September 05, 2017
Although 92% of marketers agree that social media is a vital component to their business marketing, only 42% say they’re able to measure their social activities (Source: Hubspot). Many small and medium-sized businesses are leveraging social media to increase awareness, grow their following, and drive traffic to their webpages yet most are not highly effective.
This is troubling because social media presents huge opportunities for brands to accelerate their growth and genuinely connect with their audiences. The key is using techniques that are current, captures attention, and drives favorable business actions such as clicks and shares on social media. When these tactics are activated in your strategy, you’ll experience amazing results from your efforts.
The following shares five successful tactics SMBs are using to create favorable results on social media. As you implement each technique, you’ll see a surge in user engagement, an increase in new followers, and better traffic generation from social.
#1 Broadcast Live
According to Social Media Today, people surprisingly spend 3 times longer watching live social video than ones previously recorded. Live video has a unique ability of capturing attention and drawing viewers into the message, making them incredibly effective for your social media marketing.
Using tools like Instagram Stories, Facebook Live and Periscope brings authenticity to your content as followers are able to experience the real you. Broadcasting live quickly builds trust and grows brand awareness fast.
There are a plethora of ways to leverage live-streaming video in your social marketing. Aim to keep your followers up-to-date with industry-related and trending news by reporting live. Promote the times when you host a live Q&A session where fans have the opportunity to get their most pressing questions answered in real-time. Or simply invite followers into your world by taking them behind-the-scenes and giving them a true taste of your business culture.
#2 Share Customer Testimonials
Customer reviews and testimonials are powerful assets to your content strategy. An unbelievable 88% of consumers give online reviews the same weight as personal recommendations. Sharing your customer’s experiences with your brand shows people are truly satisfied with the product or service you offer. It fosters trust and belief that they will also achieve positive results, encouraging more prospects to do business with you.
Therefore, use customer testimonials as content for your social media. Include images, if possible, to boost engagement and reach. Be sure to include relevant hashtags or keywords so new followers can locate your content. The more positive content you have of people raving about your business, the more favorable results you’ll receive in your traffic, leads and sales.
#3 Design and Share Infographics
Did you know infographics are liked and shared on social media 3 times more than any other content type? Infographics are excellent pieces that stand out and provides useful data that your audience can easily consume. They’re actually beneficial to your entire content strategy as you can optimize them on your blog posts for SEO ranking, share with your email subscribers, and post them on networks like Pinterest where they perform extremely well.
Easily design your own infographic using Piktochart or Canva. Consider repurposing your most popular or evergreen blog posts into an infographic to start. Share them on your social media networks, tailoring your content accordingly so it speaks to the audience you’re posting on.
#4 Give Value by Curating Content
Curating content is a brilliant strategy for consistently sharing high-quality content with your social followers. By collecting, organizing and sharing authoritative content that resonates with your audience, you’ll be seen as a reliable source. Even if the content isn’t originally from your company, your followers will appreciate you helping them save time on finding these valuable articles that they can retrieve from your business page.
With social content curation, you’ll always have quality-rich content to post for your audience while positioning you as a trusted resource and leader in the industry.
Feedly is a top content curation source where you can easily access high-ranking articles for your social content. Certain social media management tools like Buffer offer convenient built-in features to curate articles and schedule them to post across your social networks. Choose the best option and begin feeding your audience with news they find useful.
#5 Be Responsive and Engaging
The final social media tactic to drive favorable results is staying engaged with your audience. Simply posting content and walking away will not yield consistent results in your marketing. Remember, it’s social media. Particularly as a small or medium-sized business, interacting with your followers is just as important to your social strategy because it shows that there is a “human” behind the brand name and that you care about their responses.
Commit to being more social on your networks by responding to every comment posted. Like and share your follower’s content especially if they highlight your brand or it pertains to your industry. Also, personally reach out to customers via direct messaging. One-third of millenials state they actually prefer to communicate with businesses on social media. Give your audience more of what they want by being responsive on your social channels.
Conclusion
Your social media marketing is a key component to your digital strategy. Implementing techniques that keep your marketing fresh and engaging equates to positive returns from your efforts.
So, choose to include these strategies in your social marketing. Be consistent and test your results to discover what’s working and modify what isn’t. With consistently, you’ll experience greater results in your engagement and follower growth while significantly increasing brand awareness.