By 2025, at least 4.41 billion people will be using at least one form of social media. If that’s not enough to convince you that social media marketing must be part of your overall outreach strategy, then we’re here to help!
Social media marketing uses your choice of social media platforms (such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, and more) to reach, engage and convert your target audience. You can use several strategies across social media to do this, but you must ensure that you use the right ones for the right occasions. So, ready to get all the facts you need? Let’s jump into one of the best-known benefits of social media marketing – generating loyal fans!
Brand loyalty and social media
Did you know that retaining customers is easier than getting new ones? This is why big brands do so well — they’ve got a good product and know how to keep their customers happy.
Brand loyalty is when customers tend to choose a specific brand over others. They don’t need heavy marketing or to be convinced to purchase because they want to purchase the brand’s products and prefer them to similar offerings by competitors.
Social media is the best place to cultivate these relationships and help customers feel like they belong in the long term. Make your customers feel connected to the brand and bring out your unique brand personality by directly communicating with them.
Want to know more? Our blog tells you all about How to Increase Brand Loyalty with Social Media!
Generating that brand loyalty
The first step to making loyal social media fans and long-term customers is engaging them with your content. After all, there’s no point in posting to social media if no one sees, interacts with, or cares about your stuff!
To get the most out of social media marketing and maximize your returns, you need a considered plan for every piece of media you put on social media. When you want more people to connect with your content, the best thing to prioritize is engagement over conversions… because you won’t get any conversions without it!
Focusing on this will help you better your relationship with your audience, enhance customer loyalty, gain more fans, reach out to a wider audience, increase sales, and strengthen your conversions.
So, what do you need to know to get better engagement on social media? Don’t worry — we’ve got it all for you in 10 Ways to Increase Social Media Engagement!
But if you need a little more than tips, and are looking for some straightforward strategies to get you started, then check out our blog 10 Strategies to Help You Increase Social Media Engagement!
Listening to your audience
Your audience is undoubtedly on social media, and many of them would be using it to air their grievances about (and spread their passion for) their favorite businesses – one of which could be you!
This is why you must understand what your customers are saying on social media and have a backup plan to deal with it. One bad choice can hurt your business, from a disgruntled customer to bad reviews years in advance, so you need a way to track it all. Introducing social listening.
Simply put, social listening is tracking social media for brand mentions and conversations, as well as customer feedback concerning your industries, competitors, or topics, to understand your customers’ needs and concerns. It’s not necessarily about responding to individuals’ discussions but rather pulling insights from what they’re saying.
Want to know more? Then we’re here to answer the question: What is Social Listening and Why is it Important?
Tracking your performance on social media
Now that you’ve gathered all your data, you need to do something with it! This is where social media monitoring comes into play. This is the process of watching your company’s mentions on social media and responding to any engagement around it. This is the step after social listening, a reactive strategy that requires a solid social media marketing plan.
If you don’t have a dedicated social media manager, you at least need a customer response strategy. Why? Because positive online reviews are good, but negative ones can ruin your reputation. You need to be able to isolate each type, amplify the good comments, and manage the negative feedback.
Not only does this show that your business cares about its customers, but it also makes your audience feel heard and appreciated. Fundamentally, customer engagement is necessary because it affects how people see your business – and you want to leave a good impression!
Social media monitoring may sound like a big task, but once you implement it, you’ll see incredible results. Read our guide blog to learn How to Implement Social Media Tracking Tools Into Your Marketing Strategy.
Taking a look at Instagram
Getting your business started
More than 25 million businesses are actively using this social media platform to build their brand network. This means that if you’re not on here, then it is likely that your competitors are – meaning that you’re missing out on incredible opportunities to reach, engage, connect and convert.
Primarily an image-sharing platform, Instagram’s marketing capabilities stretch far beyond uploading pretty pictures. With the correct captions, hashtags, layout, and content, you have the tools to showcase your brand to a whole new audience and paint a picture of what it’s like to purchase your products or services.
Getting started, like most marketing strategies, will require a plan. This is something you cannot do haphazardly. You must:
- Know your goals
- Know your audience
- Create an understandable profile
- Lock in your company’s “style”
- Use the right words and hashtags
- Have a schedule
- Manage your comments and direct messages
- Track your performance
- And manage this all at the same time!
Does this seem like a lot to do? It is! That’s why we’ve created a handbook for you to follow. Check it out in Your Guide to Building Your Brand on Instagram.
Instagram and shoppable posts
Introduced in 2018, Instagram’s shoppable posts allow businesses to market curated products to audiences by tagging links to their products in a picture. Customers can click on the link to move directly to the company’s website, eliminating the number of steps required for them to convert.
You may have even seen some of them yourself from your favorite brands. You’d be right if you’re thinking that now is the time to jump into shoppable posts. They have many benefits for your business, including providing better customer experiences, using creative storytelling, increased engagement, higher data collection efficiency, and outdoing your competitors!
The capabilities of shoppable posts to get your audience buying are incredible. If you’re ready to get started, have a look at our blog which will tell you everything you need to know: Instagram Shoppable Posts: 10 Reasons Your Marketing Needs Them.
Mastering TikTok
TikTok holds a major segment of the social media industry, and you may be surprised at how good it is at capturing qualified leads.
This platform comprises 15 and 60-second videos and is mostly made up of users between the ages of 16 and 24. But if you think this is the only segment on TikTok, think again! TikTok has evolved from a creative video creation platform to an advertising and marketing haven — if you know how to use it.
Don’t get left behind! Make TikTok part of your marketing strategy today with What is TikTok for Business, and Why Does it Work?
Social media is an essential part of every company’s marketing plan, and you need to know how to manage it if you want to connect with your audience, generate interest, and outshine your competitors. This is easy if you’ve got a social media marketing agency on your side!
We’ve got all the greatest social media marketing tips for you here at Growth Marketing Genie, so keep up to date with us on social media and here at our blog for more insider knowledge!
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