Social media marketing can be overwhelming for small businesses but it can and should be an integral part of your organization’s larger inbound marketing strategy.  Statista reports that in Q1 of 2020, Facebook had 2.6 billion monthly users. B2B’s social media channel, LinkedIn, had 160 million users. So no matter your audience, they are on-line. And listening. But with so many opportunities to engage and post, it can feel as though you’re just standing on a street corner yelling to the masses. Is anyone listening? Are you saying the right thing? Are you even on the correct street corner? Where are your keys, and, for the love, why on earth are there so many cat videos?

There are ways to make sure you’re on the correct track with social media marketing. To get you off that corner and into the driver’s seat, we’ve come up with 7 Road Signs to help you on your journey to successful social media marketing.

7 Road Signs Towards Successful Social Media Marketing

1. Define Your Social Media Goals
2. Know Your Audience
3. Know Your Metrics
4. Look at Your Competitors
5. Create Helpful and Human Content
6. Be on Time
7. Be Willing to Regroup

Define Your Social Media Goals

As with every journey, you have to know where you are going. You need an end goal in mind and a map to get there. Social Media may seem organic and fluid, but you cannot approach it vacation style, just showing up and seeing where the day takes you. Determine what you want to get out of your chosen social media channels. We recommend setting goals that are both reasonable and affordable that allow you to scale your efforts over time.

Some common goals for social media strategy are:

• Increased Brand Awareness: Let your audience get to know your company and its culture. People want to know those with whom they work. What matters to your company? How do you highlight the skills of your employees? Avoid posting solely about product offers and promotions.  Share content that emphasizes your personality to create authentic brand awareness and lasting loyalty.
• Grow Your Audience: Introduce yourself to new people within your target market!
• Generate Leads and Sales: 65% of the buyer’s journey happens online. Share content that is helpful and human that addresses the pain points of your market.
• Increase Web Traffic: Social media can drive traffic to your website. Whether through promotional posts, shares of informational blogs, or social ads, keeping an eye on your determined metrics will help you determine your social media ROI.

Know Your Audience

If you’ve been reading along in our small business marketing series, you probably have heard this one before.  But it bears repeating: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE.  Social media is full of demographics and data that can speak directly to the approach your organization should take but it is only as good as your knowledge of your target market. Knowing your Buyer Personas is a must.  Facebook and You Tube attract high-earning users. Instagram is a hotbed for Millenials and Gen Z. Women love their Pinterest accounts. LinkedIn users are well-educated and prefer industry specific content. Twitter?  Okay, well Twitter is the wild west and everyone is screaming. Twitter also requires the most posts/tweets to be effective.  Think multiple posts per day that require active social listening.

Your social media strategy must take into account your buyer personas so that it can speak to them where they are already are. Take your message to them.

Know Your Metrics

You have your goals.  You have your buyer personas.  And you think you’ve figured out what channels your people are using.  So…. now what? How do you even know that your social media content is working?  Metrics.  We’re marketers, so yep, the answer is probably “look at the data”.

What metrics matter?

• Reach or Impressions: Post reach is the number of unique users who saw your post. How far is your content spreading? In the world of ever-changing social media algorithms, tracking reach is important.
• Clicks: This is the number of clicks on your content, company name, or logo. These clicks are pivotal in determining how your users are moving through your sales journey and it helps determine how your campaigns are engaging users.
• Engagement: This number represents the total number of social interactions divided by the number of impressions. This lets you know who interacted and if it was a good ratio out of your total reach.
• Hashtags: What hashtags are most associated with your brand? Which hashtags create the most engagement? Which hashtags are you using the most and with the most success? This can help you determine future content.
• Organic and Paid Likes: Organic traction is much harder to use to gain traction due to algorithms which is why many organizations turn to Facebook Ads. However, because of its broad use of hashtags, organic reach goes further on Instagram. Knowing these differences will allow you to invest wisely in different formats.

Create Helpful and Human Content

Your social media strategy will be centered around content.  That is, after all, what you will be sharing.

It is important to create compelling content that attracts your audience.  After all, our motto in inbound marketing is “Attract, Engage, Delight”.  Use blog posts, helpful articles from relevant 3^rd party sources, videos, infographics, ebooks, whitepapers, case studies, statistics, and memes.

Not only must your content be informative, but it is also important that it looks good.  Creating visually compelling content on a day-to-day basis is challenging. This is especially important on highly visual media channels like Instagram and Pinterest.

Use a social media calendar to help you establish themes, carry out campaigns, and keep your posting consistent.

Be On Time

You’ve found your people.  You have said amazing things to them that engages them with your stellar content.  They’ve responded.  Now what?

Are you even listening?  With the rapid fire pace of a 24 hour news cycle and play by plays of events available across multiple platforms, your audience expects to be heard.  Now.  Actually, yesterday.  And it is crucial to reach and respond to your followers in a timely manner. The average response time for brands is 10 hours, however customer expectation is that a brand will respond by 4 hours.

There are also best days of the week and best times of the day to post. But all of this is for naught if you don’t engage with your market after posting.

Through social media, you can earn trust and respect from your audience. With the right social media monitoring tools like HubSpot or HootSuite, you can keep tabs on what your audience is saying and interact with them accordingly.

Be Willing to Regroup

Now that you have a more clear picture about what your social media strategy should be, it is also important to make sure that as you read your metrics, you are able to adjust your strategy as you progress throughout the year.

By reading your metrics, you will be able to discern how your campaigns are doing.  Which social media channels are meeting your goals? Look at your top performing content and adjust your campaigns accordingly.  Not completely without some trial-and-error, monitoring your metrics allows you to make small tweaks along the way. Tracking data can help you be proactive and have the best strategy as possible.

By following these road signs along your social media strategy journey, you will reach your destination of social media strategy success!