Social media has proven to be a real game changer in terms of how businesses choose to market themselves and interact with their customers. While an effective advertising strategy may require more than just a social media account, missing out on the chance to further your brand, build your customer base, or reach a wider range of future customers and potential clients could be nothing short of a disaster.
Selecting the Right Platform
Even the most professional and well-organized social media campaign will be of no real benefit should you choose the wrong platform. Social media sites and services differ tremendously in terms of both their user demographics as well as what each has to offer in terms of marketing opportunities. Selecting a site that will make it easier to interact with your customers or to generate new business opportunities can be an issue of tremendous importance. While maintaining an active presence across multiple sites and services may seem like a large undertaking, a coordinated campaign and a more diverse online presence can have many potential benefits. Take a look at each platform’s metrics to see which one your target audience is more likely to be on.
Brand Recognition
Even after choosing your preferred social media outlets, you still need to worry about brand recognition. If you stay consistent with your theme and messaging, your followers will feel comfortable and will be more likely to check out your other platforms. Make sure your logo, company name, and website are also consistent and unique to your business and company. Hire a professional designer if you don’t have a logo and color palette to represent your brand. Good branding can help users recognize your social media posts at a glance while they are scrolling through their feeds.
Producing Quality Media
While the lower cost and relative ease associated with poor quality media can make it an attractive option, sharing amateurish video or poor-quality photos online could end up damaging your business brand and image. Investing in professional social media-focused production services, like those offered by Chamber Media, can help to maximize the impact of your marketing efforts and ensure that your business will be showcased in the right light. Contracting with a third-party producer can often be the most convenient and effective approach to take. If you need a video post for your social media pages, a professional camera, good lighting, and a smart director can get you the best results. This video can then be shared to each of your platforms or used on your website. The same idea applies to product or team photos.
Gathering Engagement and User Interaction
Unlike more conventional marketing platforms, social media is able to leverage audience participation in order to make a bigger impact. User engagement can often create a ripple effect, one that may allow you to reach a bigger audience than you might expect. If your marketing efforts are failing to encourage user interaction, you would do well to examine your online advertising campaign in order to make any necessary changes needed to optimize engagement. Be sure to not only post regularly but to also comment on posts that fall into your target audience. People notice genuine interaction from brands.
Marketing strategies that fail to address the key aspects of a social media campaign may be far less likely to provide the level and quality of results that your business needs. Choosing the best platform, investing in professional-quality media and marketing materials and doing what it takes in order to boost engagement are all essential concerns for creating a marketing campaign that gets results.
Kara Masterson is a freelance writer from West Jordan, Utah. She graduated from the University of Utah and enjoys writing and spending time with her dog, Max. In her research for this article, she found she liked Chamber Media when reading about producing content.
Social media stock photo by Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock
