How to Build a Social Media Campaign from Scratch
One of the major aspects of having a successful business today is your social media presence and presentation. It’s not enough just to post here and there in order to be heard and noticed on social media – new technologies have taken it pretty far when it comes to Internet marketing. Being messy and incoherent with your content is not acceptable to a pretty tough and demanding audience. You’ve even tried posting frequently and you’re still not getting the results you expected. The good news is: spending a little time building your social media campaign can help you improve results.
Plan and strategize
It’s always good to have an objective perspective on where you stand now and where you’d like to be. Without knowing your goals, social media can work against you pretty quickly. That’s the reason why making a plan is the first thing you should do, before anything else. Use an app or an old-fashioned pen and paper, whatever will make you feel more comfortable, but be prepared to enter reasonable and reachable expectations there.
And so, the plan should include a calculation of time which means you should spend at least an hour a day working on the social media campaign. The other thing to think about is the resources and you should be very realistic about this one. Your skills and people working with you are the main thing here. Depending on that you can produce content like pictures and videos which some social networks are based on, such as YouTube and Instagram, or good writing skills like Twitter.
Determine your goals
Knowing what you want to achieve is very important and any campaign is lost before it started without it. They will help you in determining the weak and strong points of your campaign. Using the S.M.A.R.T. method can help with just that. This method stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound goals and objectives. Using S.M.A.R.T. will provide you with trackability and structure, as well as with means to evaluate your progress and clarify the manner of achieving your goals.
Know your audience
Every product has its buyer, to put it bluntly, it’s no different when it comes to Internet marketing. Research the demographic you want to win over, starting from studies and surveys to define your target audience. What do they find interesting and what will most likely draw them to you are the questions you should ask when researching. Also, pay attention to what your competition is doing to attract the audience and study their bad and good points of the social media campaign. This way you’ll get some hints about what to avoid and what to pursue.
Choose the right social media
Researching the type of social media you want to conquer is closely related to your audience and the content you’re planning to publish. Research shows that 71% of adults use Facebook, 18% Twitter and 17% Instagram, to name a few. Also, the users of these social networks have the highest rates of engagement. Pinterest and LinkedIn users are not that frequent with just 23% and 13% respectively visiting the sites daily. These are just some statistics by the Pew Research Center, but there are several others online at your disposal.
Be careful with the message you are sending about yourself since it will define your brand. Thus its content must be carefully prepared and thought through. Also, learn the etiquette for social media presence and stick to it. For example, the 5:3:2 Rule can be helpful with that since it provides you with a schedule for how to organize your activity and stay focused on your audience and not yourself.
Keep learning and be patient
Your job is not done when you reach your goals. It’s an ongoing process not only to get more audience but also not to lose the one you have won over. Use tools of your social media or download them independently. In this way, you can check the stats for your posts and see how to adjust your campaign. Test some new ideas and see the reaction, play around with the possibilities of the chosen media and use it to the maximum. Sometimes changing your image to adapt to the current demand is necessary to freshen up your brand and the way you’re perceived.
Internet marketing is constantly changing and evolving, and you must be in the loop with all the new theories and strategies out there. The best way to do that is by keeping track of the newest trends through expert courses, blog posts, workshops, podcasts, and personal contacts with social media experts, scouting the competition and research – lots and lots of it. And once you go viral, you have to maintain the reputation you have worked so hard to achieve, and improve it through a thorough analysis of modern social media marketing.
In the end
You have to be tough and have good nerves to endure out there. Social media more and more resembles an overgrown jungle, and that’s why people are hard to get – they have to filter the content they receive – too many messages and not enough time to process them. It’s up to you to find the right way to be heard and respected. It’s not a point of providing something unique anymore, but doing it in your own unique way.
Image: Photospin
Author Bio:
Chloe Smith is a cycling enthusiast, business consultant GWM SEO Sydney and a part-time writer always willing to share titbits of advice. She believes that passion, courage and, above all, knowledge breed success.
