While it may not be the most exciting thing you do during the last few weeks of the year, it is important to do some fine-tuning your social media marketing strategy. With the amount of competition, platforms, and published content on social media today, you need to be sure you’re spending your ad dollars wisely.
Whether you’re just starting on social media marketing, or have been doing it for years, now is the time to consider how to best utilize this tactic for your business. Here are the six steps we believe every business should take to hone their social media marketing strategy for 2022.
Set Goals That Makes Sense for You
One of the best parts of social media marketing is how highly customizable it is. That also means, however, that a tactic that works great for another business may not work well for yours. It is important for you to ask yourself what it is you want to gain from social media marketing. From there, you can set goals that make sense for your business. This can be anything from building brand awareness to expanding your audience to building a community for your followers to engage with each other.
Take Time to Research Your Target Audience
It’s never a good idea to assume you know who you need to target. Only about half of all marketers do audience research, which means that a lot of businesses are potentially missing out on an audience that may not seem obvious at first glance.
Conducting audience research doesn’t have to be a complicated endeavor. If you aren’t sure where to start, read our blog that outlines the best way to do it.
Define Your Target Metrics and KPIs
No matter what industry you are in, if you are putting money into social media marketing, you should have clear and defined target metrics and KPIs. Without them, you won’t be able to see how effective your campaigns are. Focus on metrics that matter, such as reach, clicks, or engagement. Often, targeting one will come at the expense of another. For instance, targeting impressions will get your ad in front of more eyes, but will likely result in a lower click-through rate. But if your goal is brand awareness, this isn’t a bad thing. Simply pick the metric that makes the most sense for your goals.
Focus on Engaging Content
This should go without saying, yet many businesses fail to think about it. People don’t want to see post after post of you talking about yourself. They want content that encourages them to engage, or that provides them with useful information. By providing this kind of content, you are showing your audience that you care about them beyond just getting their money.
Make Sure Your Posts are Timely
This doesn’t mean trying to curate all of your content to suit daily and weekly trends (though that can be a great tactic when relevant). Instead, it is literally about posting at the right time of day. This can mean posting when your audience is most likely to be online and therefore more likely to engage with your posts, and it can also mean posting when you’re available to reply to questions or comments. Social media is a great platform for providing timely customer service, which helps to boost customer sentiment. People like knowing that a brand is available to answer questions or concerns, and being timely can even help turn a customer’s negative experience into a good one – and keep them loyal to your products or services.
Take Time to Figure Out What is Working and What Isn’t
One of the most important parts of planning your social media marketing strategy for the year is being mindful that you may have to change it as time passes. If you aren’t continuously monitoring performance to see what is appealing to your audience, you’re more likely to waste time and money on strategies that aren’t working. Pay attention to your top-performing content and produce more of it – and weed out anything that isn’t generating interest.
If You Don’t Plan for Success, You Set Yourself up For Failure
Planning your social media marketing strategy may at times seem a time consuming task, but the fact is that it is vital to your success. Having a plan helps you to be more purposeful with your messaging, and to spend your advertising dollars more wisely. It’s also likely to help you to outperform your competitors, especially if they aren’t putting the same level of effort into their strategies.
If you’re looking for a reputable company to handle your social media marketing campaigns, Gulf Coast Web is here to help. With over 25 years of experience in managing all types of advertising and marketing campaigns, we have the knowledge necessary to build social marketing ads that appeal to your audience and generate you quality leads and conversions. Our staff consists of highly-trained web design and digital marketing professionals who are both passionate about their jobs and excel at what they do. Contact us today to book a consultation with our team. We look forward to outlining exactly how we can help you grow your business with our digital media agency services.