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Do You Need Social Media Marketing?

By Snap Agency June 12, 2016

I was recently in a round-table meeting where businesses were talking about if they really needed social media.

Ok, let’s be honest. I’m in a meeting like this every day.

The answer is yes. Yes, you do.

Unless you are planning on letting your business die, then it probably doesn’t matter.

Even Google says so. Google search engines understand that not only content, but also people and relationships are the keys to business success. They began this transformation with Social Search back in 2009. 2009, people! If your product, service, business, brand-—you name it—isn’t on social and you’re trying to make money, well, you’re already seven years behind up against your competitors. We have a lot of work to do.

So if you think you only need SEO or paid search to generate traffic to your website, you are dead wrong. What’s the point of creating valuable content if no one is looking at it?! Why not use free platforms to promote that stuff and get people and their friends and their friends’ friends to share it?

Social Media Isn’t Going Anywhere

I often hear, “Social is just a fad.” Oh boy. Have you talked to your son, niece or anyone under the age of 25? Social isn’t going anywhere. Times are changing, generations are changing and marketing is changing every single day, every single minute. People are glued to their phones, apps, computers and devices. And users are going to keep tweeting, Instagramming, sharing, and engaging with other users online more and more.

Social Media Is Inexpensive

Your social media marketing strategy doesn’t have to be expensive. It is simple to set up accounts on all social platforms. The difficult part at times can be the strategy behind the social presence. And the majority of the time, it’s difficult when you’re trying to create the entire strategy alone because you are too close to the subject. You overanalyze everything. Social is all about being social and on the go! There is not time to overanalyze and complicate things. You need a strategy in place and you need to keep moving. The last thing you want to do is set up accounts on various platforms and let them go dormant. If this happens, your clients do their research and end up thinking you’re really dead.

Social Strategy; Why?

So now that I have hopefully convinced you to get on the social train, let’s talk strategy. A carefully monitored social media presence needs a good strategy. There is probably a lot more that goes into a social media strategy than you think, and our team would love to implement this strategy for you. However, today we’re going to keep it high-level and review with you five tips you can implement today!

1. Content Calendar vs. Live Engagement

Depending on your personality and social skills, either create a content calendar or be ready to live engage. If you aren’t glued to your phone, like I am, create a content calendar and schedule your posts out ahead of time. That way you will always have an active presence online whether you are able to post or not. There are a number of tools out there to create your social media content calendar. But Google drive or your calendar does the trick just as good. There are also a number of tools, such as sproutsocial or buffer, to schedule out your posts so that you can setup all of your posts to go out for an entire year or month.

2. Know When to Post

All social tools have free analytics. Use them. Know who your ideal clients are, when your demographics are online and engaged, and what users love to share. And be sure to schedule your posts during that time or be online to generate conversations.

3. Add “Share” Buttons

You need to have “share” buttons on your website. You can have the best content in the world, but if you don’t remind your readers to share how cool you are, they won’t. Adding “share” buttons is free and convenient for your readers. They don’t want to search and figure out how to share it. They want one click. You need to tell them what to do, and that’s what share buttons do. Grab their attention!

4. Have Valuable Content

There is nothing worse than following someone who is “all about them.” No one cares about you and what you’re doing, they care about themselves. So create valuable content that your readers and followers care about. Why should anyone like you? Why should anyone be your friend? Really think about that and the content you are generating. Make it valuable and, most importantly, shareable!

5. Engage!

Engage, connect, interact. Share other people’s content. Show your readers you truly care. Engaging with your followers is one of the easiest ways to grow your audience and it’s FREE. If you do schedule out your posts ahead of time, don’t forget to log on and interact with the ones that love you. It’ll go a long way.

Are you ready to start your social media marketing strategy? Well, I would love to help you. Contact us today—morgan@snapagency.com