Social media is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies for brands to connect with current and potential customers. With more than three billion social media users worldwide spending an average of three hours or more per day on social media, you will miss out on a very large and active audience if you don’t have a strong social media presence. Here are five of the best social media marketing strategies that many successful brands are using to grow and expand their brand on social media.
3 effective social media marketing strategies
1. Set SMART goals
Every successful marketing strategy begins with setting goals that follow the S.M.A.R.T criteria, which states that your goals should be:
• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-based
Setting goals based on this framework will make it easier to track and measure your progress. While it can be tempting, you should never get involved with social media marketing without having realistic and achievable goals in place.
2. Create a marketing strategy for each platform
You should create separate marketing strategies for each social media platform you will be using because what works on one platform may not work on another platform. When determining the best strategies you should use, the first thing you will have to do is identify the end-goals you are trying to achieve, and then you will have to figure out which social media channels will help you achieve those goals. For example, some social media platforms are great for sharing engagement-centric media that may get a lot of engagements, but they are probably not the best option for sharing external links and driving traffic to your website. Therefore, you should never try to use the same marketing strategies across all social media platforms.
3. Study your competitors
Studying what works best for your competitors is a great marketing strategy because they have the same target audience as you, and they can help you come up with ideas of your own. The first thing you will do is create a list of the top 5-10 competitors in your niche. Then, you will have to figure out:
• What is their tone and brand identity? (bold, funny, cocky, etc.)
• How much content do they publish per day?
• What type of posts gets the most engagements or reactions from their audience?
Knowing how you compare to your competition is a crucial part of effective social media marketing because competition is one of the most common reasons most small businesses fail. Competition research is the ultimate solution to this problem that will allow you to stand out, be creative, innovate new products and services, and remain one step ahead of your competition.
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