What is social media marketing? This is a question that many business owners have, and the answer can be a little complicated. Social media marketing is the process of using social media platforms to promote and sell your products or services. It can involve creating social media profiles for your business, posting content on these profiles, interacting with customers and followers, and using social media advertising to reach more people. Indigo Business Solutions can help you setup and maintain your social media presence. Get your Free Digital Marketing Evaluation today!
Managing Your Social Media
Social Media Management (SMM) is a related term that refers to the process of overseeing all aspects of social media marketing. This includes creating goals, planning and organizing content, tracking results, and optimizing campaigns.
To be successful in managing social media you need an understanding of current trends, everchanging policies, and knowledge of how to measure success based on organic numbers grown from advertising. Indigo Business Solutions offers a wide array of services to our clients and helping you get a jump start on managing your social media is just one. We offer high quality at affordable pricing for almost any budget.
Be Consistent with Your Social Media
Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the practice of making sure that all your content looks great and consistent across all the different social media platforms you use. This means using the same profile picture, cover photo, and bio across all platforms, as well as posting similar content.
The immediate question with social media is, “What will I post?” This issue expands as you start to build your profile across several different platforms. The key to success here is to produce content that can be adapted across all of your social media. Providing the same offers to customers on different social media will actually allow you to gauge your reach and see where your audience is the most responsive.
Creating Brand Awareness
A key part of social media marketing is creating brand awareness. This means making sure that people know about your business and what it does. You can do this by creating engaging content, interacting with potential customers, and running social media ads on various platforms.
Content is king and making sure your brand is connected means more than sharing a meme with an unaffiliated website’s logo in the image. Too many times companies rely on resharing other’s created content to garner interaction with an audience. It’s important to have a healthy combination of content to engage your audience produced solely with your brand in mind and filler to keep consistent posts that will interest that same audience and view your social media as a resource for knowledge or entertainment.
Facebook & the Facebook Pixel
Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms out there, with over 2 billion monthly active users. It’s a great platform for businesses of all sizes to create an engaging presence. You can also use Facebook to run social media advertising campaigns utilizing Facebook Pixel.
Meta Pixel (formerly Facebook Pixel) is a piece of code that can be added to your website to collect data. The collected data provides information to help you track conversions from Facebook ads and help focus on targeted audiences that have interacted with your website.
Instagram for Business
Instagram is a visual social media platform with over 1 billion monthly active users. It is a great platform for businesses to connect with their target audience through visually appealing content. The platform can be used to post photos and videos, as well as run advertising campaigns.
The platform focuses on mobile device users and allows them to build an audience of followers that can view, comment, and like shared photos and videos.
The difference between Instagram and other social media such as Facebook and Twitter is that Instagram only enables the posting of photos and videos whereas Facebook, for example, allows various media such as articles, quizzes, and long-form videos.
Twitter Advertising
Twitter is another free social networking platform that features user-created content in the form of tweets. Tweets are usually comprised of text, photos, links, and even videos. Twitter focuses on sharing short-form information more than connecting with other users in a personal network.
Similar to other social platforms, Twitter Ads allow you to implement advertising strategies to promote your content and push to a broader audience. Twitter uses a sort of auction system where you can set the budget for certain actions performed by audience members interacting with your sponsored content.
LinkedIn is a Great Way to Connect with Potential Customers
LinkedIn serves as a hub for potential employees and a way for businesses to connect in a professional manner. The platform boasts an average of over 500 million monthly active users.
How to Successfully Network
The key to success on LinkedIn is almost the same as any other platform, but you’re restricted to a more uniform practice. Keeping your profile up to date is one way to improve your potential leads. This should include various opportunities for your audience to learn more about your brand and the people that work there. As your audience grows so will your lead conversion as updates are pushed to your followers.
Google My Business
Google My Business is a free platform that allows businesses to manage their online presence. It’s a great way to increase your visibility in search results, share engaging content, and connect with potential customers.
One of the most critical aspects of Google My Business is it allows you to define your business with Google. You are able to input your proper business name, address, phone number, operating hours, and a number of other pieces of information that define your business. It is a must-have part of your online presence.
User Reviews Can Make All The Difference
When potential customers are in an area looking to fulfill a need or want, most often they take their phones out and immediately use some form of Google service. Everything associated with your company is tied to your Google Business Profile. Even before a potential lead visits your website, this information is provided to them along with customer reviews and how well you rank.
Customers are very likely to rate your business within their own preferences or biases, so what might be a five-star experience may only be a one-star to another individual. What can easily sway someone looking at several offerings all within the same rank is organic customer reviews. Customers that take the time to leave positive messages are a great form of advertising. It lets potential customers know that your company warranted their time to speak highly of you.
Once you have a Google My Business page, encourage your customers to leave reviews. It is worth the effort.
Geographical Advantages
Depending on the type of business, sometimes a physical location matters to customers. Various software depends on Google’s mapping and databases. To ensure traffic is driven to the areas you serve, it is important to have accurate details provided so that customers can visit your storefront or understand what your operating area is. Google My Business allows you to create and maintain a service area so potential customers are able to find you more easily through a Google search.
Viral Video Content is Still Prevalent
TikTok is the wild west of social media where the platform is still developing and users are creating new ways to drive users to their other social media platforms. The key to success on TikTok is to create engaging, creative content that can be easily shared. Use social media marketing techniques to get your TikTok account in front of as many people as possible. This can be done through hashtags, influencer marketing, and paid advertising.
Interactive and Engaging Content
TikTok is all about quick, engaging content. Users are looking for something that will hold their attention for the short amount of time they have to watch a video. Make sure your content is interactive, visually appealing, and easy to understand. Use creative methods to tell your story and connect with your audience.
Hashtags
TikTok users are very active with hashtags. Use them to your advantage by using relevant and popular hashtags that will help get your content in front of more people. You can also use TikTok’s duet feature to team up with another user and double your reach.
Influencer Marketing
There are a lot of big TikTok influencers with millions of followers. If you can get one of them to feature your brand in their content, you’ll reach a whole new audience. But don’t stop there – try to partner with smaller influencers as well. They often have more engaged audiences and can be more affordable
Get Started with Indigo Business Solutions
We’ve convered some basic philosphy and practices about social media marketing. If you’re looking for help getting started with social media marketing or just to improve upon your current work, see what services we offer to grow and develop your brand across a variety of platforms. We currently manage all forms of social media and work with customers to develop effective brand awareness to maximize their audience reach. Contact us today for a Free Digital Marketing Evaluation or give Indigo Business Solutions a call at 631.630.9845.
