How to Promote Your Brand on Social Networks
Social networks have a huge army of loyal users, so the potential efficiency of advertising there are indisputably high. According to statistics, there are about 1.5 billion users on Facebook, 1 billion – on WhatsApp, and 400 million – on Instagram. Very and very tempting numbers, huh?
The main SMM goals are as follows:
- To increase traffic to the website.
- To keep loyal customers.
- To make customers buy products/order services of the company.
Well, social media marketing is already quite competitive, so you have to go far beyond creating a community and posting information about your brand. There are plenty of tips and trick on how to grow on this or that social platform, but the key is the right mindset and correct sequence of actions.
In the paper, I’m going to share the fundamentals, which are applicable to a social campaign of almost any type.
1 . Make Sure You Have a Clear Plan before Starting the Campaign
At first, you have to define your goals. Please don’t create pages and communities just because. Whether it’s Facebook or a specific social platform for writers like those here, make sure it’s relevant to your business.
However, experience has shown that such an irresponsible approach is quite common. Today, almost every website owner beats his chest, assuring the need to increase the clients’ loyalty and readiness to allocate time and resources for SMM.
In practice, enthusiasm disappears when it turns out that nobody waits for you on social networks. You can’t get loyalty at the moment, so make sure your business does need social media.
- First and foremost, it is important to understand that social networks are not instruments for sales or broadcasting the company’s news but platforms for communication!
Listen to customers, respond to their needs, and communicate with them in their language. That’s the only way to increase loyalty along with sales.
Before creating a community on the social platform, answer the following questions:
- Do you have enough interesting topics to communicate with your audience?
- What advertising methods are at your disposal?
- Will you be able to quickly respond to requests and to resist possible negativity?
- Are you ready to acknowledge and learn from your mistakes, changing your business for the better?
2. Choose the Correct Social Platform
It is necessary to clearly understand who your target audience is, and what social networks it uses. It is rather strange for a cheap barbecue to sell foie gras and French champagne for $ 200 per bottle, isn’t it? The same applies to social networking.
Another side of the coin is a possible ignoring of the potentially important platforms. Well, if you haven’t enough time or money to cover all meaningful platforms, you have to choose between them. But that doesn’t mean you should focus on a single one.
3. Make Sure the Budget is Enough to Achieve Your Goals
There is safety in numbers. No matter how talented your SMM specialist is, you can’t go far without a budget for promotion. Do not believe promises to promote your social page for $ 100. For such a price, you’ll get just “dead souls,” who will never become real buyers. A quality promotion is much more expensive.
4. Don’t Expect Immediate high ROI
Of course, growth in sales is the ultimate task of any brand. Social networks do affect sales, but it doesn’t mean that within a week after the launch of the community on Facebook, you’ll get thousand of clients willing to buy your products through thick and thin.
The increase in sales is possible only after a long and painstaking work on brand reputation and customer loyalty. Loyal customers often make repeat purchases and recommend the brand to friends, which lead to the sales increase.
However, to turn a subscriber into a loyal customer, you need time, regardless of how strong the brand is. Even Apple waits for some time until its new products gain a reputation on the market. In the end, why customers should believe you just because you have appeared?
5. Avoid Dull Content and Engage in Dialogue with Subscribers
Social networks are not platforms for press releases. Luckily, most of the companies have already learned the lesson and stopped stuffing subscribers with official information. However, there are still few brands able to cause positive emotions and create positive associations in customers’ minds.
Based on the above, the main advice is to focus on the audience. A lot of brands are talking too much about themselves while providing no feedback. At the same time, very few marketers understand that figuratively speaking, it’s quite boring to build a dialogue around a microwave or a yogurt – much better would be to create a culinary community.
An SMM professional has to be professional and savvy, as well as able to conduct an informal dialogue in a conflict-free and friendly manner.
The last advice I want to give you is the absurdness of using SMM to deal with competitors. You can never create a high reputation by discrediting the competitors, so why waste time and money on something that won’t lead you to the desired goal?
Lucy Adams works on BuzzEssay.comas an essay writer. Also, she’s a blogger and a market researcher with vast experience in many areas. Lucy is a generalist, so she’s ok with dealing with almost any topic. Feel free to send your blog ideas and you’ll get a high-quality paper very soon. Lucy’s email: lucyadams@buzzessay.com.
