What is a Social Media strategy?
Say Hello Hello help clients to develop and implement effective sales and marketing campaigns through a combination of telemarketing and digital tactics.
Having a ‘social media strategy’ in place is often labelled as something that is ‘essential’ for a business to have in place when developing and maintaining an online presence by digital marketing experts.
However, finding an explanation of exactly what a social media strategy is and how to establish one is significantly less easy.
So, what is a social media strategy, then?
In simple terms, a social media strategy is the approach a company takes to its social media use.
The majority of companies use social media for a combination of the following reasons:
Increase brand awareness: Achieved by producing and sharing high value content while developing and utilising a clear brand ‘personality’ across all your social networks.
Increase/improve sales: An often underreported benefit of social media (particularly Twitter) is the ability to monitor keywords and listen to what your customers are saying. This ‘social listening’ has the potential to help you identify new audiences and target markets that you may not discover otherwise.
Encourage more in-person sales: Social media can also be utilised to drive customers to visit your physical premises. New offers, sale periods and new stock can all easily be promoted online, with rewards offered for those who visit having seen your updates on social media.
Nurture relationships with customers: Social Media provides opportunities to develop and maintain relationships with customers like never before. Reward brand loyalty with discounts, gifts and other incentives and you can soon turn happy customers into brand ambassadors that will recommend your products or services to others.
Keep an eye on your industry and competition: What are your competitors doing on their social media platforms? Does their approach appear to be getting results? Social Media provides a unique opportunity to keep an eye on your competitors while staying up to date on industry news.
The first thing to establish is your target audience and which platforms they spend their time on. As of 2016, 78% of adults in the UK have a profile on Facebook, with almost half of them logging on at least once a day. 45% of UK adults have a Twitter account, with only 11% of those users logging on every day.
When you have decided which platforms to focus on, you need to think about content you can produce that your target audience will engage with. Interesting, useful content, shared regularly, is key to establishing a strong presence on social media. From company news, ‘behind the scenes’ features about the business and industry focused blog posts, to images showcasing new products, service FAQs and how-to videos, there are a wealth of media you can use to get your message out on social networks.
Are there questions your customers often ask? Could those questions be developed into a series of blog posts? Could you take before and after photos to highlight the benefits of your services or products? Would a short video ‘demystify’ your business and provide your customers with insight into your daily operations?
A variety of content will keep your audience interested in what you do. This content, when shared on a regular basis, will help increase awareness of your brand, identify your business as an authoritative voice and encourage new individuals to ‘follow’ your online presence. With more and more of us using the internet and social media to vet businesses before committing to using their services or buying from them, can your business afford to ignore these new platforms and the customers they potentially give you access to?
How could you promote your business using social media? The digital marketing team at Say Hello Hello can help you devise an effective social media strategy as well as create and manage an active, engaging variety of creative content and direct marketing messages for your social presence.
Outsource your social media marketing and Say Hello Hello to growing your business with an authoritative online presence.
