Social Media Marketing: 5 Tips to Rock Your Strategy in 2016

No matter what field of business you are in, you must have proper knowledge concerning marketing in order to make it in the vast sea of competitors. The competition is fierce and you need to find your place in the market and lead your business to success. If you are reading this, it is safe to assume that you are already running a business and are familiar with all the benefits a good marketing strategy can offer you.

One of the best types of marketing for business success in the digital era is, without a doubt, social media marketing. Social media networks keep growing as we speak and it is very likely they are only going to grow more popular in the years to come.

You can reach a lot of people, but you need to play it smart

The main reason behind this is the fact that there are billions of active users on various social media networks and those numbers just keep going up. By advertising your business on social media, you are able to reach all of those people across the world, which can be quite difficult if you, for instance, opt for traditional marketing on its own.

Social media trends constantly change, so it is crucial that you follow them and do everything you can to use them to your benefit. Read on to learn about some very useful tips that you can use, but not before we provide you with some steps you need to take when creating your social media marketing strategy for 2016.

The Essential First Steps to Creating Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

The first step you need to take when you start creating your social media marketing strategy is to set clear goals. Don’t overwhelm yourself by setting too many goals, because you don’t want to end up achieving only half of them, but instead focus on accomplishing a few that are of the highest value for your business.

For instance, those could be raising your brand awareness and reaching more loyal customers, as well as driving more traffic to your website. It can be anything you need that will ultimately improve your business and help you generate more revenue.

Develop a strong presence on several social media platforms – the next obvious step is to establish your social media presence. If you have already done that, then you need to update your profiles and optimize them for the latest trends in order to keep up with the competition. If you have no social media presence yet, you need to conduct a social media audit before you create your profiles.

Find out which platforms your audience prefers – you need to research your target audience and learn what social media networks they prefer and use, so that you can know where and how to reach them. Once you acquire that knowledge, you are ready to explore the wonders of social media and get as many new customers as possible.

You should also know that there are quite a lot of social media marketing companies that have the expertise to help you market your business on social media in the best way possible. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the most crucial things you need to do to maximize your strategy in 2016.

Create Exceptional Content

Let’s get something straight here – no matter what product or service you offer, your content is what will sell it. Content marketing goes hand in hand with pretty much every type of marketing, so it is crucial that you pay a lot of attention to it and invest a lot of time and effort into making it perfect. It’s not enough to have good content that covers a common topic in some detail – what you write can’t be readily available on 10-20 other websites, to which people can get with a 60 second search.

Write something useful and thought provoking – your content has to truly stand out, both in terms of the information provided and the style. Simply put, it needs to be an excellent resource that people can learn from and use the information within in a practical way. It must be relevant to your target audience if you are to spark their interest and engage them.

Use beautiful high quality images to spice things up – whether you are creating content for your website, your blog or your ads, you need to have in mind that adding images to it will improve your chances of reaching out to more people. Images will refresh your content and make it more appealing, ultimately resulting in people engaging in it more. If you create an ad with a great looking image included, it is more likely that someone will click on it and go directly to your site.

Make creative and informative videos – a great increase in video use in content marketing is definitely going to mark 2016. Businesses that use videos in their marketing campaigns have generated a lot more revenue and increased their sales immensely, so you should include video content in your social media marketing strategy as well.

There are several types of videos that you can use, such as educational videos, in which you do not only instruct your viewers about your products, but you also market your products to them. It’s a win-win that is definitely worth a try. You can also make explainer videos, in which you can describe and explain how your products work and what benefits they offer to the consumers.

Share your content and snippets of it on social media regularly – you can also promote your content on social media using entertainment videos, which are excellent for keeping your viewers engaged and entertained. The sole purpose of such videos is not for you to try and sell anything, but merely for the viewers to enjoy and share them, associating your brand with creative and fun content.

You can create a short series of videos about your products and you can be that sure that people will love them. It is truly a great social media marketing strategy that can ensure people will feel closer to your brand.

Engage your audience through live streaming – speaking of videos, something that has become extremely popular this year is live streaming. If you show your viewers, that is, your existing and potential customers, the “behind-the-scene” people that make the wheels of your business machine turn, you will put a face on your brand, which will make people trust you more.

