Social networks cultivate instant environments for ideas, interaction, and collaboration within an online community. Their emergence and integration into modern society’s daily routine has revolutionized the way advertisements are processed. Applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, serve as immediate and accessible outlets delivering content for companies harnessing their potential. Social media campaigns are the most effective strategy for increasing brand awareness, customer engagement, and brand affinity. With the touch of a finger, potential customers are exposed to a logo, slogan, or image representing a brand and are enabled to share within a matter of seconds.
Whether the intended purpose serves to establish an online community for your company, launch a new product or service or even celebrate a company milestone, your social media campaigns are crucial in commencing your company’s influence online. Here are six recommended tips to guide your social campaign planning process.
Set Your Campaign Goals
First and foremost, establish your campaign’s objectives. Keep in mind, throughout the early stages of each campaign previously manufactured and currently infiltrating the internet, its creators brainstormed and designated a distinct goal intended to achieve and surmount. Are you hoping to increase social media followers and influence? What about generating the brand’s online buzz? Aiming to accumulate more company mentions? When initiating the campaign’s blueprints, ask yourself key questions in order to guide the thought process toward a more specific direction. Identifying the focus and purpose to ensure a more streamlined structure for your next campaign and the ones to follow.
Select Your Social Media Networks
Selecting which social media platforms to utilize for your next campaign is key. Social media sites are not a “one size fits all” department. Companies seeking to advertise their consumer goods will be optimal users of certain media networks versus others. Make note: the most profitable way to navigate through the confusing channels of social media is to fully understand your product or service. Comprehending your product or services, and their customer benefits will enable the pinpointing of your target audience. Each social media network contains not only specific age groups, but a gender difference in populations as well as their varying ethnic makeup percentages. Do your research on each social media network’s demographics and decide accordingly.
Don’t Forget to Engage
Social media campaigns are most known for entering the online community with a hashtag or contest specific to their cause or product. This generates a potentially viral campaign as well as initiates consumer engagement. One of the most important aspects of social media campaigns is its ability to connect with your target audience and engage with its participants. Once the hashtag, contest, or whatever quirk designed takes off, pay close attention. Making an effort to “like”, “comment”, “favorite” or “retweet” positive feedback is key. This aids in not only humanizing your campaign but validates your social media presence as a brand and company. It’s genuine customer service, only online.
Make a Plan and Calendar
Maintaining organization throughout this process is imperative to its success. Generate a content plan composed of strategies for creating content as well as the distribution to social media websites. This plan should target key points such as the type of content needed, how often it will be posted, and its promotion. By creating a calendar, setting dates for specific launches will coincide with your company’s separate initiatives. The calendar should be comprised of the list of dates and times you intend to publish graphics, blogs, or ads corresponding to the campaign. There exists a fine line in maintaining relevance with the consumer in order to avoid bombarding them with excess ads and posts all at once. The creation of a content plan and calendar allow you to focus time on the quality of the campaign components versus producing a large quantity in one sitting.
Test, Evaluate, Adjust, Repeat
Social media, being an instant channel of information, constantly updates its users on information just as it updates its software. Room for improvement is never ceasing when it comes to perfecting your social media marketing strategy. In order to make the proper adjustments that will increase your clientele engagement and retention, consider making these appropriate steps: utilize URL shorteners to track the amount of clicks your page receives on a specific platform, employ an outside service to analyze the success of each of your campaigns or visit Google Analytics to track page visits. These tools will aid with recording and synthesizing both your basic social media and specific social media campaigns successes and failures. Another tip: conduct surveys, both on and offline, to gauge your brand’s influence. Asking your followers specific questions regarding your campaign’s role in their purchases will prove to be valuable information when seeking to adjust your strategy for future campaigns.
Stay True to Your Voice
In achieving viral success, it can be tempting to switch over to strategies that have prompted your competitors to favorable outcomes. However, it’s imperative to remain true to your brand and your company’s values. Create a voice and tone specific for your content. This will separate every movement you generate from those of your competitors, as your marketing persona online will be recurring and relatable. Customize them to your mission statement, founder’s ideals, or customer loyalty programs previously installed. Capture the “personality” of your company via your campaign in order to attract ideal customers as well. By coming to identify your brand’s values in depth, this will contribute to pave the road toward more successful future social campaigns.
Engaging with potential consumers via social media can be intimidating. Take these tips into consideration when developing your upcoming social media campaigns to ensure a methodical process and substantial results.
Have any tips of your own? Share in the comments!
