The proliferation of social media sites has opened up tremendous opportunities for businesses to engage with their target market. In addition to the traditional communication channels, a brand can now use social media marketing to increase its reach and build strong relationships with its market through online interactions.
However, to enjoy a true measure of success, brands must do three things:
- Be where their target market is by choosing the right social media platform
- Engage their audience with relevant and interesting content
- Keep up the two-way interaction, answering questions, responding to feedback (both positive and negative) with a customer engagement strategy
The first step is to identify the right social media platform based on the one the target market’s presence. From the ever-growing list, the prominent ones are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest.
Consider the following when making your choice:
- Who is your target market and which social media networks are they using?
- What are your social media marketing goals? Examples are lead generation, boosting website traffic, interaction with customers
- Do you have the manpower to manage your social media profiles or will you outsource it?
- What is your budget?
For example, if your business’ target audience is largely active mobile app users on iPhones and Androids, you might think of using Instagram to engage your audience. If your goal is to network with other businesses, then LinkedIn helps you widen your contact base and connect with thought leaders.
Engaging with your audience using the right strategy pays off high dividends in the form of extensive reach, exposure, more leads, lower promotional costs and high return on your marketing investment. Here are some effective techniques:
Quality content with variety
Content marketing plays an important role in social media engagement. Quality content that is both engaging and shareable is the secret. This includes text, images, video and audio content to keep it interesting. Content updates do not always have to be business related. Social media is a great platform to show the human side of your business by posting behind-the-scenes images and information with a good dose of humor.
Being responsive
The essence of engagement is interaction and this means being responsive to fans and followers, answering questions and handling complaints. Social media offers a creative avenue to leverage it for better customer service.
Being unique
Create special offers and deals that stand out from the competition. Give fans a reason to engage with your brand. Reward them for connecting. Run contests. Invite comments. Highlight users who engage regularly. Ask questions and reward innovative answers. Make it fun. Offer useful tips.
Make it easy to engage
Let your audience find it easy to connect with you by prominently displaying your contact information and social media connect buttons.
The secret is to offer fans what they want to keep them engaged. Find out when your audience is most active and engage with them to ensure the maximum shares and views. Research your target audience well to create attractive calls to action that motivate them to share with others. Social media, for sustained results, requires ongoing effort and patience. Keep experimenting and don’t forget to use analytics to measure your impact and ROI.