Guide Social
Guide Social
Guide Social
Table of Contents
Table of Contents 2
Introduction 4
How do you create a Social Media Marketing Plan for your business? 11
Social Media Research 11
Paid vs. Organic Social Media 14
Picking the Right Social Media Platforms 17
How Often You Should Post on Social Media 18
The Best Time to Post on Social Media 19
Using Social Media to Influence SEO 20
Growing a Social Media Audience 22
Social Listening 24
Social Media Community Management 25
Social Media Advertising 26
Social Media Management Tools 27
Social Media Reporting and ROI 27
Step 1 – Set SMART goals 27
Step 2 – Understand the metrics that contribute to those goals 28
Step 3 – Track those metrics 28
Summing up 29
Introduction
Perhaps one of the biggest human flaws is that we tend to be a bit impatient.
We speed date, eat fast food, use emojis instead of words, pay for overnight
shipping, and get started with social media without knowing why or what to
expect.
I get it.
The world is moving faster than ever before. New trends and technology seem
to appear overnight, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep pace. So,
you get the temptation to jump on the social media bandwagon without a
clear picture in mind of what you want to achieve.
But, diving in without a sense of what it encompasses and how it can benefit
your business can do more harm than good.
This comprehensive guide will teach you everything you need to know about
how to build a social media marketing strategy that delivers value to your
audience and helps your business grow.
TIP: I use AgoraPulse to manage all our social media posting from one
single place. It saves me hours of time every day and I cannot imagine my
life without it. C
heck it out!
Source: H
ootsuite
Don’t forget that due to its gargantuan size, social media can provide you with
more exposure and brand awareness than any other traditional marketing
tool out there. Some of the most popular platforms have become such an
integral part of our lives that we are willingly telling the world about our needs,
preferences, problems, and burning desires.
Savvy businesses know how to benefit from the huge amount of data that
users generate in real time. Sure, the numbers are overwhelming – every day,
people send over 500 million Tweets, upload 95 million photos and videos on
Instagram, and like 4.5 billion posts on Facebook. But, behind this mammoth
amount of information, there are valuable insights about your customers: who
they are, what they like, and what they are willing to pay for.
Social media has made it easier for brands to eavesdrop on the conversations
their customers are having and take part in the discussion. Social networks
can also help you gather information about your audience and create better
marketing messages that fit their profile.
So, there’s no question that social media can benefit your business greatly.
For me, social media marketing refers to the use of social media platforms to
identify and connect with key audiences in a meaningful way.
Sure, your goal is to increase brand awareness, generate leads, and promote
your products or services. But, you can’t do that without building meaningful
relationships with your network first.
Unlike traditional marketing, where you bombard prospects with sales
messages – social media is a two-way process. You need to listen, engage,
show empathy, become involved, and provide value if you want to create a
seamless relationship with your prospects that can eventually lead to sales.
If you can’t do that, your social media marketing is likely to fail.
● Establishing Yourself as an Authority: Social media is an excellent
platform to share helpful content that proves your expertise. Respond to
industry-related questions, participate in discussions, and share valuable
resources with your network to become an authority in your niche.
● Improving Your Customer Service: Y ou may think that social media is
a waste of time, but your audience expects you to be there. 67% of
consumers go to social media for customer service. And, this statistic is
four years old; you can only imagine that the numbers have increased
since then. But that’s not all: consumers expect brands to respond to
their request within 24 hours or even sooner. So, while you’re ignoring
social media, prospects are talking about your business online.
This list could go on forever. Social media can also help drive traffic to your site,
assist with link building for SEO, keep an eye on your competitors, and so on.
But the real question is how can you build and implement a winning social
media marketing plan that will reap all of these rewards.
There’s just one problem: the volume of conversation on social media is so
big that it can feel like an insurmountable task to look for potentially valuable
insights.
Don’t panic yet. With the right approach, social media research is doable.
First, start by asking the right questions.
Imagine that you are a web design company and want to know what people
are talking about when it comes to photography sites. Some of the possible
questions you may ask are: How are people responding to this topic? What
themes are the most popular? What are the other web design companies
mentioned when it comes to photography site themes?
Now that you have your questions and topics, create a list of the possible
words and phrases your audience might be using to discuss this area of
interest. Keep in mind that people often use slang on the internet or misspell
words, so try to include some fringe key terms in your list too.
Jump on social media, starting with the most relevant platform for your
audience, and use the search feature to see what people are saying about your
list of topics.
Here is an example search using Twitter, where you can quickly filter the
information by people, geography, language and so on:
Look at your results and refine the list. Exclude anything that isn’t relevant to
what you’re looking for or doesn’t provide any useful information.
