While traditional digital marketing strategies such as SEO, PPC or email marketing can still be highly effective, adding social media marketing to the mix can give you a great competitive edge. Utilizing social media not only serves to improve your online visibility, but also increases brand recognition and customer loyalty through positive engagement with the consumer.
How to Use Social Media Effectively
The variety of social media platforms available are not a “One-Size-Fits-All” solution. Learning which social media platforms work best for your needs, and understanding how to leverage them will enable you to craft a well-rounded, cost-effective online marketing campaign.
First, let’s showcase how the same piece of content (a press release highlighting a new product) should be shared across different platforms:
Capture consumer attention with a strong, intriguing post of about one or two sentences and a graphic of the product, with a link to your press release. You might also create a second post asking for consumer feedback to generate more engagement and excitement.
Your posts might read something like this:
Post #1 — It’s finally here! The newest version of SuperWidget! See what’s new!
Post #2 — Have you tried SuperWidget 2.0 yet? What did you think? Let us know how SuperWidget 2.0 is making things better for you!
With a limited amount of characters allowed for your Tweet, you need to write something catchy to get people interested, and utilize hashtags to create a Twitter conversation.
Tweet — It’s finally here! The newest version of SuperWidget! See what’s new! #SuperWidget #newandimproved
Using the hashtags, you can keep track of anyone else talking about SuperWidget following your Tweet.
YouTube
Posting a video gives you a great chance to really showcase your new product and provide additional information in a more interactive manner. Describe features and benefits of the product, and maybe provide a few consumer testimonials as well if possible. Use keywords in the title and description of your video.
Post the video link on Twitter, Facebook and your website, and other social media platforms and blogs.
Create an album of product images, showcasing new features. This is your chance to really to show off the product in style. Use keywords and hashtags in the graphic titles. Post links on other social media platforms.
What Else Can I Do With Social Media?
Now that you know how to post the same content across different social media channels, let’s see how else you can use each platform to maximum benefit.
Post content or status updates often. Consumers love engaging with the companies they choose to do business with. It makes them feel appreciated and recognized.
Don’t be afraid to repost content, but try to change up the wording or use different images so it doesn’t look like you are just spamming the same post over and over.
Increase engagement (retweets) and clickthroughs by sharing images in addition to links.
Schedule Tweets at a time when your target audience is most likely to see your Tweet and respond. This may take a bit of trial and error to find the best time.
Tweet short summaries of larger posts, articles or videos on other channels.
Instagram & Pinterest
Share strong images and ensure they lead back to a relevant page that offers more insight. Use hashtags in the image captions so that they can be more easily shared across other channels.
Lastly, use A/B tests on all your posts across all channels. Learn when to post and how to word your content by using analytics to see which ones get the most engagement and clickthroughs. You’ll be on your way to social media marketing success in no time!
Sources:
http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/26645/three-ways-to-customize-content-across-social-channels-for-greater-response
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/optimize-your-content/