Step by Step Guide to Social Media Marketing for Businesses

With Covid-19, consumers moved online, which urged business to establish a strong digital presence. If you see your competitors running campaigns, creating excellent content, posting blogs and making announcements online while you do not even know where to start, you have come to the right place. Here is a step by step guide on how you can start using Social Media for your business right now.

1. Set goals and objectives

Goals come from your brand’s vision, while objects are drawn from individual and achievable outcomes. With that in mind, would you need to generate engagement with your audience and gather some insights into your product or service? Do you need Social Media for nurturing leads or driving conversions? Are you hiring or sponsoring events? The targets that you select now for a strategy will direct you straight into step two.

2. Platform selection

It is unnecessary to have accounts on all Social Media platforms. How do you know which online channels to use for your business? The answer is: you need to investigate where your audience is. For a lot of companies that focus on B2B segments, LinkedIn has become an essential platform to have a profile on. Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok work very well for FMCGs. You will find Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers on Facebook and Youtube, while Gen Z hangs out on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Tik Tok. The recent research on Social Media engagement has shown that Gen Z and Millennials do a substantial amount of product research and interact with brands in the digital space, which means – you have to be online!

Most Kiwi businesses select Facebook as their primary platform, followed either by Instagram (for creative and visual content) or LinkedIn (to stay connected with the industry).

3. Content Calendar

Now that you have your goals and objectives and a selection of the most suitable Social Media channels, you are ready to proceed and create a content calendar. Why do you need a Content Calendar? Remember the time when you thought: “Everyone on our team has all those brilliant ideas, and we just need to go ahead and do it!”? To help you map out what kind of posts you need and what topics to cover, put some ideas in the digital format and spread them across one month. No, you do not need to post every single day. Since you know what goals drive your Social Media Marketing strategy, it will become apparent to you how much is too much or too little to post.

4. Content Creation

Whether it’s an article or just a post, please remember to talk directly to each segment of your target audience. A good copy is always based on what your customers want, their pain points, and how you can make their lives better.

Going back to the brand’s vision and objectives: brand guidelines with an appropriate tone of voice, colours and fonts are something you have to consider when writing a copy and posting online. Creative platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram and Tik Tok welcome video and photo content with open arms. The era of text-only posts has ended, which means the Social Media algorithms pick up publications with content that stands out in the crowd. Not having photo and video content on your server is not an excuse anymore. A talented photographer can produce 30 edited shots for you that you can recycle across many weeks, or you may wish to use some stock images and videos. User-generated content (yours or your customers’ photos, videos, testimonials, case studies etc.), however, is king. The digital world loves everything unique and new.

5. Optimisation and Monitoring

One of the questions businesses ask is what type of content they should be posting regularly. Well, insights into your audience engagement, which you can track in your online business profiles, can answer this question for you. When starting with Social Media, you may find that you post various content: useful tips, recent news articles, expert advice, competition, team photos, case studies or video testimonials. Check the insights to see what your audience liked the most: base your judgement on the engagement rate. The higher the engagement rate, the more interesting that piece of content was for your followers. Respond to comments, answer questions, thank clients and tag them in the testimonials. This is essential for community and relationship building, and this is exactly what Social Media is about.

Consistent posting is important. Imagine doing all the hard work to keep your followers engaged and then disappear for days? That would break the hearts of your followers and your reputation. Posting regularly also creates expectations for your audience, where they know you are still trading and making their life better with your products or services.

6. Paid advertisement

Social Media advertisement is exceptionally effective. Both B2B and B2C segments are found on digital platforms. Depending on your preferred channels, you have an opportunity to put your brand in front of millions of consumers.

These days Facebook and Instagram ads are the cheapest to run, while LinkedIn is, perhaps, the most expensive platform. Pinterest is another digital space that deserves attention when considering paying for ads on Social Media. With Tik Tok becoming highly popular not only with the younger audience but also Millennials, you do not want to miss out on a chance to put your brand name out there. A straightforward setup procedure and quick results are what businesses love about paid ads. Clearly defined target audience, compelling copy and good quality creatives deliver fantastic results!

If your business does not have a strong online presence, you might be losing potential clients and falling behind your competitors. Not only you create brand awareness in the digital environment but you also manage your brand reputation. For all help with Social Media and Digital Marketing strategy creation and implementation, get in touch with us for a FREE consultation.