Social media marketing has become integral to most online businesses operation. In many cases though, there is no clear structure that ensures the social network grows and reach the necessary goals. We have highlighted five habits a business can focus on to improve their social media marketing results.
The vast majority of businesses will have taken some initial steps with social media. Even smaller local businesses may have set up a Facebook page, possibly even developing an entire network. In many cases, though, these social accounts offer minimal content, often left for long periods without updates. One of the keys to successful social media marketing is to be consistent and form habits that can be repeated regularly. The following habits will ensure you stick to a social media strategy that brings tangible results to your business.
Create New Content
Content can come in many forms. You might want to build a big campaign, requiring a library of images, text, and videos to promote it. However, you may just want to write a simple tweet that creates interest. Create a content calendar to ensure you update your social profiles according to a schedule. The type of content you post will vary when you have enough research to know what works.
Use a Social Dashboard
Logging in an out of multiple social accounts is hugely inefficient. Thankfully, there are many social media dashboards that let you run your accounts from a central location. Tools like Hootsuite, Cyfe, and Sprout Social are a few of the options, but there are many alternatives with varying features. The best dashboard tools allow you to schedule content in the perfect format for each site. Ideally, you also want to be able to engage with followers from a single feed.
Track Your Goals
Unless you have trackable goals, it can be difficult to work out if you are being truly productive. Likes and shares are important metrics across most social media platforms. However, these elements are not ultimately why you are in business. Instead, it is important to set goals around lead generation and sales, ensuring your social media efforts are producing results that impact your business. With access to this data, you can be sure that the work you put into social media actually leads to tangible results.
Perform Competitive Research
While you may want to follow your own path, competitive research is an important tool across all online business activities. Social media can particularly benefit from competitive research as it is clear to see areas of opportunity. Social listening tools can uncover the type of posts that resonate with audiences in your industry. This could be the style of content, the topic, or the platform it is posted on. Additionally, you might find that businesses are neglecting some social platforms, providing the chance to take over as the major voice in your niche.
Engage With Followers
Social media users don’t observe some of the usual barriers that exist in many aspects of business. Users expect to be able to message brands and get quick responses. Depending on the size of your business, it may be possible to offer constant customer support via social media. Smaller businesses, though, might need to limit their support initially, but still engage with people. Make it a habit to answer questions, contribute to discussions, and build excitement around new announcements.
Entire businesses have been built with social media as the primary marketing strategy. The level of social users and the ability to cultivate an engaged audience makes social media marketing too important to ignore. It is easy to dip in and out of social media posting, though, resulting in a loss of momentum. There needs to be a clear strategy backed up by positive habits. By implementing these habits into your social media marketing, you can continue to reach the audience most likely to go on and become long-term customers.
