Social media is not a “nice to have” anymore. It has become mandatory. Prospective customers search on social media for reviews and base your credibility and authority on what they find. If your social media is substandard, they might judge that your products or services will be substandard as well.
Broadly speaking, social media has the potential to
- increase brand awareness,
- make prospective customers consider you more strongly, and
- increase conversion in whichever form, from lead generation to sales.
Narrowing in on platforms
One has to keep in mind that customers essentially go through what is referred to as the buyer’s journey, namely awareness, consideration and finally conversion. By implementing social media strategically, you can meet your customers where they are. You will also find different audiences on different platforms. Facebook is home to millennials (aged 18-34), Gen X (35-54) and Baby Boomers (55+) and is losing popularity with younger generations such as Gen Z (13-17). You will find the latter on Snap Chat, Instagram and YouTube.
The type of content to post on each platform will also differ. Twitter is fast paced with the latest news updates of key industries and celebrities. The best content for Instagram includes fitness, fashion, food, and lifestyle. Facebook is a platform where you can bring it all together by posting events, blogs, photo albums, quick updates, videos and more.
This provides the perfect opportunity to target new customers and even retarget those who have visited your website but haven’t followed you on social media or converted to buying your product yet.
As a bonus, creating promoted content on social media is extremely cost-effective! Targeted correctly, your ads can reach thousands to increase brand awareness and gain an engagement rate of 5% (or more) for what you would have paid for lunch, keeping in mind that the industry average for organic engagement is below 1%.
Even more to your advantage, you can leverage social media to see what your competitors are up to! It’s not really spying, just market research. If their followers are your target audience, keep an eye on the engagement to see which content your target audience relates to and finds interesting.
Zooming out to the entire eco-system
Social media cannot and shouldn’t be regarded as an independent endeavour. It is an opportunity to increase inbound traffic. In relation to the entire digital marketing eco-system, customers can be sent (for instance)
- from your website to your social media channels via social media icons,
- from social media channels to your website via web links,
- from email campaigns to your social media channels via icons and links, and
- from social media channels to email campaigns by sharing the link on social media.
Social media also contributes greatly to off-page SEO (search engine optimisation). Basically, based on your company’s predetermined hero keywords to use on your website and social media channels, platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn can help you rank higher on the SERP (search engine results page) when people search for your hero keywords.
So, what’s the point?
The aim is to utilise social media in conjunction with other elements of the digital marketing ecosystem to build brand recognition, credibility and loyalty. Essentially, you would want to get your customers to what our digital strategist refers to as the 7th level of engagement. It is basically on this level where your customers are so loyal that they buy your product and brag about it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or whichever platform they are active on.
Sounds good, right? Contact us to set up a meeting! Let’s create a data-driven digital strategy to help you dominate your social platforms.
