Tips For Developing A Social Media Attack Plan

With social media being an important component of any marketing plan, it can become overwhelming when deciding the best approach. Although any marketing strategy takes time to see results, starting with a few basic principles can help you head in the right direction.

Be Human

Automating your social media accounts can be time saving but can turn into a major downfall if it makes you less engaged with your audience. Although you should schedule some posts to keep your accounts active, you should also make it a priority to create fresh posts on your own. Additionally, showing you interact with your audience can turn any stagnant business account to one that thrives. Comment on the posts you create to engage your audience and reply to mentions about your brand.

Another problem can come with customer service when you do not utilize social media as a customer service tool. Your audience will likely use your social media platforms as a way to send you private messages. There should be a human on the other end of the message to answer questions or reply in a reasonable time frame. If you do nothing more than direct the person to your website or an email address to ask a question formally, it still shows you genuinely have a vested interest in your audience.

Don't Spread Yourself Too Thin

With social media, it can be tempting to have a business page on every platform created. Typically this results in many of your business pages becoming dormant and not effectively marketing your business on any single platform. It is always better to focus on a few platforms where most of your audience visits or ones that create the most visibility for your brand. The platforms you choose may also depend on your type of audience and your niche.

Facebook is profound when your audience craves engagement. For example, niche markets in health and family work well for this platform, because the audience likely wants to have discussions and interact with other audience members. It is easy to create groups, polls, and chats to create a community around your brand. If your brand is related to technology or art, the members of your audience may be less inclined to discuss topics but want to see tutorials or how the technology works. This makes YouTube and other video sharing services ideal for your marketing.

Interact With Other Brands

Being competitive with other brands, even direct competitors, can hurt your business. There are few markets where consumers must pick one option over another. Additionally, it will be your product or service that wins over customers and turns them into loyal customers, not beating out the competition in marketing. One of the best ways to interact with other brands via social media is to share relevant content you find interesting. Your competitor might post a blog on a topic you never heard of. Instead of ignoring it, share it with your audience and mention how you feel about the topic.

Sharing another brand's posts will bring attention to them, but it also has a trickle-down effect by increasing your visibility to their audience and search engines. In some cases, sharing of information and content can help you build alliances with brands who are not your competitors. For example, you might believe one of your wines would pair well with a food blogger's meal. Share the post and make your own wine suggestions. This could lead to more exposure to the food blogger's audience and maybe even future collaborations.

A few basic principles to social media marketing can be a good starting point for growing your business and deciding which strategy works best for your audience. With consistent effort, you can achieve more brand recognition and audience engagement. For more help, contact a digital marketing services company like Meredith Broadcast Digital Solutions.