Image courtesy of Professor JRuiz’s photostream
One of the biggest mistakes that marketers make online is not establishing a strategy for their social media. Without strategy, social media can become a massive time suck. Unfortunately, all too often this is exactly what happens. The first step to take to remedy this is to determine what your goals out, so you can plot the appropriate course.
So what are you looking to get out of your social media marketing? More business, of course, but this can come in many forms. Great customer service demonstrated via social can generate business, outstanding branding may lead to business, but perhaps the most traceable and direct path to sales via social is through lead generation.
Cross-Posting to Breed Familiarity
One tactic in lead generation is to move your audience from one specific platform to another. So getting your Facebook audience to follow you on Twitter is a strong way to build up familiarity, since now this user will see more of you and in a different setting. That familiarity can lead to significant trust, with time and repetition, since good social media content allows users to feel more in touch with other users and brands.
A simple way of doing this is by featuring exclusive content pieces on one channel and simply share a message with your audience on the other platform, letting them know that there’s something unique available over at the other network. Similarly, sharing a multiple part series of content, leaving the final piece available only on your Facebook Page for those who like the page. Notify your Twitter followers of the last piece and send them to the Facebook Page.
Incentivizing for Leads
While the steps to take are very straightforward and direct, there is more nuance to the process. Giving your audience an incentive is still the best way to get them to commit an intended action. This works well for email marketing, where a video, download, piece of software or a white paper is available for free, if the users fill out a form that collects their name and email address.
Adding Email Marketing Into the Mix
And this process is where you can introduce email into the mix of platforms. Email marketing is still remarkable effective for sales. Email sells much better and more effectively than social media, due to the fact that everyone has done business via email, whereas that is still a rather novel concept when talking about social.
And so the big takeaway is using your messages all in conjunction with one another… and don’t forget about email. Always be looking to generate more leads, in both forms of social followers as well as email subscribers. Give away remarkable content and not only will your audience be more included to dish out their email addresses, but it positions your brand and sets the expectations moving forward.
Need help developing a social media marketing strategy for your business? Download Proforma’s Social Media Whitepaper to learn the best practices that we’ve learned in growing our message reach to over 27 million users in less than 18 months.