Introduction
A couple of years ago, I would spend hours trying to convince brands that they needed to be on social media. Thankfully times have progressed, and I spend a lot less time convincing business owners, and more time helping them finesse and harness social platforms to make them work harder for their brand!
But whilst it is a powerful marketing channel, it’s not a golden egg situation. If you think of marketing as an umbrella, there’s no argument that social media sits firmly within it. However, through better understanding of each platform as well as your audiences, you will be able to optimise your profile to work harder for your business.
– Hannah Cullen, Founder – HC Social
A couple of years ago, I would spend hours trying to convince brands that they needed to be on social media. Thankfully times have progressed, and I spend a lot less time convincing business owners, and more time helping them finesse and harness social platforms to make them work harder for their brand!
But whilst it is a powerful marketing channel, it’s not a golden egg situation. If you think of marketing as an umbrella, there’s no argument that social media sits firmly within it. However, through better understanding of each platform as well as your audiences, you will be able to optimise your profile to work harder for your business.
First things first, start with the house keeping. Optimising your profile can help improve reach and engagement as well as authenticity – all very important factors when you’re looking to build community.
Too many brands use their social media as a method of amplification, and not enough as a direct tool for being able to reach their target audience and customers. Now there’s plenty of free online help for optimising your bio, and I’m sure you’ve seen your favourite Insta guru giving you the exact precise formula to the perfect profile. This is important but don’t get bogged down in it. Be authentic, be yourself and have fun with it! Social media is a great space to reflect your brand’s personality, even if you have “serious” products. Mix up your content (e.g. interviews, day in the life videos, photos, carousels etc.) and see what works best for you and your audience. Having brand guidelines for brands of all sizes, and not just relevant to social media, will be hugely beneficial to establishing your brand’s presence. From here, add some flair to your social media pages to help develop brand voice and tone.
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As previously mentioned, your social media forms part of your marketing umbrella, it is not a stand-alone entity.
So, if you’re outsourcing, always communicate any news and campaign messaging to your social media manager and try to plan ahead. There are various ways that you can use your social media to support other marketing initiatives. An important KPI (key performance indicator) for brands of all sizes, is building their own third-party data (email database). One of the most effective ways of doing this is by running competitions on your social media page whereby the entry mechanism is to enter via a sign up form on your website (don’t forget to add a tick box opt in). You can also organise collaborative content with other brands that you feel have a similar target audience to you – again this can be done via the use of competition forms, media or bespoke offers. When planning a campaign, thinking about how this will be conveyed on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, E-Newsletter, Print, at Events etc. is really overwhelming, which is why forward planning is so important. When you’re not necessarily “on campaign”, finding a schedule which works for you and setting it in stone is advisable. Not only to keep you accountable but also to ensure messaging is consistent – remember the grass is always greener where you water it!
Provide value through informative captions, storytelling, or inspirational messages that resonate with your audience. Remember, quality over quantity!
The world of Facebook ads can seem hugely daunting, and if you’re one of those businesses using the boost button with no wider strategy in place… stop!
Boosting is a great way of increasing reach and engagement, if done in the right way. There’s great scope with the use of Meta ads to support sales, leads, traffic and engagement, so certainly don’t rule it out of your marketing strategy because it seems daunting. Seek advice from a specialist – even just a 1 to 1 call so you can better understand as a business owner the scope of what Meta advertising can offer and whether you think this will be the right solution for your business in the future.
As if social media wasn’t overwhelming enough for business owners, let’s add in influencers to the mix too!
Working with the right influencer at the right time can be transformative for businesses, and there are many success stories out there! Putting in the leg work to find someone who conveys your brand well is definitely worth it. This forms part of a wider strategy, but as we look ahead to Q4 of the year, now is a great time to establish any projects for Christmas and the New Year which an influencer may be able to support you on. If you’re new to this, my advice would be to start small and scale based on what you feel comfortable with. E.g. You’re planning to launch a new product or service in November, and you want to do a welcome offer and use an influencer to support with media and share to their channels. Find three who you think could work, reach out and establish what terms you’re both comfortable with. Try on a campaign basis and review afterwards, based on some pre-determined KPIs you have.
I hope this blog offers you a couple of different pieces of food for thought, for any questions, please contact the Media Mentors team!
