There are roughly 3 billion people on social media globally. Which is why knowing how to market your brand on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Tik Tok should be a priority in your business strategy.
Stay ahead of the game by having your finger on the pulse of your different social platforms.
Below are a few strategies to set your business up for success.
Encourage Social Media Recommendations
According to a national Nielsen's Harris poll, a vast majority of Americans (almost 80%) look for recommendations before buying a product.
Consider the following as you build your social media strategy and figure out ways to encourage recommendations:
- Do you have review widgets on your site and on mobile so customers can rate your products with ease?
- Are you offering incentives for customers who are promoting your business or products on social?
- Are you using relevant hashtags to make relevant content to your brand easily discoverable? Posts including at least one hashtag have more engagement than those that feature none at all.
- Are you broadcasting testimonials from existing customers in your social media content?
Use customer reviews to convince existing shoppers to return, discover new products or services you offer, or repurchase products that they’ve shopped before.
Run Contests
Social media contests increase your reach and can grow your following. Boost traffic to your site. Encourage customers to download your app. Increase qualified leads. And jumpstart engagement with your brand. Social media giveaways are a great way to generate buzz, get your followers engaging with your content, and amplify your exposure. You might even get more audience insight.
The best part? You don’t have that much to lose, as creating contests and giveaways are usually free or generally inexpensive to run, especially if you have brand partners to help with buzz-worthy, coveted prizes.
Invest in Social Ads
Growing businesses and enterprises alike are now using their ad dollars for a lift in views, clicks and engagement with their brand through original and differentiated content: branded guides and eBooks, webinars and insightful blog posts.
Running paid social ads allow retailers to personalize, target and measure their advertising like never before. Brands can run campaigns to prospect for new customers, reach out to customers who have never made a purchase but are aware of their brand, or engage with returning customers exclusively.
Paid ads on Facebook and Instagram can reach former customers who have been dormant for awhile (and you’re looking to reactivate) and existing customers. These high ROI ads serve as a cost-effective way to market your brand to customers.
Make Authentic Connections
Your brand’s followers want to see your brand as trustworthy. Here are a few ways to break through to your customers and show your authenticity:
Direct message users who mention you and use a conversational tone in your communications
Move social media conversations over to phone or chat, where a true dialogue can happen
Encourage followers to reach you via email and respond to them
Create Great Content
Even if customers nowadays know that social media is used by brands to sell products and push services, nobody ever wants to feel like they’re being “sold to” on their feed. Social channels like Instagram and Twitter aren’t just used for buying and selling—most people are still there to discover content (and share it) and socialize.
Of course, social media drives sales. But give people a reason to buy your products and use your services by engaging them with valuable content that makes you memorable and them want to become your loyal customer.
Consider including the following posts in your social media channels:
- Post screengrabs of people mentioning your product or brand in a way that made you yourself smile or share that piece of content
- Create images inspired by real-life situations or conversations
- Include tips and tricks for using and maximizing your products
- Share images of people engaging with your products
Prioritize Stories
Social media “stories” and the rise of “ephemeral content” across social networks has gained tremendous popularity. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg shared that people now post more than one billion stories per day.
They want to interact, react and sometimes even co-create with a brand on social. And the brands that are successful in delivering that to their audiences, are the brands that are likely to be more successful in their use of social media.
Mobile usage and shorter attention spans will continue to increase the popularity of stories in 2020, especially with Millennials and Gen Z-ers, who are more drawn to brands with an authentic brand voice—one that shines through in the less pre-packaged stories format.
According to Facebook, stories will soon overtake the original news feed as the default for content consumption among users. Consequently, brands will likely post more in-the-moment content versus highly stylized content.
How might your business use stories to spread awareness about your mission and acquire new customers? A few tips:
Interview the people and personalities behind your brand and feature them on stories: using your app or product and “live” reviewing your offerings.
Think about how you can lift the veil and bring your customers directly into your world with compelling narratives, copy overlays and images.
Experiment! Ephemeral content only lasts for 24 hours. Try new things, see what works and lean into the types of stories that resonate with your customers. (And scrap what doesn’t work.)
Listen
Your customers are a goldmine of insight on social media. But are you listening to the conversations they’re having with their communities?
Welcome to the world of social listening.
Listen for cultural trends. See how people and influencers are referencing your product. Lean into and learn about complaints about your brand or services. Monitor mentions and hashtags and set up Google alerts for keywords to track what customers are saying about your brand.
Use what you’re hearing on social to help build and refine your business strategies.
Encourage Social Shopping
How do you encourage shopping on social? By making the shopping experience as seamless as possible. A few things to consider:
- Is your bio link and/or call to action clear?
- Are you making it easier for followers to shop and browse products that they’re seeing on your feed and in stories?
- Are your links working?
- Do your product-related posts read like a human social copywriter created it as opposed to a bot?
Encourage your social team to infuse each post with your brand’s unique personality—even when you’re explicitly directing followers to shop.
Showcase Social Influencers Using Your Products or Services
Experticity found that 82 percent of consumers will likely follow an influencer's product recommendation, which is why it’s integral to work with a group of influencers in a way that makes sense for your brand. Influencer marketing can up your brand’s trustworthiness and help you convert followers into loyal customers.
Does your business want to leverage Afterpay’s social media reach? Launch with Afterpay in as little as under three business days. Contact [email protected] today!
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