|
If you’ve ever wondered how to advertise on social media, you’ve come to the right place! With so many platforms out there, how do you know the types of social media advertising that your company needs and how to utilize them properly? There are plenty of options out there and on this page, we’ll talk about them all. To learn more, keep reading, but if you’d like to speak with a marketing firm, feel free to give Swift Digital Marketing Agency a ring at (216) 339-6041! Bonus Read: How to do a social media analysis to improve social success Types of Social Media Advertising. Worldwide, there are 2.82 billion social media users. It’s no secret that social networking is one of the most popular online activities — also making it one of the best places for businesses to advertise their products and services. But what type of social media advertising will fit your company best? We’ll talk about that in the next section — but for now, let’s talk about the types of social media advertising at your disposal. Facebook advertising You can find everyone from your high school crush to your long-lost cousins on Facebook, but did you know that Facebook is also a great advertising platform? Facebook comes with a proprietary ad platform that allows you to create ads in a variety of formats that speak to and engage your target audience. You can target your ideal customer by demographic, previous online activity, and even interests — making Facebook one of the best places to advertise. Facebook’s ad platform allows you to set a daily, monthly, or lifetime budget that you’ll never exceed — your cap is the most money you’ll spend on ads. From there, Facebook decides how to delegate your budget properly to get the most ad clicks. Facebook ad formats include:
Instagram Advertising Instagram is an image-heavy social media platform that also doubles as a great ad platform. Facebook owns Instagram, so the ad process is extremely similar. You can choose from a variety of ad formats that help you reach your target customer, and target them based on demographics, location, interests, and online behavior. Instagram ad formats include:
Snapchat advertising Snapchat is a unique social media platform that allows you to post content that expires quickly. For example, if you send an individual a Snapchat, users decide exactly how long the recipient can look at a specific snap, and once it’s gone, it’s gone for good. (Unless you take a screenshot, that is.) Snapchat stories, on the other hand, expire after 24 hours and users can view and access them as much as they want during that timeframe. Snapchat advertising allows you to set any budget cap, and with their Ads Manager, you’ll never overspend. Snapchat ad formats include:
Twitter advertising Advertising on Twitter is a great way to get more website traffic, boost brand awareness, and increase leads. You’ll target users with your ads based on keywords, demographics, interests, and more — making it one of the easiest platforms to reach your ideal customer. There are a wide variety of ad formats on Twitter, and when we say wide variety, we mean wide variety. Here are a few Twitter ad formats:
LinkedIn advertising LinkedIn is a great professional network, but it’s also a great place to reach future customers. You can promote partnerships and events while increasing awareness for your brand when you advertise on LinkedIn. You’ll also have a huge professional user base that you can target by job title, industry, gender, age, and degree — to name a few. As you might have guessed, LinkedIn, like other platforms, also offers a wide range of ad formats to help you engage the right audience. LinkedIn ad formats include:
Choosing your platforms How do you know what platforms will work best for your business? There are a few aspects you can determine upfront to help you make some guesses as to which platforms will work best. However, it’s best to test your ads on a variety of platforms to see which one delivers the best results. Here’s a basic guide to help you decide the best social media advertising platforms for your business: Advertise on Facebook if:
Advertise on Instagram if:
Advertise on Snapchat if:
Advertise on Twitter if:
Advertise on LinkedIn if:
How to advertise on Social Media Now we get to the biggest topic of all — how to advertise on social media. We’ve broken down the steps it takes to create the best social media advertising strategy below. Step one: Choose your platforms We’ve outlined above a few reasons why you should choose each platform. Keep in mind that you’ll be most successful with social media marketing if you use more than one platform for your advertising strategy. The more audiences you can get your ad in front of, the better. Start your social media advertising strategy by nailing down what platforms you want to advertise. Step two: Create an audience personaIt’s time to get creative. The second step is to create an audience persona for your ideal customer. This persona will help you determine exactly what qualities you want to target and will help you decide which social media advertising platforms work for you. For example, if you want to advertise a huge event that you have coming up that caters to senior college students, LinkedIn would be a fantastic place to advertise — simply because of the marketing persona that you created. Similarly, if your ideal customer is a millennial that lives on their own and has a job, Snapchat would be a great place for you to advertise. Your target persona should include things like:
