucial. TikTok, for example, might not be your first thought when it comes to a viable marketing channel. Yet, you might be surprised by the positive impact it could have on your unique and carefully considered strategy.
While Instagram held the top spot for several years, TikTok has grown exponentially, surpassing the 1 billion user mark back in September 2021. This means that it’s one of the most popular social media networks and a fantastic opportunity for any business when it’s used correctly. Build your game plan in advance to create shareable content and play on current trends to have the algorithm work in your favor.
Tap into the popularity of social commerce
Pre-pandemic, social commerce (the combination of e-commerce and social media) was seen as an opportunity the more innovative businesses were taking on. But now, with our increased social media consumption and a need for greater convenience, more and more businesses are taking part in social shopping.
In fact, eMarketer predicts that by 2023, social commerce sales will hit $56 billion. With that in mind, now’s the time for businesses to build out their digital marketing strategy and attract more clients by incorporating social commerce into their channels.
There are several ways to get started with social commerce, from creating user-generated video content to inspire buyers, to linking products in your social media posts and building your strategy around the products you’re trying to push. Live shopping can also be an effective way of utilizing platforms to boost sales, as well as partnering with micro-influencers.
Create high-quality visuals
Visual content is a must when it comes to boosting your engagement on social media, and that’s never been more true than in 2022. Today, if you want your brand content to be shared, it needs to be aesthetically pleasing as well as informative and current.
Wyzowl, an animated explainer video company suggests “people tend to remember about 20 percent of what they read, and only ten percent of what they hear. In comparison, the same studies have shown that people tend to remember an impressive 80 percent of what they see and do”.
People are far more likely to share visual content over social networks. It’s one of the most effective ways to generate more traffic, boost sales and increase engagement.
“Do you edit your images in a consistent style? Do you use a particular color palette? Do you shoot a specific subject matter? These are all the components which fall into ‘style’ and are very much what your audience will seek you out for”, explains MPB, who believes that knowing your style is crucial to maximizing your social media efforts.
Practice the art of storytelling
Stories sell, and as humans, we’re naturally drawn to them. Storytelling builds emotional attachment and connection that can help your audience resonate with your brand and the purpose behind your business. When you introduce storytelling into your social media and digital marketing strategies, you have the potential to inspire your audience and encourage interaction on a deeper level.
Whether you choose to play up narratives through video content, testimonials, or successive posts that build up the excitement and interest around what you have to say, finding ways to weave in stories to your social media content will help you grow your following on different channels and boost brand recognition.
Humanize your brand
Authenticity matters, particularly online, and while digital tools make it easier to communicate with larger groups of people, getting across the right level of emotion and trust can be hard. Humanizing your brand means showing your audience and customers the behind-the-scenes of the business; the employees that make the company run, the real people bringing your brand to life every day.
People don’t want to buy from a faceless corporation. They want real people, with real opinions and experiences. Businesses looking to put forward a more honest and authentic public image need to celebrate their staff online, be transparent about the origins of the business, and focus on education and empathy rather than just pushing sales.
Quality, not quantity, for hashtags
It was once the case that hashtags were the way to maximize your reach and visibility. And while it’s still the case that hashtags are identifiers for your brand that can help to build engagement and spark conversations, quantity isn’t the way to use them. In fact, the more hashtags you use, the less engagement you could get on each post.
Under Instagram’s own recommendation, businesses should use 3 and 5 hashtags per post, despite being given the option to use up to 30. Relevancy appears to be more important when it comes to hashtag usage, keeping your core keywords the focus, and filtering out everything else.
Forging an impactful marketing strategy takes time and plenty of data, but when it comes to social media, you also need to factor in current trends. Your users will influence how your social strategy plays out, but with these tips, you can develop content that’s designed for sharing, encourages engagement, and can help to generate traffic for your brand.
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