Social media play a major role in the development of any communication strategy. Whatever the sector of activity, they allow companies to create a close link between themselves and their audience. However, communicating on social networks requires an adapted strategy.
What is social media marketing? Which social network would be the most suitable for you? How to use social networks to serve your business?
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing (SMM) is a marketing technique that uses social networks as a communication channel. It brings together all the marketing actions carried out via social media marketing services.
Companies use it to promote their products or services. Indeed, having become an important communication tool, social networks bring together millions of Internet users who share the same interest centers. The published information can reach thousands of users in just a few minutes.
With this fluidity of information and exchanges, a company present on social networks directly contacts its audience. Taking specific actions can create a strong community around its vision, broaden its audience, increase the notoriety of its brand, and establish its e-reputation.
How to set up your communication strategy on social networks?
Communicating on social networks responds to very specific codes. Without a previously defined strategy, you may not see clearly.
Establish your goals
Before jumping into social media, it is important to think about your strategy. You have to ask yourself the right questions.
Why did you decide to be present on social networks? Would you like to increase your reputation? Develop your notoriety? Identify new prospects and customers? Create traffic for your website or blog? Whatever your reasons, each of your actions must have a specific purpose.
The use of social networks requires organization. Without a well-crafted method, you risk wasting both time and money, only to get no results in the end. To help you in developing your goals, you can use the SMART method. Used in marketing, the SMART method is an approach that allows you to easily describe the objectives to be achieved.
SMART responds to:
- Specific: your objectives must be as concrete and as precise as possible. Bet on simplicity and consistency.
- Measurable: Set your goals on specific indicators. Here, the notion of measurement is very important. It is this which makes it possible to determine whether the initiated process provides results or not.
- Accepted / Achievable: The goals you set for yourself must be accessible and accepted. They must also be ambitious. Rather ambitious, to require all the motivation and efforts of the members concerned.
- Realistic: Your goals must be ambitious but also realistic. They should not raise doubts among your employees. The feasibility must be seen at first glance.
- Temporal: Any good strategy must be defined in time. Without a deadline, you risk getting bogged down and making unnecessary investments.
Define your targets
What audience are you targeting? Who do you want to communicate with?
Knowing your target audience is very important for the success of your web marketing strategy. You need to know her habits, the social media she uses, and why.
We are talking more specifically about persona marketing, which consists of drawing a faithful portrait of your ideal customer. By defining precisely your target’s expectations and needs, you will know how to communicate with them.
Opt for quality content
The quality of the publications is very important to attract the interest of Internet users. Bet on content that is rich, varied, and unique. Use photos, tutorials, videos, articles, etc. Offer content that makes you want to be shared.
Also, make sure to post regularly, without doing too much (4 posts per week/media). To help you, use an editorial calendar to plan your posts for the months ahead.
Make SMO
SMO (Social Media Optimization) is the set of actions to boost your visibility on social media. SMO techniques aim to give your brand or company a better positioning on social networks and increase your e-reputation. This equates to posting quality content, engaging videos, posts, and visuals. It is, in a way, the SEO of social networks.
How to choose social networks to communicate?
All social networks have specificities of their own, which are important to take into account. You need to choose the one that best matches your brand and your business identity.
Popular, Facebook is an essential social network. It brings together a strong and very interactive community. All age groups are represented there. With either a personal profile or a professional account, create publications, share photos, videos, images to communicate with your audience. The most important thing is to attract the interest of Internet users so that they share your publications. And for the optimization of your visibility, you can resort to Facebook ads.
Facebook Ads is Facebook’s advertising tool for creating targeted advertising campaigns. The network also offers the Pixel plugin, which is an analysis tool, which is used to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns. In the form of a piece of code, the pixel is installed at the top of your website’s pages. By installing it, you will be able to follow and track your visitors and the actions they perform. It also allows the re-marketing of your visitors.
A micro-blogging social network, Twitter allows its users to share short messages of up to 280 characters. The interactivity is very strong there because the information is shared in real-time.
Just like with Facebook, you can also create ads on Twitter to boost your posts. The hashtag system, which is very popular on this network, allows you to target your advertising more.
Linkedin is a professional social network. Leader on the market, it is ideal for B2B relationships. The exchanges are all professional.
Linkedin also has an advertising system called Linkedin Ads.
Linkedin Ads, compared to others, allows you to do ultra-targeted B to B marketing.
Mobile application, Instagram allows the sharing of photos and videos. Thanks to its filter system, you can highlight your products with very attractive visuals.
Also, check out Instagram ads. Instagram ads are Instagram’s targeted advertising system that allows you to expand your visibility on the network.
Social media and influencer marketing
The influence of marketing is the set of techniques that aim to use force recommendation influencers.
In your web marketing strategy, influencers are expected to recommend your product or service to their audience. Know that influencers are active people who have the power to impact a community’s buying decision. They are followed by thousands of Internet users, who listen to them and trust their opinions and recommendations. They can be either expert in a field, bloggers or celebrities, etc. A recent web marketing technique, influencer marketing, has established itself through its efficiency and performance.
In conclusion, communicating with social media requires mastering a few techniques. To begin with, you need to know how to identify the target. This is the basis of all tracked actions. However, this may not be enough if we do not choose the right social network for the company’s activity. To put it simply, using this technique is a great idea to grow the company and increase revenue.