One thing we can all be sure of when it comes to social media is that it is constantly changing. From new apps to updated algorithms, keeping up with the trends is not a small task. It’s one thing to keep up with your personal accounts (if that’s your thing). It’s a completely different challenge to find the trends and channels that work best for your business. That’s where a social media marketing expert can help. Keep reading to learn how a social media expert can help you improve your social media strategy and what social media services you can implement in 2023 to boost your business.
Determining Your Social Media Goals
Whether you hire a social media expert or decide to try running things on your own, the first thing you need to do is sit down and determine the goals you want to accomplish with your social media channels. It is important to note that different channels can (and probably should) have different goals. If you are struggling to figure out your social media goals, try answering the following question for each social media channel: What am I trying to accomplish through social media?
When setting goals for social media, it is important to be realistic. Some of the most common goals of social media include:
- Increased Brand Awareness
- Generating Leads
- Growing Your Brand’s Audience
- Boosting Engagement
- Driving Website Traffic
Setting specific goals will help you stay on track with your social media marketing strategy and make the proper adjustments as you see what works and what could use improvement.
Social Media KPIs
Once you have set your social media goals, it is important to determine the right KPIs. This way, you will have clear data to help you determine if your goals are being met. Some of the most common social media KPIs include:
- Reach: The number of unique users who saw your post
- Clicks: The number of times your content is clicked on
- Engagement: The total number of social interactions divided by the total number of impressions
- Sentiment: The reaction users had to your content
Getting On the Right Platforms
No matter how solid your social media marketing strategy is, it won’t be successful in reaching your ideal customer if you are not using the right social media channels. Each platform has its own standard user. Showing up where your target customer shows up is essential to a successful social media marketing strategy.
- Facebook and YouTube are ideal for ads due to their high-earning user bases
- Instagram and TikTok have younger user bases, ideal for brand awareness with eye-popping content that captures their attention in a creative way
- Pinterest is a female-dominated platform with a high average order value for social media shoppers
- LinkedIn users are well-educated, making it ideal for industry-specific content and B2B businesses
While the “hot new platform” to be on is, for instance, TikTok, if your ideal customer is a middle-aged adult who is a homeowner, Facebook might be the better platform for you. The important takeaway is while keeping an eye on what’s trending is important, what’s most important is knowing where your target customers will be looking for you.
Organic VS Paid Social Media Posting
After setting your goals and figuring out which platforms are right for your business, it’s time to figure out which social media posting strategy you will be implementing: organic content, paid content, or both. Both have their pros and cons, and a social media marketing expert will be able to help you determine the best course of action for your business.
Organic Posting
When you post organically, you are directly interacting with your current customers and fans. Organic posting can be used to establish your brand identity, provide updates on your business, and respond to the questions or concerns of your customers.
Unfortunately, there are cons to organic social media posting. If you are running your own social media channels, consistently creating and posting content can become extremely time-consuming. There is also limited reach with your posts, as the algorithms for all platforms vary and it is known that organic posts are not necessarily shown to your entire audience.
Paid Posting
With paid social media posting, there is an opportunity to target your ideal audience more directly. Because of this, you will be able to reach potential customers who may not yet be following you, thus expanding your reach and following. You will also be able to see quicker results with a paid social media strategy, as you are budgeting your post to be shown more frequently to a larger audience.
Of course, there is a downside to paid social media marketing. The world of paid social media posting is extremely competitive depending on what industry you are in. Showing up in front of your ideal audience may result in a higher price. Paid social media efforts also take up more of your time, as they need to be monitored, analyzed, and adjusted based on performance. A social media marketing expert will be able to assist with your paid social media campaigns and help monitor performance for optimal results.
Creating Engaging Content
Creating engaging content consistently is one of the most challenging parts of maintaining an active social media presence. While the initial thought might be that social media marketing is something you can do on your own, as you get busier as a business owner, maintaining an online presence becomes increasingly more difficult, and it may be time to hire a social media marketing expert to help create content.
There is so much more that goes into developing social media content than you may think. From creating enticing captions to developing strong imagery and graphics, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What hashtags should you be using? How many hashtags should your posts have? Should you produce static images only, or add videos into your social media strategy as well?
Not to mention the new features that are constantly rolling out in each platform. Ever since Instagram introduced Stories to compete with Snapchat, more and more platforms have been testing out the idea of stories as well. With some, like Facebook, the trend stuck. Other platforms, like Twitter and LinkedIn, have seen less success with stories. Also new to Instagram is the new Reels feature, which rolled out in competition with TikTok. As each app continues to produce new features, having a social media expert to help develop the right type of engaging content will be extremely helpful in keeping up with the trends that are a right fit for your business.
Social Media Monitoring
In a time where users expect businesses to be active and present on social media, it is extremely important to make sure you have at least one person dedicated to monitoring your social media platforms. Monitoring your social channels is more than simply looking at the data. You should also be monitoring and responding to your customers. From liking their comments on your posts to responding to reviews, it is important to actively monitor and engage with your audience.
By actively engaging with your audience, they are more likely to have a positive attitude towards your business and view your company as trustworthy and reliable. When you respond in a timely manner (the average user expects a response from a business on social media within 24 hours) you develop a relationship with your customers and show that you care about them and their opinions.
When developing a social media monitoring strategy, it is important that you have clear guidelines in place for those in charge of monitoring. This way, you can ensure that all responses to comments, reviews, and direct messages are on-brand and acceptable for your business standards.
It’s Time to Improve Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
As you can see, implementing a successful social media marketing strategy is a lot more than posting here and there. In fact, the best way to set your business up for success on social media is to hire a social media marketing expert to assist you in running your social media strategies.
At ROI Amplified, our social media marketing team will work with you to develop a solid social media strategy that meets your goals and brings your business to the next level. If you are interested in working with our social media team to develop and maintain a solid strategy, schedule a consultation today.
