It can be tough to keep up with weekly social media posts. And some businesses are a little more aggressive with a daily post schedule. Factor in five or six social media platforms, and you have a full-time job for a social media marketer.
But what if we told you there really was a way to go from five posts each week to 50 posts a day.
That’s not a typo. Imagine 50 social media posts each day.
How many potential customers could you reach with that kind of effort? Conversions and revenue?
It’s not a pipe dream. That level of output is possible if you just know the tactics to leverage to get there. And we know because we do it. Believe it or not, it doesn’t involve expensive campaigns, paid ads or an army of 100 people on the payroll, either.
Your social media marketing needs purpose with real bottom-line results. Broaden your reach and frequency and watch the conversions and sales grow exponentially. These are the social media tactics and hacks you need to know to achieve this level of output and scaling potential.
Social Media Strategies Can’t Have Shortcuts
While there are plenty of shortcuts in social media marketing, your strategic planning process shouldn’t have ANY. The goal-setting and road-mapping behind what you want to achieve with your social media need to be thorough, focused and purpose-driven. We’ll get to the hacks later. For now, your social media marketing plan should be thoughtfully developed with these key elements in mind.
What Do You Need Your Social Media to Do?
Before you jump online and grab a social media plan template, you need to take some time to critically think about what your social media goals are. You can’t turn a donkey into a racehorse, meaning don’t expect your social media marketing to do something it can’t for your business. Here are some of the goals, however, that the right social media strategy can help you achieve.
- Increase your brand awareness
- Build online communities
- Sell your products and services
- Measure how consumers feel about your business
- Offer customer service on various social media platforms
- Advertise your sales, products and services to specific audiences
- Track your engagement performance
Hootsuite suggests using the S.M.A.R.T. method for goal setting, too. When drafting your goals, you’ll want to measure them against this acronym: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.
Metrics No Social Strategy Should Be Without
Don’t get consumed with what often is referred to as a vanity number. Metrics that are superficial, like the number of likes or followers, can stroke your company ego. But they aren’t telling you what you need to know, which is conversion rate, value and brand awareness. You can track different data points as they relate to each goal you have set. And remember that each metric may vary by social media channel.
For example, maybe click-throughs matter for your company LinkedIn where you promote traffic to your website. Your Instagram profile, however, might be used to promote brand awareness, so Instagram Story views are the most helpful metrics there. And those who run Facebook ads, the cost-per-click metrics matter when calculating ROI.
What You Need to Do If You Really Want Social Media Results
Here’s what most businesses do. They’re strapped for cash and limited on time and manpower. So business owners jump on Facebook and Instagram to create some company profiles. They post a few times and ask all their friends and family to “like, share and follow.” Then, do you know what happens?
Jack shit happens.
The business owner gets busy, loses sight of the value behind social media marketing, and another key opportunity is wasted.
Don’t be that guy. Here’s exactly what you (and every business owner) need to do if you really want social media results. And here’s a hint. It doesn’t have to be hard or consume all of your time.
Meet Steph: Steph’s optometry office is a small business. And Steph was certainly familiar with how social media platforms worked on a personal level. So, in the beginning, she naturally felt she could just handle the practice’s social media business pages herself. It wasn’t long before Steph realized she was falling behind with her posting frequency. And she would sit at the computer fumbling around to find something witting and fun to post. It was then she realized social media for business isn’t at all like managing your personal pages. If she wanted it to work for her optometry practice, she would need rules, metrics and guidelines to follow. Lucky for Steph, she caught on to this idea early on in her business journey. She now has a dedicated set of campaigns, across a variety of channels, with a plan for social media marketing success.
Know Your Audience (Like Really Know Them)
Use your buyer personas to guide your social media posting. You have to know your target well to understand how they use each social platform. Collect and analyze the data you have about your existing customers, too. You can then communicate with each target group where they spend the bulk of their time. And you can dangle carrots of information and engaging content they’ll chomp on immediately.
Know Who Your Competitors Are (And What They’re Good At)
It’s not taboo to follow your competition. In fact, the more you know about your competitors, the better prepared you are to find your advantage. So watch what your top three rivals do with their social media. And be ready to identify what it is about their strategy that they execute well. It will help you identify their flaws and missteps, allowing you to make your move.
Create a Social Media Audit Guide
The thought of auditing anything sounds complex and tedious. But if you create an outline and guide for yourself now, with a checklist of audit metrics to review, you’ll be more apt to follow through later. Keep an eye on how well each social platform profile is performing. And get comfortable with your numbers so you can spot trends and hiccups along the way. You can additionally keep a watchful eye out for any imposter accounts that might undermine your brand.
Building & Improving Your Company Profiles
Should you use pictures of your staff on your social media? Do you stick with logos or the vehicle wraps on your company vans for images? Every company is as different and unique as a fingerprint, and your brand personality will dictate how you structure your social media profiles. Make sure your pertinent contact information, hours of business and website are easy to find. Make it equally easy for people to like, share and follow your content. Be friendly and consistent with how you describe what you do. It’s social media, so conversational and relatable tones are key here. Don’t stray too far from your core brand image but be liberal about sprinkling personality wherever you can.
