You don’t need to become the next viral sensation to drive growth with your social media marketing. Simple, consistent and relevant content created for your target audience across the right channels will increase your brand awareness, market reach, attract customers and ensure your digital ‘shopfront’ reflects your brand values.
According to a report by Datareportal more than half of the world’s population, 59%, now use social media. That’s a huge pool of potential customers that you can easily reach, but it’s also a pool of people who have no interest in your business and who you don’t want to waste time talking to. So, focusing on your target audience is key. Use the data available to you within each social channel to help identify who your core market is if you aren’t sure. Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn all have easily accessible data around who is interreacting with your posts, so you can quickly see who is paying attention to and engaging with your messages and develop your strategy accordingly.
It reported that the average daily time spent using social media is 2h 29, so if you think about your social media accounts as your shop window, that’s a busy Highstreet! But it’s important to cut through the noise on social channels so you can grab the attention of your target audience. Being consistent with your branding and messaging is something you’ll already be doing but follow this through to the times and frequency with which you post on social too. This will make sure you are a constant in your audience’s social feeds without being overbearing and will keep you at the forefront of their mind for when they require your service.
Shouting about your services and sales opportunities isn’t going to get you the followers and reach your business needs. You need to build a community of followers who care about your services but also about what you have to say. So, offer them value over your business proposition, that could be advice around your area of expertise or comment on current affairs affecting your business audience, and don’t be afraid to offer an insight into a behind the scenes look of how you and your team are. People are often more receptive when they see a face behind the brand. All of this takes time, as you build up a rapport with your audience, you’re building trust and relationships too, providing the perfect bedrock to driving growth to your business.
Our Top 3 Tips
💡 Identify your key market and make sure you’re talking to them! How does your audience talk – is it relaxed or formal? What time are they likely to be most active? Identify what channels they are likely to be following, for example if busy mums are your audience, then short snappy updates on Facebook will serve them better than long-winded LinkedIn business focused posts.
💡 Be consistent. Posting four times one week and then not again for three weeks isn’t going to be as effective as posting once a week at regular times. Keep your tone and timing consistent to ensure you’re a constant in your audiences’ feed without being overbearing.
💡 Have patience. Driving business growth from social media takes time, but it’s one of the best ways to increase your brand awareness, grow your audience and in turn generate leads and sales – so stick with it!
Follow these easy tips and let your social accounts drive growth for your business, stay at it and ensure social media is a key part of your marketing strategy going forward.
