8 tips for social media marketing
If you are here, you’re probably already aware of the power that social media wields. But as a solopreneur or a small business owner, it’s easy to get lost in the digital jungle!
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest. As the list grows, so does your headache. Where do I begin? What do I post? How do you stand out from the competition? 😩
But the good news is that like everything else, there’s a method to this madness too. And if you stick to it, you will eventually be able to establish a killer social media presence and an online community of loyal customers.
So let’s get started with some winning tips for effective digital marketing!
1 - Set goals
Every successful endeavor starts with a good plan, and every plan starts with a goal.
Before you dive headfirst into the choppy waters of social media, set realistic goals for your marketing.
Ask yourself, what it is that you really want to achieve? Are you in it to just score some likes or go viral for a hot minute? Or do you want to build a trustworthy brand with a goal to raise your overall conversion rate? (I realize that it's pretty likely the later!)
Some realistic and trackable social media goals for your business could be:
Increasing your brand awareness: Key metrics that will help you measure brand awareness are brand mentions, impressions, shares, and post reach.
Building your brand reputation: A high customer satisfaction score and applause rate signify a good brand reputation.
Increasing community engagement: Comment conversation score, social share of voice, and engagement rate are the key metrics that will help you measure engagement.
Increasing conversions or sales: Conversions could be potential customers subscribing to your newsletter or downloading a freebie. Whereas, a sale is an actual monetary transaction. All of these are awesome goals, depending on what is important for your business.
These are all great things, and they will all probably improve as you use social media to market your biz. But overall what's the main thing you're trying to do with your social media?
Setting goals is helpful because once you establish what your main objective is, you can come up with content and an entire strategy that is built around this objective. This will help you to plan what to post, when to post, who to engage with etc.
2 - Research social accounts in the same industry
Originality is awesome, but if you're serious about business, you've probably checked out your "competitors" already (we don't really believe in that word here at Big Cat Creative).
It can be really helpful to learn what they're doing, especially if you're new to marketing. This will show you what's working and what isn't working in a snapshot, and it can help you come up with even better ideas.
Remember though, what you see on the surface is often only a small piece of the pie, so while copy+pasting someones entire marketing strategy might seem like an easy option, the truth is you can't see behind the scenes, so you'll be missing a big portion of the actual strategy, and it just won't work (also, copying is dumb).
Side note: It's also really helpful to research people who are killin' it on socials who AREN'T in your industry! This will help you think outside of the box! Have a look at trends and campaigns run by all different types of businesses and see how you could adapt those things to work for you.
3 - Know your audience
Being on social media means talking to people, but do you know who they are?
It is important to identify your core audience. This information ensures that every minute and/or cent is efficiently spent.
Figuring out your target audience is something you need to be doing while you're creating your offer, but if you haven't done it yet, now's a good time to double down.
Everything you put on social media needs to be directed towards these people. Images, words, times your post, graphics etc.
It’s equally important to know which social media platform they actually hang out on.
Is it Facebook or is it Instagram? Perhaps Snapchat or TikTok? If your target audience is Gen Z, they’re probably more active on TikTok. But if you’re selling to baby boomers, Facebook and Pinterest are your best bets.
This is extremely helpful because not only is your marketing going to be more effective because you're talking directly to the right people, but it also cuts down on the overwhelm of how many platforms you need to take on! You don't have to be on them all, if your audience isn't there, you shouldn't be either.
4 - Humanize your brand
People like talking to people, and people like buying from people.
Think of yourself as a customer for a moment. Who would you trust more, a kind human that you often see showcasing their product, or a faceless business?
Your customer wants to know your story. They are curious if you've struggled with what they have struggled with. They're waiting to start conversations. They want to know how you, as a person, can help them. They're hoping to see other people using your product and being happy with it.
Putting a face to your name and humanizing your brand is a sure-fire way to build trust among your audience.
Here are some ideas to keep your brand human:
Post some videos of yourself while you give a product demo
Do a live session answering some questions
Share some behind-the-scenes footage
Walk your followers through your creative process
Get silly on Instagram Reels
Post your face in your Instagram feed at least once every 9 squares (it's a good rule of thumb 🙂 )
5 - Pay attention to trends
It's also important to pay attention to social media trends.
That doesn't mean you should jump on creating your own version of EVERY viral meme, or you have to keep up with every single trend (there's basically a new one every day 😅).
This is less about being funny, and more about utilizing trends to get more eyes on your content.
Social media Platforms love trends, and they often prioritize them in feeds and show them more to audiences.
So keeping up with what's going viral or gaining popularity can be really beneficial to your social media reach.
6 - Quality over quantity
Dominating the digital space is not about dumping a ton of posts on Facebook. In fact, your customers may find it annoying to see a new post every few hours.
The key is to focus on quality and not quantity.
You may as well be posting only a few times a week, but if that post offers true value to your audience, that's going to be more beneficial then a handful of posts that aren't valuable.
With most social media platforms, you are encouraged to post a lot. The more you post, the further your posts will be shown. This is a frustrating truth of social media. But, if those posts aren't engaging or valuable, the "reach" they will get isn't going to get you very far.
If you can do quality AND quantity, you'll win the game! But unless you have an entire marketing team, this isn't really achievable.
Always prioritize quality.
Tip! Try out the 80-20 rule. With the 80-20 rule, 80% of your content will be educational, informative, inspiring, and entertaining. And the remaining 20% will be focused on promoting your products and business.
7 - Batch and schedule your content
Creating content every day and sitting down to write new posts is not easy. It can take up the better part of your day and leave you exhausted even before you had the chance to work on running your business.
Create a content calendar instead and have everything ready for the next week or month. A content calendar also helps you maintain consistency and gives you a visual map of what you’re doing across all marketing channels.
We use project management software (like ClickUp or Asana) which helps us draft and plan content and collaborate with team members to help us plan and create all of our content.
Then, to save even more time, we schedule all this content to be posted automatically. You could use the business manager of your Facebook page or a scheduling software like Hootsuite, Later, Planoly, Buffer, etc.
It will seem like a lot of work at the time and may take quite a while to batch all of your content, but when the next month rolls around and everything is being posted and you don't have to think about it, it's SO worth it 👌🏻
8 - Don’t try to do it all by yourself
You’re awesome, I know. You CAN do it all... but I’d suggest you don’t. For the sake of your sanity (and your business, of course).
Running a business is no easy task. There are just SO many aspects to take care of. It's important that you spend your time doing the things that are in your zone of genius, the things that you started the business for in the first place.
You might get away with running all of the social media by yourself for a while, but soon you'll realize that it's probably taking up WAY too much of your time.
Time to hire some help!
When you're first starting to hire, you could look at hiring a Virtual Assistant to assist with your marketing (and other tasks you dread!). Or you could go with a Social Media Manager.
If you have a bit more money to spare a need more time back, hiring a full time Marketing Manager would take a lot of it off your plate.
So, there you have some key ingredients of a successful, long-term social media plan. Good luck out there!
Want to learn more about Social Media Marketing? Check out these posts 👇
11 Things You Should Share on Social Media
Which Social Media Platforms Should You Use for Your Business?
What are Social Media Templates & Why Should You Use Them?
How to Grow your Business and get Clients with Instagram in 2022
How to Make your Instagram Reels go Viral
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