Social media campaigns are organized marketing strategies which aim to strengthen information or attitudes about a brand, service, or product, by using at least one social media channel.
However, you are advised not to be limited to social media channels only − you should also include Google in your mix. Depending on your market, the popular social media channels you will want to focus on are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Snapchat.
In this article, we will provide you with some great ideas for enhancing your social media campaigns, without having the need for deep pockets. With social media, you do not need the services of a fancy ad studio. Instead, you can manage your social media channels with a virtual social media assistant (a remote worker who specializes in social media). However, firstly, what is the purpose of a social media campaign?
Contents
A social media campaign can be utilized to reach various business goals. These can include brand visibility and awareness, that is, having the brand exposed either by the crowds or to a particular target market. Social media campaigns generate or solidify certain brand sentiments. In other words, they sway your target market on identifying or reflecting on your brand. As such, they might view the brand as caring, reliable, or innovative. Additional common goals of social media campaigns consist of increased making of sales (conversions), loyalty, or engagement.
Time to brainstorm
Plus, you need a plan. And this is what this guide is about – to help you.
This all starts with effective planning and a brainstorming session in which you can approach the problem-solving by means of lateral thinking. With a brainstorming session, you can harvest fresh and creative concepts to solve your problem; and more so, to set out your social media strategies.
Consider which mediums you are going to use
In terms of social media platforms, you have several choices. Each does have a slightly different market segment and will mean that different content should be produced. Your creative sizes will also need to be optimized to match the various social media platforms’ best practice guidelines.
if your product is highly visible and you want to target a younger demographic, you really should consider using Instagram. Nearly half of its users are aged between 18 and 34 years old. Just make sure that your images are unique and your photo quality is excellent. You might need to arrange a professional photo shoot to ensure that your images are to the highest standard. Needless to say, your opportunities are endless.
Now well established, Facebook is still a space you should use – having over 2.7 billion users, globally. It does attract a slightly older crowd, and they like a combination of great images with catchy text. But make sure to use their live streaming, since the engagement rate is 17% higher on live streaming than on a scheduled post. Also, you can use live streaming for master classes, to boost value to your followers, and thus help to increase your brand value.
TikTok
A newish yet interesting platform is TikTok, with more than 800 million users. This channel is more video-content driven, mostly 15 seconds long. It is viewed by a much younger group than Instagram, so keep it fun, fresh, and a bit crazy.
Still extremely popular, Pinterest is great if you want to create mood boards, share and find great ideas; like Facebook, it is also a combination of visuals with text. Facebook is very easy to use for engaging with others.
You might opt to include emails into your campaign to get the word out to your existing client base. Therefore setting up newsletters – note: fewer links and images can help you to avoid the spam filter, while making the copy engaging and clear. After all, the entire goal is to drive and activate your loyal clients to join you on your social media channels. More so, with newsletters, there is a wealth of data you can collect.
Consider your content carefully
If you are a florist, then go for color, and more color. But also, keep your branding in mind when it comes to your visuals. Otherwise, there is a wealth of different content you can produce – from webinars, podcasts, videos, GIFs, photos, photo albums or collection of images, to just plain simple text. It all depends on the message you want to convey, and your own imagination. Do remember − you can make it interesting by using influencers. Just make sure that these individuals match your brand. It will be a good idea to go through an agency, so you can lessen the risks. Selecting the best brand influencer can drive a great deal of traffic to your profiles, more than you would be able to do single-handedly. Also, ensure that you follow regulations. Include a clause that the influencer should add a note in the form of #ad to indicate that their post is a paid ad. Don’t try to fool your clients − by being dishonest, you will lose clients rather than gain them.
Take note of your competition
To gain some ideas, look at what your competitors are doing, but do not copy them. Simply use their ideas and improve on them. Your brand is not the same as theirs, so if you are copying them, you are including their brand into yours, which can be problematic. If you are unsure, simply ask yourself what they did – meaning, did they use videos or GIFs instead, or are they using Facebook instead of TikTok.
Adjust to the buyer’s journey
Not every single piece of content you generate is going to achieve your goals successfully, especially since you will be targeting a wide variety of people at different stages of your sales funnel. If you find yourself needing the inspiration to produce original social content, change your focus to producing content explicitly where your clients are in their buying journey.
Awareness
In the awareness stage, your objective is to boost the number of people who recognize your brand, its services and products. The content you produce at this stage must be attention grabbing; but doesn’t inevitably have to speak openly to what your brand has to offer. Your goal is to grab your spectators’ attention. There are a small number of techniques you can employ to accomplish this:
Use Images
Posts with images generate 659% more engagement than text-only posts. Having the correct visuals in your social media posts is critical to grabbing the attention of your clients who swiftly move from one profile to the next. However, your visuals should be both unforgettable and effective. Your clients should also be able to grasp their meaning, and be able to retain the information quickly, so don’t overcomplicate things.
Save some energy and time by distributing content that your followers have created. This will help to boost interest proactively, and positively promote your brand at the same time, while also enhancing the ego of your clients. In addition, let us face it, we could all make use of a little ego boost now and then. Your clients will be so thrilled by your brand-sharing their social media content that they will become your new influencers. They will share info with their followers. In the end, that is a win-win situation.
Engage with your fans
The wonderful thing about social media is that it permits a two-way communication between the followers and your brand. Ask your customers questions, comment on their posts, or take a poll to engage in discussions they are already are having on the platform. The more active you are on the various social media channels, the better your odds are of boosting your brand awareness. Ongoing interaction with your fans will be a great addition to your total social strategy.
It is vital that you use your social media to drive traffic back to your blog or website during the deliberation phase. Your website is a center for all info connected to your brand and your products or services. Your brand’s blog and website can also offer white papers or e-books to learn more.
Your brand supporters will often share encouraging reviews of your brand on social media. Use those client endorsements to tell a story on your own social media channels. During the deliberation phase, your clients are looking for feedback from other clients that will eventually sway their buying decisions. Some 92% of individuals trust endorsements from real persons.
Your fans on social media may want to interact frequently with you online. They might just be sending you a shout-out via social media; nonetheless they may also have trepidations or recommendations for your brand. Do not be afraid to interact with your clients by replying to their queries or acknowledging them for their remarks.
Do not forget to analyze the power of your work
After you have completed your social media campaign, you need to analyze it. The data you generate from this will be useful for your next brainstorming session. You will know what worked, what did not, and what can be changed. You will also learn more about your clients, and where they are in the sales funnel, which will help you when you create your content.
To recap
To know whether content is good enough for your social media pages, consider this: It’s not “good enough for social media” if…:
- it is not good enough to embody your company or brand
- it does not tell a story; the image is blurry, grainy or dark
- you wouldn’t want your content to be seen by a huge audience
- if you wouldn’t share it on your more traditional channels like your website or a poster
- you would not want the content to be shareable on social media
- your content was not proofread; it is just not engaging
Definitely do not post it if you don’t want this to be your first impression of your brand; or you did a rushed job, since you did not have the time, or did not put much effort into it.