I jUst DOn't Have Time to Manage my Business SoCial MeDia

If I had a dollar for the number of times I've heard this from clients, I could pretty much just pack it all up and retire...well maybe semi-retire (since I'm still working on that Porsche).

In our hyper-digital 2019 world, communication has evolved into an entity of its own.

The exchange of information in real time has ushered in a whole new wave of opportunity for social and business interaction alike. The fact is, to remain relevant in today's market, you have to put some time into social media marketing. And as many of you know, that's easier said than done. Some of the top social networks include:

Facebook is the biggest and arguably most powerful social network in the world with 1.55 billion active monthly users. Whether you are a startup or fortune 500 company, you need to not only be on Facebook, but you need to be positively engaging with your consumers.

Twitter is known as the ‘‘in the moment’’ platform and boasts a respectful 255 million active monthly users. Twitter is a perfect online marketing tool for businesses that want to reach out to people (and are ready for a reply). The key is to be quick and smart.

Instagram is a visual platform designed for customers to post, share, comment and engage through digital media. We are visual creatures by nature and are naturally attracted to images.

LinkedIn is regarded as the professional social networking site. LinkedIn largely focuses on b2b (business to business) marketing rather than b2c (business to customer).

So, between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and all the others, how in the world can you keep up with them all? Not to mention creating unique, relevant posts that keep your followers interested and engaging with you?? No doubt about it - it takes time - and it requires a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience.

Set Goals – Start big and work down. Do you need to increase customer loyalty?

Know your target audience – Don’t use demographics only - but expand with psychographics.

Social Media – Decide on which digital media will help you connect with your audience. Will this take the form of a blog, video, podcast etc?

Social Network Strategy – Focus on a social network that adds value. Just because a network has over a hundred million active users doesn’t mean it will directly contribute to your brand’s objectives.

Measurement and Testing – What does success mean to you? You need to constantly analyze your social media strategy to understand its effectiveness. Engage with your audience to discover what works and what doesn’t.

According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites. And according to Social Media Examiner, 97% of marketers are currently participating in social media—but 85% of participants aren’t sure what social media tools are the best to use.

This demonstrates a huge potential for social media marketing to increase sales, but a lack of understanding on how to achieve those results. Here’s a look at just some of the ways social media marketing can improve your business:

• Social media marketing increases brand awareness. 78% of small businesses use social media to attract new customers. Furthermore, 33% of customers have identified social media as how they identify new brands, products, and services.
• Social media marketing helps to validate your brand. A company’s social media presence, when done correctly, tells consumers that their brand is active and focused on thriving communication with consumers. 63% of consumers who search for businesses online are more likely to use ones with an informative social media presence.
• Social media marketing has the power to increase customer loyalty. 71% of consumers who received a quick response on social media would recommend the brand to others.
• Better Search Engine Rankings. SEO is the best way to capture relevant traffic from search engines, but the requirements for success are always changing. It’s no longer enough to regularly update your blog, ensure optimized title tags and meta descriptions, and distribute links pointing back to your site. Based on the fact that strong brands almost always use social media, Google and other search engines may be calculating their rankings using social media presence as a significant factor. As such, being active on social media could act as a “brand signal” to search engines that your brand is legitimate, credible, and trustworthy. That means, if you want to rank for a given set of keywords, having a strong social media presence could be almost mandatory.

Investment in a social media marketing management service may have already been identified as the missing link connecting you with your consumers.

Need help with brand validation and social media marketing? At Perception Digital Marketing, we help you tell your story so you can concentrate on what YOU do best!