5 Things Business Owners Need to Know About Social Media Marketing
Social media has an immense marketing power for businesses, but to take advantage of that power, it’s important to know just how to use the tool. In worst cases, using social media the wrong way can have negative effects on your business – but as long as you are aware of the do’s and the dont’s you can be calm.
- That social media has a lot of marketing power isn’t exactly a secret, but to those who are still hesitant, here are some statistics:
- In 2015 Facebook influenced 52 percent of consumers’ online and offline purchases, up from 36 per cent in 2014.
- 51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when conducting a search on their smartphone.
In this article, we’ll present you with 5 Things Business Owners Need to Know About Social Media Marketing.
1. Giving the task of running social media to the youngest in the team is not a good strategy
Some business owners distribute the task of running the social media pages to the youngest individual in the team, in the belief of them knowing how to run it.
This is a completely wrong approach.
Just because they use social media on their free time and for fun doesn’t mean they know how to strategically build social media presence and use social media for marketing.
Social Media Marketing requires experience and knowledge, and when choosing a social media manager, you shouldn’t look at age, and assume, you should look at expertise and distribute the task based on that.
By hiring an actual social media expert, you ensure that you get the most out of your budget and that your brand’s social presence will generate results.
2. Setting up accounts and then ignoring them isn’t a social media strategy
Don’t set up social media accounts by adding your logo to the profile picture and then posting a few pictures, just to leave the account to dust.
Doing so is not a good social strategy, and it certainly won’t do your brand any good. In fact, it can actually hurt your brand.
Many people check up brands on social media first before they make an order, for example, but if they visit your profile and it looks like this:
they might believe that your business has gone bankrupt or simply shut down.
In order to establish a strong social presence, it is recommended that you share at least one post every single day, and engage with your audience.
While it is recommended that all brands create social media accounts, it is better to not do it at all than to create them just to let them sit there.
3. You don’t get better results by sharing more marketing posts
Some business owners and marketers believe that the more they market their products on social media, the better results they’ll get. As a result, they try and milk out every single drop of marketing juice from social media. This is a completely wrong approach. In fact, doing this can seriously harm your brand instead.
In contrast, the general recommended rule is the 80/20 rule.
This means 80% non-promotive content and 20% marketing posts.
The non-promotive content should be content that provides value to your followers. It can be anything from knowledge to entertainment to information.
If you don’t follow those rule and try to bash out as many marketing posts as you can, people will get tired of your posts and eventually unfollow you. In addition, you will leave a bitter taste in their mouth make them remember your brand negatively.
While it is difficult, you can also mix business with pleasure and provide value with posts that are still marketing your brand. This can, for example, be a fun commercial that makes people laugh.
4. Don’t share posts whenever you feel like it
To succeed on social media, you need to also have a content strategy. A content strategy tells you what kind of content you should share, taking the 80/20 rule into consideration. It also tells you when you should make the posts.
How well your posts perform is affected by the time you post. Of course, if you make a post at a time when most of your followers are active, you’ll get a higher engagement.
Therefore, sharing posts when you feel like it, is not a good idea.
First of all, it can lead to you posting too many posts and clogging up your followers’ feed.
Secondly, it may also lead to posting posts that aren’t very well thought through.
5. Social media is social
It’s called social media for a reason: you are meant to be social!
There are many ways you can be social with your followers.
Comment on their pictures, answer their messages, answer their comments, and show your appreciation to them.
Not only does engaging with your audience help your retention rate, it also attracts new followers and helps make them more loyal.
Are you following these points on social media? Let us know in the comments below!