Finding Your Content Inspiration
Don’t let your creativity run dry. Look up other profiles and find inspiration in their success stories, campaigns and most-loved posts. And when in doubt, ask your own followers what they want to see more of from you.
Iron Out the Scheduling Wrinkles
Develop and prepare a schedule with an actual calendar to visualize your posting commitment. Having an itinerary will help you stay consistent with posting frequency and can organize your content plan. If there are others among your staff contributing to the social media management, they’ll need the calendar, too, to keep them on track.
Know What Your Red Flags Are for Change
Social media is not stagnant. Your customers change preferences and browsing habits. The trending content and social flow of information shift all the time. Don’t let your social media strategy go stale by not keeping up with these changes. And it wouldn’t hurt to create a list of red flags that indicate something in your social media strategy isn’t working. The only thing worse than executing a failing social media campaign is executing a failing social media campaign one more day.
Meet Austin: Austin’s no slouch when it comes to social media. But the pandemic has forced some major changes to how his gym members engage with his business. He had to shift gears and adapt to find new ways to meet his potential customers where they needed him. But the pandemic taught him something else, too. It was easy to spot the consumer behavior changes with COVID-19 because it was such a big story. Austin realized that other economic, social and consumer preference changes might not be so apparent. So, as part of his social media marketing plan, he devised a list of red flags to help him identify when he might need to change his course.
Here are the Social Media Marketing Tactics That Drive Real Results
So, when people talk about tactics, they’re really just referring to the process you use to achieve all those social media goals you’ve just constructed. These are the methods that lay the path to attaining those goals.
Posting at the Best Times
There are some days of the week and times of the day that tend to reach the most people with social media. Those metrics are constantly changing, too. Additionally, the best time to post on Facebook isn’t necessarily the best time to post on Instagram. There are countless resources out there sharing the latest best practices. Use them wisely and get the most mileage out of every post you share.
Establishing the Post Frequency
You know you have to have a consistent schedule of social media posting to stay relevant. But how do you know if you’re supposed to post once weekly or start posting daily? Start based on the resources you have and a commitment to which you can adhere. You can always call us, too, if you’re ready to jump up to 50 posts each day for an intense level of reach, frequency and lead generation!
Using Shareable Graphics with Each Post
Don’t just post graphics and pictures. Make them sharable and encourage browsers to engage! Really insightful information, fun infographics and hilarious memes tend to trend more quickly than stagnant, uninteresting images, too. Sprinkle in some fun, and don’t be afraid to ask for the “like and share.”
Creating Groups (Facebook & LinkedIn)
If only there were a way to have a captive social media audience all to yourself for promotions, referrals and constant contact. Oh, wait. There is! Create groups within your industry niche or based on customer preferences and ask people to join. Facebook and LinkedIn are great group-starting platforms. Remember not to be too salesy. And always be posting regularity within your group, asking questions and starting conversations.
Experimenting with Videos Across All Channels
Do you know where videos work the best? Everywhere! Don’t assume videos only belong on YouTube. And get creative with sharing your company videos across all of your channels to test where the engagement jumps the most.
Tailoring Content Specific to the Strengths of Each Social Channel
Twitter functions differently than Pinterest. Your LinkedIn feed isn’t like your Facebook feed, either. Recognize that each channel you use has its own strengths and weaknesses so you can tailor your content delivering with the right tone for the environment.
Leveraging Demographic Data to Keep Content Focused on the Right Targets
Stay on top of your buyer persona demographics and watch for shifts among social media platforms. The boomers are still spending more time on Facebook right now. But TikTok is gaining traction among a broader age group. LinkedIn is still dominating the professionals and career-minded, but everyone using LinkedIn also likely has an Instagram following. Stay on top of the numbers to stay relevant with your efforts.
Mixing up Your Text to Incorporate Both Long and Short Form
No one is going to be interested in reading a book on their social media feed. But it’s always a good idea to mix up your posts to incorporate both long and short-form content.
Improving Your Hashtag Game
Hashtags can be game-changers if you’re savvy with them. Seek out some industry hashtags that make sense for your business and use them liberally throughout your posting campaigns. And don’t ever be afraid to create your own hashtag to build your own following.
Posting Live (Day in the Life or Behind the Scenes)
You might be camera shy, but live posts are growing in popularity. Consumers want to see a day in the life type lives, and they’ll love behind the scenes looks at new things. You don’t have to do these all the time. But incorporating them occasionally can increase brand awareness and help generate leads.
Involving Your Employees and Favorite Customers
Don’t feel like a social media message only needs to come from the business owner. Get your staff involved and let them participate and contribute to your social strategy. Your favorite customers might be up for the occasional shout-out, too and can be essential in generating new referral leads based on testimonials.
Addressing Customer Pain Points Head-On
Social media posts shouldn’t be overly salesy. However, there should always be an ongoing effort to address your customer pain points. After all, the goal is to get them to expect you to have the solution.
Test-drive some of these social media tactics, and we almost guarantee you’ll begin seeing immediate results. And, again, when you’re ready to up your game to 50 posts each day for maximum output and ROI, let Awareness Business Group show you how!
