When you own a company, your Web content is one of the most important facets of your small business. However, it’ll not be as valuable to your company if you have a small following and no one is talking about it online. That’s where social media marketing comes into play. By creating a social content strategy and using various social media sites, you’re able to make your website more visible and boost the number of loyal followers you have.
Using social media sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest, is much more complex than just cutting and pasting a link to your website. You have to interact with your fans and followers, keeping the conversation going. Be visible on these sites and let your readers know you’re there for them and not just there to promote random links.
Take note
Take the time to learn what your fans and followers want. Ask them about what they want, what they need, their likes and dislikes. By simply asking questions you will have a chance to get to know your followers. Plus you promote a lot of interaction on your page.
The best way to do this is to conduct surveys or keep the conversation going by posting a simple but specific question. For example, during the holidays you can ask something like “What’s your favorite iPhone App?” or “What tech toy is at the top of your Christmas list?” As a computer company, you’ll know what apps your followers like and what toys they want.
What to say
You can’t know what to say on your social media page without knowing what your followers want. This is why paying attention is one of the most important parts of social media marketing and relationship building. Once you know more about your followers you can gear your comments and posts around their likes and avoid things they don’t want to read or see.
If there’s something you have personally done that’s important to your business, post it. Let everyone know about the industry award you just received or a recent personal achievement, which will help you run your business better. Make some posts personal, without offering too much insight into your personal life. This allows followers to see you’re human and not just a social media bot.
Engage users
Keep the conversation going and encourage your followers to interact with you. This can be done by posting surveys, requesting comments and thoughts from your followers. Contests are a great way to not only engage your followers, but bring in new followers. Contests can include “Comment here to be entered,” “Be the 500thfollower” or trivia quizzes.
Quotes
Regularly post inspirational quotes or excerpts from articles related to your industry. This draws readers in and encourage them to keep reading. Plus, this will entice followers to give their comments and thoughts about the quote or article you posted.
Other media
Avoid using only words. Videos, audio and photos can enhance your social media marketing strategy, and are extremely popular on Facebook and Pinterest. Quotes and status updates on Facebook receive a higher reach when a photo or graphic is attached to it. Videos can be found on YouTube on how to do various things. Or better yet, create your own video for YouTube and share your advice with millions of users from around the world.
Before getting started, you must know your social media goals. Know who you want to reach online and what you want to accomplish once you reach them. Do not be afraid to tweak your social media marketing strategy along the way. Things change and so do your followers. Update and revise your plan to accommodate those changes and ensure you get the highest level of visibility possible.