10 Ways to Improve your Social Marketing

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Summary

This post will not take you long to read, however will give you some fantastic ideas to improve your social media marketing and exposure online. The 10 points (shown below) are explained further in the post.

1. Share in various media formats
2. Discuss what matters to your community
3. Schedule posts
4. Consistency is key
5. Announce big news and competitions
6. Mention leading influencers and brands
7. Assess metrics
8. Build social trust
9. Use high impact tags
10. Be human

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Importance of Social Media

Online presence through social media is the main platform to communicate, engage and share information with your target audience. It is essential to create meaningful interactions with your community in order to improve customer service, reach new audiences and build authority in your industry.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Online presence through social media is the main platform to communicate, engage and share information with your target audience. It is essential to create meaningful interactions with your community in order to improve customer service, reach new audiences and build authority in your industry.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The average daily time spent on social media is 142 minutes. It is therefore easy to believe that with a successful social media account you can drive business growth and form lasting, loyal relationships with clients. Social media exposure is a powerful branding tool, which enables you to build credibility, improve your social influence and establish yourself as a leader in your industry.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

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   1. Share in Various Media Formats

In order to raise your public profile, it is essential to be active on a range of social media platforms that are popular with your target audience. For example, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Instagram all have niche audiences. It is important you choose the relevant network for your audience. This involves conducting market research and studying your online community prior to building an account.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

   2. Discus What Matters to your Community

You should concentrate on hot topics that your audience feels passionate about. This will stimulate discussion which is followed by likes, shares, mentions and hashtags, which will increase your social visibility. Including controversial content is also a great technique to generate interest and public response. Allowing your audience to talk about what they are passionate about e.g. creating polls, is also a great method to provoke conversation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

   3. Schedule Posts

Staying active and present is essential when managing a social media account. It requires dedication, consistency and time which can be regularly overlooked. An effective method to save time is to schedule future posts. For example, automating posts using apps such as MeetEdgar and Loomly is an excellent way to manage your time, respond to posts and monitor your network. This will boost your brand visibility.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

   4. Consistency is Key

In order to create a reliable and professional brand, it is essential your logo remains consistent. This way you will be immediately recognised across all your social media platforms. In addition to your logo, it is also important your text style, language and format of content remains consistent so your brand is easily identified and stands out. Top Tip: untag yourself from irrelevant posts, this can be monitored by checking your tag settings and reviewing tags regularly.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

   5. Announce Big News and Competitions

Using social media as a platform to update your community on ‘what’s new’, announce competitions and share important information is a fantastic technique to keep your audience engaged. Including share buttons and links for you subscribers will also help create energy and discussion.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

   6. Mention Leading Influencers and Brands

View your competitors as a drafting opportunity to increase your reputability. You want to identify leaders in your industry and seek their recognition. Once you are in their radar, your brand will stand out from the online clutter. Top Tip: avoid creating a ‘spam’ persona online by timing your posts well and mixing them up with your own content.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

   7. Assess Metrics

It is important to monitor your audience’s activity in order to cultivate your presence online. Although it is not essential to have an account on each network, you must monitor your progress to see what is popular and what needs more attention. Google Analytics, Buffer and BuzzSumo are brilliant sites which monitor your performance and assess our social media metrics e.g. click through rate.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

   8. Build Social Trust

Authentic interactions are essential to build social trust online. A good way to start is by asking for reviews, endorsements and recommendations from friends, family and current/prior clients. Sending direct messages, commenting on content and mentioning dedicated followers is another great way to improve brand loyalty. It is important to establish meaningful relationships with members of your community, especially those with a true interest and an influential profile. Removing non-relevant fans and followers is also necessary to improve social credibility.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

   9. Use High Impact Tags

Using the best hashtags is an excellent technique to increase social exposure. Look for what is trending using sites such as Hashtagify that help you find the best hashtags for your brand. Including links to your website and other social networking accounts is also a brilliant method to improve brand visibility.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

   10. Be Human

It is critical your content shows some kind of personality to avoid coming across as a faceless industry with no character. Look for commonalities between yourself and your audience and use them as a starting point when creating content. Personalised content has been proven to improve trust between yourself and your clients. It is acceptable to talk to your audience as a friend, as long as you remain professional. Making jokes and including images of the faces of your brand is a great was to form relationships, and not just followers.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Conclusion

With approximately 3.725 billion active social media users to date, it is never too late to get started on building your own social media community. See below some ideas of things you can do to get started:

·         Videos	·         Blogs
·         Pictures	·         Polls
·         Webinars	·         Livestreams
·         Guides	·         Podcasts

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