Why does your company need to have a presence on social networks? In January 2021, there were 4.2 billion social media users around the world, so we could intuit that your customers are there.
In fact, to share social media links in a sophisticated and orderly manner, people often redirect domain names to their social media profiles. Let’s take as an example that you have a food blog on Instagram called “Cook like your grandmother”, in that case, you could buy the domain name “cooklikemother.online” and use it as a redirect for your Instagram account.
To find an available domain that suits your needs, you can use the free domains checker. This tool allows you to quickly see which domain names are available and choose the best one for your blog.
However, you should keep in mind that having a presence on social networks is not just about creating accounts and publishing content when you have time. Because without a goal-oriented strategy, you will only waste time and resources creating posts that do not generate any engagement or interaction.
On the other hand, with a solid strategy that focuses on targeting the right people and creating posts that generate both engagement and leads, you can:
- Communicate simply and effectively with your target audience.
- Build lasting relationships and professional partnerships.
- Know your clients.
- Increase your website traffic.
- Generate more income.
However, we know that creating and cultivating a social media presence that helps you achieve your goals is easier said than done. If you’ve been struggling lately to find your place on social media, here are five strategies that can help you get there.
1.- Identify your audience
We’ve already mentioned that there are a lot of people who use social media, but the reasons why they do so are very varied. Some are there just to connect with friends and family, others want to find like-minded businesses and people, there are also people who want to see content that suits their interests, and some, like you, want to be recognized and build their brand image.
Add to this already complex mix the diverse backgrounds of people and their preferences when choosing the type of content they want to see, so you can safely rule out basing your strategy on a one-size-fits-all approach.
Before starting your strategy, you must know which audience you want to reach. This will determine which channels you should use, what content to publish and when to publish it, the message you are going to write (copy) and what the images and tonality of the publications should be.
For example, having a more fun, relaxed attitude and using colloquial language may be attractive to teenagers and people in their late twenties, but if your goal is to reach a professional or corporate profile, you may prefer to take an approach that highlights your experience and skills.
If your target audience is the former, you can choose to be more active on social networks such as Instagram and Twitter. But you may prefer to focus more on LinkedIn for the professional focus.
To better identify and understand your audience you should:
- Define the demographics of your audience: age group, location, profession, income, stage of life…
- Identify their psychographic characteristics: passions, interests, aversions, values, challenges…
- Investigate their behavior on social media: what channels they use, brands they follow, posts they like, the content they publish (created and shared), the language they use…
2. Focus on Relationships, Not profits
Social media is about building meaningful relationships and that’s what your audience expects. If all you do is talk about business updates and how great your products are, you’ll project an image of being cold, clinical, and boring.
In fact, the brands that achieve good results on social networks are those that are not afraid to show a very strong personality and that adopt a friendly tone when talking to their followers.
The right way to achieve business goals through social media is to find the optimal balance point between marketing and connecting with your followers. To do this, along with sales-related posts such as product updates, ongoing promotions, and business news, you should plan other posts that show the human side of your business.
For example, show followers what’s behind the brand through posts that showcase the company culture or introduce team members to make the company look more human. Something as simple as sharing a post from one of your followers that your audience might like can help you find more things in common with them.
Instead of selling, tell stories, inspire, and entertain.
In addition to the content you publish, there are other ways to establish connections with your target audience on social networks:
– Join groups and communities where your audience is active and participate in discussions. You can answer questions to demonstrate your experience, but when doing so, avoid having a sales intent behind the answer.
– Address the people you’re talking to personally by tagging them in posts and comments.
– Give feedback to people who share your content to show that you appreciate their support.
3. Have Contests or Giveaways
Virtually everyone loves a good contest. They’re fun, they increase engagement, and they can even turn followers into brand ambassadors simply with the chance that participants will win a prize or have the chance to go viral on social media, and who doesn’t want some of that?
The best part about contests is that they usually don’t have a very high cost, depending on what the prize is and how you decide to promote the contest. It is not always necessary for the prize to be a 15-day cruise. As long as you define the goals of your contests and find creative ways to get your audience involved, there’s a lot you can accomplish with them.
Here are some tips to help you host a great contest:
Define the objectives
Is the goal of this contest to gain more followers or get customer feedback? Do you want to raise awareness about a new product and get people to try it for free? Do you want to increase sales?
Your objectives are what will determine the rules of the contest, the prize for the winner or winners, and the parameters to determine whether the contest has been a success.
Decide the prize
Giveaways are the easiest way to promote a new product or get a new segment of customers to try what your business offers. If you would like to increase sales, the prize could be a free sample along with a discount coupon for future purchases.
Be creative
Don’t just ask your followers to like or share contest posts. You should find more fun and creative ways to engage them.
For example, you could ask them to share a short snippet of how they feel reading their favorite book, respond in the comments with what their dream vacation would be like, or even ask them to share a video with clever ways to use your products.
The more you encourage your audience to think and act, the more engaged they will be.
Sell on social networks
Nowadays, social media not only helps you connect with your audience and create brand awareness, but it also helps you sell your products. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest allow brands with business accounts to display catalogs and even allow direct purchases.
The advantage of selling directly on social networks is that it encourages reactive purchasing, making this an excellent option for people who have just discovered your business.
The way you sell your products on social media varies by platform. We leave you the way how to do it on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
– Create a trading account (this is different from your regular trading account).
– Click “Get Started” to add your product collections.
– Set up shipping options, return policy, and payments.
– Publish the store and start selling.
Instagram allows you to tag products in posts or add a “Swipe up” option in stories. When a person clicks on the product tag or swipe up, they will see the product description, image, cost, and a link to the purchase page.
– Create a product catalog on Pinterest following these guidelines. In this way, the product information that you update in your online store will automatically be reflected in the Pinterest catalog.
– Create shopping pins for the products you want to sell. These pins will appear with a “Buy It” tab. When someone clicks on it, you can add your address and make payments without leaving Pinterest.
4. Don’t Avoid Paid Marketing
While a lot can be accomplished organically with the right social media strategy, the benefits of paid promotions cannot be ignored. In fact, strategic advertising is essential if you want your social media marketing to gain momentum.
There are two reasons why all companies should explore paid models:
– It is cheap. Depending on how much you can pay, you can choose the duration and reach of the ads.
– It’s very specific. Social media platforms come with built-in ad managers that help define exactly who you want to see your ads.
There is enough analytics data to guide you in your social media marketing strategy if you know how to implement it. Here are some ways to help you get started with paid marketing:
Study your audience
Is your audience interacting with the posts? Do they just like and comment? Are they sharing? Do you visit the links in the posts?
Track Post Performance
What types of posts are performing well and with which audience segment? Which posts actually generate clicks? Those are the posts you should promote.
Experiment with A/B testing
With A/B testing, you can show different versions of the same ads to different people. For example, you can create two ads that promote the same product, but one is a video and the other is an image.
You can choose to show the two ads to two different groups of your audience in the same age group and see which ad performs better. Even if paid advertising doesn’t fit your budget right now, there are countless ways you can harness the power of social media to grow your business organically.
Find your audience, get to know them, post regularly, be active and, above all, learn what the best that your business can offer and focus on highlighting that in all the actions you take.
It is important to understand that each social network alone will not achieve the success you are looking for, you need perseverance, and little by little, learn how to use them. It also doesn’t hurt to approach digital marketing experts, who, hand in hand, will be able to make the business of your dreams fly to the stars.