How annoying is it when your favourite show suddenly ends and then you’ve got nothing to watch at 9pm on Friday nights anymore?
That’s because you’ve become reliant on turning on the TV, getting comfy and flicking to your channel to watch your show. It’s like a little mini ritual.
The same thing applies to when people use social media. If people follow your brand and they come to expect certain forms of content, like a podcast on Monday mornings or a new TikTok every other day, then it can really alienate your audience when you don’t provide that content.
We’ll go through some facts with you and try to show you the benefits of launching and sticking to a social media marketing campaign.
Getting started with social media marketing
Whether you’ve just started your business or you’re ready for a social media refresh, the first step should be the same: experiment!
This might be a bit stressful at first when you see the whole world wide web in front of you and you feel like an amateur but just try your best to embrace it. There’s a common belief that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at anything, and whether it’s right or wrong, the message is more or less the same. It takes time for you to know what you’re doing.
The first thing for you to consider is what platforms you want to use. This is relatively straightforward because you’ll want to use the platforms that are favoured by your target audience. Check out our blog on successful social media campaigns if you want more information on ways to find your target audience.
When you know what platforms are right for you, you’ve then got to work out what type of content you want to produce. You’ve got a lot of options to go with. Long form video pieces like YouTube videos, a collection of images like Instagram gallery posts, or examples of case studies or in-depth research through a Twitter thread.
By doing this you’ll hopefully start to see your audience interact with some of your content. But what if they interact with some types of content more than others? Amazing! Now you know what to do more of and what needs reworking before you move forward.
Keep at it!
Rinse and repeat! Once you’ve got a winning formula, you’ll start to see the advantages of having an online presence.
Did you know? 91% of people who engage with brands on social media visit their website or app and a staggering 89% of people will then buy from the brand, while 85% of people recommend the brand to a friend or a family member.
If you start to see your engagement metrics drop off then you can intervene by trying new content. It’s very much a process of trial and error and is incredibly personal to every different brand.
An important thing to remember with brand consistency when considering trying new content is to remain recognisable. If you’re releasing new types of images (unless it’s a major branding overhaul) then make sure that they still use your own colours, fonts and logos so that your followers aren’t confused as to who’s posting.
Nobody likes spam content
One of the best things you can do when polishing your business’ social media is set up a content schedule. By laying out all your posts in front of you either weeks or months in advance you can make sure that the posts are on-brand and relevant to your business’ goals, and also that you’re posting with an appropriate frequency.
Take a look at the reasons why people most commonly unfollow brands on social media:
- Poor customer service – 49%
- Irrelevant content – 45%
- Too many ads – 45%
- Brand posts too much – 24%
Use these statistics as a guide to develop your own content schedule. Also, remember that content scheduling goes down to the minutia of post frequency. What day of the week and what time of the day you post will have an effect on how many of your followers engage with your posts. Work this out using your audience profile to decipher when they will likely be browsing social media, but don’t be afraid to do some trial and error too!
Social media marketing agency in the UK
If you think this all sounds a bit too much for you to manage then consider seeking the service of a paid social agency to do all of this for you.
Good social media agencies will be able to have a sit down and a natter with you and then come away with everything they need to know about your brand or your business!
They also have expert knowledge on what works and what doesn’t through experience and working out what hits and what misses depending on platform and content type.
Reach out to us at Blaze Media and our social media masters can get started on whipping up a personalised content plan for you!