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When they first appeared, social media platforms were viewed as a random whirlwind of people who are communicating without leaving any real trace. Later, businessmen understood that social media is a place full of data, analytics, and trends. However, most of them also wrongfully assumed that social media can be used for free. While this is true for ordinary people, businesses need to up their game and allocate money for accessing the vast pool of potential customers consisted of more than three billion of social media users.
If you are struggling with how much to invest and where here are seven strategies which will definitely pay off.
Train your staff
If you have traveled around the world, you have probably realized how different countries and regions have different rules of behaviors. Sometimes, what is welcomed in one country, it is frowned upon, or even forbidden in another.
It is the same with social media platforms. You cannot oblige by the same rules when marketing your business on Instagram, and when you do so on Facebook. Knowing the demands of each of these platforms is too overwhelming for just one employee, so it would be useful to invest in the training of your staff or in hiring interns.
The training can happen in-house, or on seminars and workshops where they can learn from the best.
Freelancer or a full-time employee?
Hiring professionals to tackle your social media marketing makes a prudent business investment. However, there is always the lingering question of whether you need to hire a full-time employee or a freelancer.
If you are short on cash, you should know that freelancers generally cost less, but provide you with the same quality of service. Still, they are not as loyal to the company as full-time employees, meaning they can leave you as soon as they get a better salary.
There is also an option of hiring a marketing firm and outsource your social media marketing to them.
Boost your infrastructure
Online marketing can be done on a tight budget, but it does require a functional infrastructure. Start by equipping your office with the best possible computers. If you are able to provide the employees who deal with social media marketing with high-end smartphones, that would be great.
Since social media marketing is often a real-time communication (77 percent of Twitter users will appreciate the brand more if they get a response to their tweet), it would be smart to install marketing apps for the employees who manage the social media accounts and yourself, so that you are able to respond to your customers’ comments, questions, and feedback even when you are not in the office.
Create viral moments
Do you remember when the internet lost its mind over a dress back in 2015? Everyone saw the color of the dress differently. It was either white and gold or black and blue. Many brands used this moment to draw attention to their own products.
Now, you can either wait for a moment like this to happen and react to it or create your own viral campaign. We think the latter option is the better one. The trick is to create content with high engagement and time its release for maximum visibility. A creative marketing team should be able to tap into the mood of the audience and come up with a popular viral video, series of images, etc.
Hire content writing experts
Have you ever heard the expression “content is the king”? In this crowded online environment, that couldn’t be truer. However, since there are more than two million blog posts published every day, the competition is too dense to settle for anything but the best content.
That’s why you need to hire a professional content writer (he or she can be a freelancer) to write your blog post and distribute it to social media platforms.
Direct your attention to videos and photographs
The text isn’t the only content that is important. On the contrary, since human attention span is at its lowest these days, videos and photos could be the best way to keep your social media profiles engaging and interesting to your customers.
This means that you will have to have a good camera. Most of the modern-day smartphones are equipped with a decent camera, but it is also important to train your staff in using the camera properly, capturing the right composition and processing the image or video afterward.
Live videos and augmented reality are becoming more and more present as well.
Paid advertisements are still the way to go
Facebook has more than six million advertisers, and last year Instagram hit two million monthly paid advertisers. This happened because businesses realize they need to do more than simply be active on social media platforms.
However, social media advertising contains many potential traps, and it needs to be followed by a market research so that you know how to set up your ad to reach the specific demographic. Setting up a budget is easy, and the amount of money you invest will be translated into visibility.
So the question isn’t how much should you spend, but how to divide your budget and allocate it to all the right places. Hopefully, these seven strategies will help you make the right decisions.
Guest Post: Although web design is Catherine’s forma expertise, productivity, business management and business growth in this digital age are topics Catherine is quite interested in lately. She has been researching and learning for some time now, and she is always happy to share her knowledge and inspire others by writing some quality content.