It inspires loyalty and you can make a lot of new business connections that way. The great thing about this is that people will get notifications on Facebook whenever there is an upcoming live stream on your Facebook page, so you should definitely give it a try.

Engage in Social Media Networks

In order to truly engage in various social media networks, you need to be dedicated to making your posts as perfectly as you can to attract your target audience. Staying active doesn’t mean you need to spam people’s news feed, but it’s essential to share your every blog post, as well as re-share them from time to time.

Make announcements and organize contests – social media websites are excellent for announcing new products and promotions, as that shows that you are a professional who cares about both the brand and its consumers. You can sometimes organize a contest or a giveaway on social media. That will show people that you are not in it only for the money, but that you actually care about giving something back to the community.

Work on your customer service – social networks are also great for customer service, so make sure you keep communication with both current and potential customers going. Facebook remains the most dominant social media platform in 2016, so you should focus mainly on sharing your content there. When you share your posts on Facebook, make sure you include eye-catching and high-quality images, along with interesting descriptions and direct links that lead to your site.

Answer comments and look for feedback – it is vital that you respond to comments and messages in a timely fashion, since you will show your audience that you care about them and that you respect them. You can ask for their opinion on new products by encouraging feedback or creating a poll. Allow people to tag themselves in your photos, as that will help raise awareness of your brand and expand it literally across the globe.

Be concise and use your hashtags right on Twitter – when it comes to sharing on Twitter, make sure you write concise, relevant and engaging descriptions of the content you share, since you are limited to only 140 characters. Remember that the most popular tweets are the ones with images included and don’t forget about the hashtags, as they will help people find your tweets among billions that pop up every minute.

Pretty much the same thing goes for Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+ and any other network where you can find your target audience. So, share, tweet, pin – market your brand anywhere you can and make sure people become interested in what you have to offer.

Build Relationships with Bloggers and Social Media Influencers

Building new connections is always good for business. Social media provides you with thousands of doors for new business opportunities, so you should use those wisely. Building relationships with bloggers can help you a great deal with expanding your brand, as they can write blog posts to promote your business in exchange for a discount on your products, for instance, or any other compensation you both agree on.

Many of them work on several platforms at a time, so it can happen that a third-party shares a blog post that promotes your business, resulting in more traffic being driven to your site. A number of people rely on recommendations from their family and friends, as well as people who have a lot of influence of social media.

Engaging with influential people on social media is great for marketing your business, because they can provide you with a kind of endorsement by mentioning you in their posts and encouraging people to do business with you.

They can advise them to start using your products, for example, and the most important thing is that this kind of strategy really does work. When such influencers put out a good word for you, you can be sure that people will trust them and rely on their opinion, so you should always try and get in touch with them.

Make Mobile Marketing a Priority

Mobile marketing has been the most talked-about concept for the past several years, but it has become one that is of the utmost importance in 2016. A number of marketers have been indicating the importance of having a website optimized for mobile devices for years and, today, it has become a necessity. It is a norm that every business owner must understand and use it in their marketing strategy.

More people are accessing the web through mobile devices than desktops – last year, Google announced that mobile use exceeded desktop use, so you should definitely optimize your website for mobile devices if you want to provide your users with a mobile experience. Otherwise, you are just missing out and letting your competition steal your customers. If you want your customers to stay loyal to you, you must provide them with the best possible service and having a mobile-friendly website is one of them.

The majority of people use their mobile phones to check their social media accounts, chat with friends, check their e-mail, search for something they think about purchasing and quite a lot of other things the Internet offers – the list is endless.

Look for professional help to crystalize your SMM strategy – it takes a little more investment, especially since mobile app use has increased, resulting in mobile app installs becoming more expensive and compelling marketers to invest more, but it can all be worth it in the long run. There are a lot of mobile marketing companies that can help you reach mobile users in some very innovative ways, so be sure to research and contact them.

Once you get the hang of everything concerning social media marketing, it will not take as much time and effort as when you are just starting out. It will become a piece of cake and you will end up having an excellent strategy that works well in the long run. Simply follow these useful tips and you will find the best way of marketing your brand and showcasing it for all the world to see.