Social media marketing has become vital to the success of businesses nowadays. However, no one really tells you how to make these online endeavors a success. Here are a few things that can help you jumpstart your social media efforts, keep them fresh in your customers’ minds and strengthen your online presence.
1. Monitor your account regularly and respond to conversations
Nothing irks customers like a company that doesn’t respond to their queries on social media pages. You wouldn’t ignore a customer standing in your office/store if they asked you a question and you shouldn’t ignore them if they post a question for you online.
2. Stay on top of changes in social media sites
Currency really matters when it comes to social media marketing and networking. Most of these are updating their features very regularly and if you don’t know how to make the most of them, it could have a major impact on your social media performance.
3. Timing matters
How much do you hate that friend of yours who updates his status 20 times a day and floods your news feed with rubbish through the day? Now think about how a customer feels when your company page does that to his news feed. Ideally, you should set down a particular amount of time each day when you post updates across all of your company’s social media pages. But if you don’t have this kind of time to spare daily, create a number of posts and use social media schedulers to automate the process of posting through the week.
4. Get the terminology right
Would you buy a car from someone who told you that the model’s speedo comes in various colors and prints? We think not. The basic rule of social media marketing is to get your terminology right. Sounding “hip” to appeal to kids would have the opposite effect if you don’t know what you’re talking about.
5. Don’t lose your human touch
Customer service has been given a whole new meaning with the advent of social media marketing. These days, people prefer to ask questions and leave comments about your products and services on your company’s social media page instead of calling up your customer care to tell you about it.
6. Keep your circle intact
Having an active presence on social media can do wonders for your company’s profile in the minds of your customers. However, different kinds of customers respond to different types of content. The key to keeping customers of all kinds happy is to keep all your social media pages connected. Whether you group them in your contact us section in your website or jot them down in your “about us” or “find us” tabs, letting the customers know the full extent of your social media profiles is vital.
7. Take social media marketing seriously
The first thing that you have to remember is that social media marketing is not a part time job and definitely not a hobby. You need to take it just as seriously as traditional marketing efforts as the majority of your customers are likely to be regular users of one social network or the other.
