To reach an audience of 50 million people, it took for the radio 38 years and 13 for television. Facebook got about 200 million users in less than a year. More than 82% of Internet users have accounts on social networks and use them (at least) for two hours a day.
There is a growing number of users who come to social networks not for communication, but for information, as well as people in business who understand that social media is an effective marketing channel. If you want to promote the project through social networks, then get acquainted with four practical ways of promotion.
Not all social networks are equally useful for different businesses. Twitter is suitable for posting small announcements, short news, or promotions. It will become a kind of microblogging company – the news feed resembles a dialogue. It seems that all the activity here is happening quickly, literally in hot pursuit, which is very popular with modern users.
Instagram has an abundance of photo content. Therefore, it will be useful for photographers, illustrators, designers, companies selling clothes, jewelry – all for whom the visualization of a product or service is essential. But for business communication and significant text publications, this network is not entirely suitable.
Although Facebook, for example, can be called a universal platform. Even the pages of big businesses (logistics companies, engineering, etc.) will look appropriate here. Only such a profile will most likely work not for sales, but the company’s reputation and expertise. On the other hand, for companies engaged in retail trade, it is possible to create an online store and sell directly on the page.
YouTube is an excellent choice for promotion through video content. It’s convenient to post training videos, interviews with opinion leaders or clients, and more. Besides, vlogs (video blogs) are now at the peak of popularity – a variety of useful video chronicles or advice from experts arouse the interest and loyalty of users.
Content is the main factor of promotion
Any SMM specialist will confirm: without quality content, promotion tools are useless. If your brand page is boring, you should not count on audience growth and its loyalty. To find the right topics for publications, you need to know your target audience well: what matters to them, what they are interested in reading, what they want to know, what are their values. The portrait of the client is formed in the brand strategy. However, you can find out the features of potential customers by creating surveys on the page, or by studying subscriber profiles. Be sure to analyze previous posts. This will show you which content is more effective.
It is also essential to pay attention to the format of the posts: video, photo, long read or short note, and so on. When determining, take into account the preferences of your target audience, for example, research results will be of interest to an older audience, and young people more easily perceive visual information and video. To create high-quality content, you can use the help of specialized agencies that provide copywriting services.
Three components of good content:
- Uniqueness
The information you publish must be relevant and fun. Do not copy materials from other resources. An exception is cross-sharing between a company’s blog and its page on a social network.
- Regularity
Articles should be published systematically. Two, three, four, or seven times a week – depends on the specifics of the business and its target audience. So, two or three updates will be enough for people from the business environment, but this is not enough for the beauty community. You must adhere to the selected content strategy, regardless of the number of subscribers.
- Virality
Publications should be lively, evoking an emotional response in the form of a burning desire to tell friends about them. Avoid advertising posts. Also, the generation of content for social networks has several features caused by the specifics of the platforms themselves.
Targeting
Targeting is the creation of an advertising message aimed at a specific part of the audience depending on its interests, place of residence, and other criteria. Targeting increases the effectiveness of advertising.
Some types of targeting:
- Geographic (geo-targeting) – showing ads to residents of a certain region / city / district, etc. For example, you want to promote a beauty salon located in the suburbs of New York. Your targeted ad will be shown to residents of this city.
- Socio-demographic – display of advertising depending on gender, age, marital status, and other social criteria. So, advertising of children’s goods and household goods is recommended to be placed on the pages of married women over 25, and advertising of an art store – on the pages of designers, architects, decorators.
- Contextual – displaying ads following the interests of the user. Membership in groups such as Fashion, Fashion, Shopping, etc. demonstrates the interests of the user. He will be interested in relevant advertising.
- Behavioral – display of advertising depending on specific user actions (travel routes, favorite places, frequent search queries, etc.). Suppose a person is fond of Latin American dances, goes to a salsa club, looks for related videos – he will likely be attracted by an advertisement for a burning tour to Cuba.
Despite its apparent simplicity, targeting is a tool that requires preparatory severe work. First, you need to analyze the target audience of the brand. Secondly, make an announcement.
To attract potential subscribers to your brand, you should:
- use quizzes, infographics, illustrations, viral videos, games and more;
- post a link within the visible area of the text announcement (first or second line);
- embed a call to action in the content;
- add a provocative poll;
- Work with the associative content format and its adaptation to the brand;
- run creative, vibrant, and unique contests.
- If you managed to find the content your audience craves, you could count on a figure of over 600 clicks from one post.
Also, do not forget to analyze the communication of large brands with your subscribers.
Promotion on social networks is convenient because here, you can instantly get feedback through likes, reposts, and comments. This allows you to analyze the work done on time, adjust plans, and create more valuable and useful content with each new post.
For successful work in social networks, a prerequisite is to work with comments and messages (including negative ones). Not a single comment should go unanswered since it is the ability to deal with criticism that can become an additional factor in creating a holistic brand image. It is also not recommended to delete comments – one wrong step can cause a storm of negativity, which spreads at lightning speed on social networks. Even insults should not be answered disrespectfully, remain attentive, and tolerant, and if you make a mistake, admit it. Customers always appreciate the sincerity.
Work in social networks for some companies is already becoming the primary type of promotion, and rightly so. Social networks allow you to communicate with your customers, learn more about them, understand the needs, and create what they need. We advise you not to postpone for later, but already begin to promote your brand in social networks!
Share
Contributors
