How To Leverage Your Social Media Campaign
Do you use social media campaigns to engage with the customers or you want to get rid of the traditional marketing techniques, whatever the wish, here we are with just the right tricks and tips to solve your problems.
Many of the online marketers are capable of creating a social media campaign, but not all succeed in the same, resulting is economic as well as wastage of time. In the first phase only, we want to make one thing clear that Facebook and Twitter are two different platforms with a completely varying approach towards marketing.
Online users are spending more time on these platforms in comparison to any other site on the web. According to a report generated by HubSpot, it was found that 70% of the companies were having a dedicated employee or team for handling the social media campaigns. However, there is still a huge percent of companies and employees who are still to dive into the vast world of social media marketing.
It is the time to fill in that bridge and let you know how to make the most out of campaigns:
1. Set a proper goal
The first step towards any campaign is to establish the objective or goal that you want to achieve. Without a properly set goal, there is no way you can think of success or anything near to it. Having these lets you react quickly with the hurdles coming in your way.
Before you take a step ahead, plan on your primary and secondary goals. Some common goals for these campaigns are:
• Direct Sales
• Lead Generation
• Product and brand awareness
Make sure these goals are aligned with your marketing strategies in the further stage. This is even beneficial from the point of view of executive buy-in and investment.
To make some goals, you should focus on advanced metrics like web referrals and conversion rates. And, the most important part, you should focus on the rule of SMART.
SMART framework means you should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Write down three social media blogs and imagine what it will appear like on the completion of the task.
2. Decide most useful channels
Just like the varying usage and goals, even the social media platforms vary. What works well for one platform may not work for the other and that is what you need to focus on. To select what your primary and secondary network is, you will have to determine the target audience.
For some businesses, it is easier said than done and if your business is one among them, then use tracking tools. Google Analytics gives you the clear view of visitors being attracted to the website. Take the time to discover where your target audience hangs and with the perfect details, you can move ahead.
For the night browsers, Pinterest works the best, while for those who likes a lot of graphics and images Instagram works perfectly. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ is considered great when you have to promote your services. Perks are enormous when it comes to these top 5 social platforms. Posting, sharing, Social campaigns, event promotion, there is a room for everything on these platforms.
Find what suits you best and start with the one that suits you best. Hovering over each platform in one go can lead to chaos and marketers can get distracted from the real objective. The catch here will be going with every platform one by one.
3. Collect/make all contents that required to run a campaign
We don’t want to number this section as third or fourth, rather it is the most important one, you need to give attention to. Continue making engaging and exciting content to make new followers and friends on the social handles.
There is going to be captivating texts, quotes, images, as well as videos. So, it is going to depend on you what you want to take forward. Look at the trends and you will realize that visual interaction is more beneficial than any other means, letting you take a step towards success.
Also, you have to keep in mind that every social platform has different requirement for images and you have to be careful while picking the same. If Facebook is about descriptive images and texts, Twitter is about witty posts and GIFs. That means one post will not work the same way on different platforms.
So, as you know what sort of content you need to move ahead with, it is the time to measure the time slots working in your favor. For some businesses, that can be easier said than done. So, you might have to track the time for peak hours.
However, on a general basis, the social activity time is somewhat like the infographic given above (share at the right times):
4. Build cross-functional team to handle activities
If the early days of social media management are taken into consideration, the approach was pretty biased and hassle free. It was a monotonous command: Give it to the younger member of the team, they are on social platforms.
However, it was not long when companies started to understand how wrong they were in their approach. It soon became evident and clear that just because an individual is active on social platforms, doesn’t mean that he can communicate on behalf of a brand.
It is very important for a company to understand that the social media campaigns or marketing required specific skills like writing, editing, photo editing and the ability to respond in real time.
It is, therefore, necessary for a company to spend a legitimate time in order to build a cross-functional team to handle the varied activities as well obtained the right resource for the right function and hence create an environment where varied individuals can handle varied functions.
5. Use social media tools to reschedule post
If the recent stats are taken into account by major social platform content curators, almost 40% of the total content publish during a campaign is unable to reach the desired customer or people. The problem is not in the fact that how the content is published, but the fact that most social campaign managers do not pay attention to facts like rescheduling the post or posting it at several time intervals.
It is often advised by social media experts to enable the use of social media tools to reschedule posts. One major tool that can be used by companies and individuals likewise for rescheduling their post is SocialPilot. SocialPilot enables automation in post rescheduling and enables auto posting or reposting on the content over a given period of time. The process enables a sequential posting of content which reaches a wide range of people over a given duration of the campaign.
6. Listen and respond to queries
Companies often tend to excuse the fact that the whole media campaign is based on the fact that how good they are at responding. It is very important for a media expert to listen to the queries of the probable customers and respond to them in real time. However, in recent times it has been found that despite pulling off a very nice campaign and relatively capturing the attentions of many probable customers, campaigners lose solely because of their responding methods.
One of the best ways to get rid of the issue is to assign an individual with expertise in customer handling who is responsive and quick to mold the way the customer wants. The problem can also be prevented by using third party tools which will send an auto generated message in case of the absence of assigned individual. The tools enable auto messages asking about general or probable questions that users often tend to ask and give qualitative answers signifying them to leave with necessary details which can be a great asset to a campaign.
Bottom Line: A social media campaign can be a drastic failure along with wastage of time and money if the company or individual takes it as just another thing. In case to get the most out of your social campaign, one needs to make sure that an effective team is set up just to manage your campaign with a proper set of guidelines and how to’s list to follow. Once a structured method is followed, you are sure to get some great results out of the campaign. Always remember there is no shortcut to a successful social campaign, and you need to make sure that every ounce of effort is given to your campaign if you want to see the most from it. At the end it is the strategic plan and efforts that decide the outcome of the campaign.
