Make Social Media Your Friend Part II

In the previous article, we have seen the social media measures that a business can take up with minimal effort and existing resources. Those activities are essential for ensuring better customer experience and satisfaction.

However, the current scenario demands a more rigorous and consistent engagement channel as the majority of your customer base is using social media regularly.

Below are some activities which need the additional step of strategizing for optimizing your brand image projection.

Craft your social media content carefully and consistently

Every piece of content you post on social media should be carefully thought out. If you are posting just to post something, then you may do it all wrong. Depending on the social network you are posting on, you will need to modify your approach.

Here are some examples:

• LinkedIn –use this professional site to address the needs of B2B customers, concentrate on very specific targeting for the relevant groups
• Facebook – the majority of the businesses use this platform for re-marketing of their marketing traffic. In addition, having regular posts in your official group might also help reach the relevant audience
• Instagram – Perfect if your content is highly visual. Static images, stories, and short videos work incredibly well. Now with the IGTV, there is a chance for longer video content to be marketed.
• Pinterest – Similar to Instagram, Pinterest is highly visual. It is not only limited to static images but also a highly effective tool in driving traffic to your webpage.

Video, Video, and Video!

The video medium is not new. What is new is it is expanding dominance in the marketing community. With the minuscule attention spans of your audience, video content is essential to engage them for that whole minute.

YouTube alone gets 500 hours of video content every minute and people watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube videos per day. This shows how people are addicted to this type of content and how much the businesses benefit from adopting it. 

Consider testing the waters before jumping onto the bandwagon of Video marketing by marketing short-video posts on Facebook and Instagram. Thereafter you can optimize your marketing spends in the appropriate version, which works best for your brand – a short-form video or long-form content on YouTube.

In addition, Instagram also provides a medium called IGTV where you can post both forms of videos for branded content, interviews with influencers, innovative ads, etc. 

Social commerce – The new marketplace

With e-commerce and social media’s growing presence, it is no wonder that brands are using them alongside physical store experience and taking advantage of the social commerce to maximize the opportunities for sales.

Last year Instagram unveiled their new feature “Instagram checkout” that allows users to complete their transaction within the app. This has reduced the risk of customers abandoning their carts as they need not switch apps to complete the purchase. 

Social media is integral to digital marketing and visual platforms like Instagram is gold for marketers. Better yet, visual commerce is taking off as more consumers are willing to buy products through ads that they see on their feeds.

Instagram reports that the platform has 1 billion users, and 90% of them already follow active shopping brands. So, what better way to leverage this massive potential than by using shoppable posts?

Keep the Salesy tactics to a minimum

Intrusive, traditional marketing went out of the window a long time ago, and for good reason. People don’t want sales pitches, rather want to establish real connections and relationships with you. Building customer loyalty is the secret sauce to getting your audience to associate with you.

And once they trust you, they’ll buy from you, no matter what. Consumers find it off-putting when brands and businesses post too many promotions. Though a brand should capture the mind space of the audience, one should do by taking their sensibilities into consideration.

Alternatively, you can provide information that will facilitate the customer to make a decision, content that leads buyers to your products or services – without being pushy or salesy.

Content research for this article has been contributed by Spoorthi Duggi