Step three: Decide on your ad budget. Another important step in your social media advertising journey is to decide on your ad budget. This step is crucial because skipping it can cause you to spiral out of control in the finance department. Ads can suck up a lot of spend if you allow them to, which is why it’s so important to choose a budget and stick to it. You should start by determining an overall ad budget — you’ll divide this amount among all your platforms after you decide which are best for you. Setting this overreaching ad budget will help you stay on track and give you a spending cap to keep in mind. Step four: Determine your goals What do you want to accomplish with your social media ads? Are you looking to drive more traffic to your website, sell more products, or improve brand awareness? Maybe you want to do all three! Whatever the case may be, determining your ad goals upfront will give you something to work toward. If you’re not accomplishing those goals with the ad strategy you start with, you’ll know its time to change up your strategy. Step five: Decide if you’d like to hire a social media marketing companyIf you run your own business, taking over your ad strategy might be more than your plate can handle. In that case, many business owners turn to social media marketing agencies to help them design, craft, and launch their social media ads. Not only that but when you work with an agency you get the added benefit of advertising advice based on years of experience. Time To Level Up Your Sales Our long list of services help you make waves in your industry and increase metrics that matter most - like sales. In the past 5 years, we've managed over 9 million transactions across our client base. Get A Proposal Swift Digital Marketing Agency can help teach you how to advertise on social media. If you’re looking for an in-house team of social media advertising experts who are experienced with all types of social media advertising, we are is here for you. But most of all, we’re known for the relationships that we forge with our clients. We’re not looking to take over your company’s social media endeavors, we’re looking to become an extension of your marketing team. We’ll get to know your business and care for its success like it’s our own — because it is. If you’re interested in learning how to advertise on social media from the experts, Swift is here to help. Contact us online for a free quote or give us a call at 216-339-6041 to learn more! Join our mission to provide industry-leading digital marketing services to businesses around the globe - all while building your personal knowledge and growing as an individual.
0 Comments
Since the beginning of the Internet, website owners have looked for ways to reach the top of search engine rankings. At the start, this involved adding a bunch of keywords to their copy, whether they were relevant to their content or not. This strategy worked when search engines were relatively unsophisticated and there weren’t that many sites competing for attention, but now that search engines like Google have highly advanced algorithms that can make distinctions between billions of websites, good search engine optimization, or SEO, is extremely important. Today, good SEO not only means using the right keywords in the right places, but also creating great content, a strong link profile, and a solid user experience. It requires a significant amount of work and know-how if it’s going to be successful. So why do website owners do it? Why are they so concerned with where their site ranks on a search engine? And what do they expect to get out of it? This page explains what is SEO used for and why it is a necessity for businesses trying to create a presence online. It also offers some steps to help you get started with your SEO strategy. If you'd like to speak with an SEO specialist, you can reach us at (216) 339-6041. What is SEO? Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the combination of all of the strategies you can use to help your site’s chances of appearing in search engine results. For example, if you sell used cars in Atlanta, you want to be sure that users who type “used cars in Atlanta” into a search engine like Google are shown your site as a result. SEO is the best way to make that happen. Common marketing problems that can be fixed with SEO There are many common marketing problems that are easily solved with an SEO campaign. They include: Unqualified leadsIf your site has lots of visitors but an extremely low conversion rate, it is likely because you have a lot of unqualified leads. These are site visitors who were looking for something entirely different from what you offer, or stumbled upon your site by accident. By doing SEO, you can increase the amount of qualified leads your site gets. This means attracting searchers who are interested in purchasing from or working with you, and have a much greater chance of becoming customers. Low sales The goal of most marketing efforts is ultimately to attract new customers or clients and make sales. Whether you use traditional or online methods, the ideal end result is increased revenue. By attracting qualified traffic, you can boost your business’s sales. Leads generated by search have a close rate of nearly 15 percent, which is much higher than most traditional marketing methods. High marketing costs Every business owner wants a cost-effective way to attract visitors and customers. For many startups and entrepreneurs, these costs are prohibitive. SEO enables these business owners to compete with larger marketing budgets and generate enough leads and sales to stay in business and even thrive. What is SEO used for? In the most basic sense, SEO is used to attract search engine users who search for keywords related to your website. By attracting these users, you can get more qualified leads and make more sales, with relatively low marketing costs. But aside from using keywords directly related to your site, what else can SEO be used for? There are many different answers, but these are a few of the more common: Geo-targeting If your business has physical locations