With your data at hand, try to answer some basic questions, such as what is
the overall sentiment for websites in this space, what audience categories are
the most vocal about it, and so on.
Don’t be afraid to take your research a step further and explore what’s beneath
the surface.
This information can frame your approach to marketing your product or
service offerings to this group of people.
The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing 15
It’s no surprise that retail is sitting smack bang at the bottom of that list, given
the direct response nature of buying products online and how it can be
directly attributed to Facebook advertising spend.
Yes, cracking the algorithm and getting your content in front of your audience
is becoming increasingly difficult, but there are a few advantages to relying on
organic social media rather than paying attention straight away:
● Being consistent can benefit your business long-term by developing
authority;
● If you have a tight marketing budget, it’s much more affordable;
● Your audience likely trust “organic” engagement and messaging, more
than they do paid advertisements;
On the flip side, paid social media advertising can help you achieve your goals
faster, but its longevity is limited. A paid campaign will stop driving traffic and
leads the moment you switch it off, but evergreen social media content can
generate ROI indefinitely.
In the end, there’s no absolute winner. You need to look at your metrics and
budget to decide which option fits your business best. The reality is that each
of the social networks is businesses themselves, and they need to monetize
their audience to stay in existence. As this industry continues to mature, the
ease of organic reach will continue to decrease. So if you think that social
media is a “free” way to market your business, you will end up being
disappointed.
So, how can you ensure that you’re focusing on the social networks that
benefit your business’ goals?
Here are some things to keep in mind:
● Consider User Demographics: Size isn’t always important. Instagram
may be one of the fastest growing networks, but if you are a B2B
company selling SaaS services to logistics companies, then it would
make more sense to focus your resources on LinkedIn and Twitter.
That all seems like a lot of work, right? Posting consistently on social media is
made far easier with social media scheduling tools such as AgoraPulse:
● Pinterest: Saturdays are your best days for connecting with your
Pinterest audience. The best hours are 2 PM, 9 PM, and even late at
night (2 AM;)
● LinkedIn: Midweek posting (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) early
in the morning (between 7 and 8 AM) or in the afternoon (5-6PM) is your
ideal time;
● Instagram: One of the things that make Instagram so great is that users
are active throughout the week. But, for maximum engagement, make
sure not to skip Mondays and Thursdays at any time except for 3-4PM;
● Google+: The best time to post on Google+ is on Wednesdays, between
9 and 11 AM.
Again, you can pre-schedule content to be posted at these times rather than
needing to be active all day every day yourself!
TIP: I am using A
goraPulse to schedule my posts to different social media
platforms.
audience. If you want to spark quick growth and sustain it over time,
consider using a service such as Social Quant.
● LinkedIn: LinkedIn has evolved from a recruiting tool to a powerful
publishing platform. Use this to your advantage and publish content
that is likely to put your business in front of an interested and growing
audience.
● Pinterest: “Collaboration” is the key term to Pinterest success. Invite
bloggers and influencers in your niche to contribute to your boards. That
way, you can increase your exposure and network.
● Snapchat: If you want to build an audience on Snapchat, then you
should come up with a storyline. Don’t just post random photos or
videos. Build a narrative that will keep users engaged.
Social Listening
Do you know what the most underestimated (and under-utilized) element of
social media marketing is?
It’s listening.
Here’s why: to be able to deliver high-quality content to your audience, you
need to learn about their perspective. The only way to reach that level of
understanding is to become a very good listener.
Everything from brand mentions, likes, comments, forum discussions, and
even your competition can reveal something valuable about your prospects.
This information can help you improve customer engagement, understand
how your audience perceives you in comparison to your competitors, uncover
pain points that no one is addressing, or identify industry influencers.
Make sure to monitor keywords, such as your brand name and handles, your
competitors’ names, your product names, your campaign’s keywords, your
hashtags, and the names of key people in your company.
Tools like Mention make this much easier than it was when social media first
came about.
Carve out at least one hour per day to dedicate to social media community
management. Make an effort to respond to those mentioning your brand – it
will benefit you in the long run. Use tools such as A
goraPulse, or Mention to
make it easier to schedule posts and to listen to conversations.
Summing up
Creating a social media marketing plan from scratch can feel both exciting
and overwhelming at the same time.
You know it will benefit your business, but there are so many factors you need
to consider that it seems almost impossible to get started.
Hopefully, this guide will make it a little easier to see the light at the end of the
tunnel.
In the end, what choice do you have?
Your customers are online, they are engaging on social networks and
expecting you to do the same. So you can ignore that fact, or you can embrace
it.
Now it’s your turn…
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