and your goal is to have consumers come to them (as opposed to ecommerce sites who can sell to customers all over the world), geo-targeting can be extremely useful. By including keywords related to your location, you can attract search engine users in your area. For example, if you own a restaurant in Cleveland, including the phrase “restaurant in Cleveland” on your site can increase the chances that someone nearby who uses a search engine to find somewhere to eat will find your site. Niche marketingYou may think that giant companies who sell a wide variety of products have an advantage with SEO because many users search for broad keywords. But while they may have a better chance of simply ranking, they also have a higher likelihood of attracting unqualified leads. Time To Level Up Your Sales Our long list of services help you make waves in your industry and increase metrics that matter most - like sales. In the past 5 years, we've managed over 9 million transactions across our client base. Get A Proposal. For example, let’s say you have a small business that sells women’s athletic clothing. While bigger companies may outrank you for keywords like “women’s clothing,” or “athletic clothing,” these keywords could attract visitors who aren’t necessarily interested in your products, like women who are interested in regular clothing, or men who are interested in athletic clothing. With SEO, you can be as specific as you want when selecting and using keywords. This means that you can market to a specific niche, which will ultimately bring in more qualified leads. Brand building Established brands have no trouble attracting site visitors and making sales, because most consumers already know who they are and what they sell. SEO can help you build that kind of brand awareness, which will ultimately boost your site’s traffic and sales. For example, if your business sells aquarium supplies, you’d want to implement SEO that allows you to rank well for specific terms that people looking for aquarium supplies search for, like “aquarium filters,” or “aquarium décor.” People who frequently search for these terms will see your company’s name, and over time, will start associating your brand with aquarium supplies. This means that in the future, when they need to buy something aquarium-related, they might search for your brand and go directly to your site. How can you get started with SEO? Now that you know what SEO is used for, how can you use it for your company’s site? Here are a few steps you can take to get started: Define a goal Before starting SEO, it’s important to know exactly what you hope to accomplish. And although “higher rankings” may be the obvious choice, you should be as specific as possible. Do you want to rank for local terms? What are they? Do you want to attract more qualified leads? How will you define what “qualified” means? Do you want to use SEO to meet financial goals? What are they? Setting specific goals will help you assess your strategy’s success later. Choose your keywords Before doing SEO, you need to know what keywords to use on your site. Which terms are your target audiences using to search for websites like yours? Which ones will help differentiate your site from similar sites? What terms are people using now? The answers will change over time, but you need some keywords to get started. Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner will help you determine which words and phrases users are searching for, as well as how difficult they are to rank for. Create a measurement System You might think your strategy will work, but you won’t know for sure without a way to measure it. There are many tools available to you, both free and paid, so choose one before starting your SEO efforts. This will help you assess your strategy and revise it to be even more successful. Once you’ve chosen a tool, choose a few key performance indicators, or KPIs, to monitor. These should relate directly to your goals, and will give you a good idea of whether or not you are accomplishing them. Assemble an experienced team SEO is relatively straight forward to implement, but requires a substantial amount of monitoring and maintenance. If your business is small, one or two people with a solid understanding of SEO should suffice. If no one at your company is experienced with SEO, you may want to consider getting outside help. Although this may mean an additional marketing expense, an experienced team means better results. Do you need and SEO campaign? When it comes down to it, SEO is used to achieve higher search engine rankings, more traffic, and increased sales. A successful strategy takes careful planning and a dedicated time investment, but can generate huge results for your company. If you need assistance creating or implementing an SEO strategy, or you want to improve your current SEO strategy, feel free to contact us. Our experienced team is more than happy to help you start using your site to its full potential. Call Swift Digital Marketing Agency at (216)-339-6041 today! Media Matter for Business? Short Guide to Long-Term Social Impact Here’s the skinny — approximately 3.5 billion people use social networks, and that figure continues to climb. If you own a business, no matter your industry, social media is one of the best ways to connect with your audience. So why does social media matter for business? In short, it helps you do one of the most important things in a business and client relationship — connect. On this page, we’ll take a deep dive into the following topics:
If you already understand the huge positive impact social media can have on your business, and you’re ready to implement your own campaign, feel free to give Swift Digital Marketing a call at (216) 339-6041. Otherwise, keep reading to learn some fantastic facts about why social media matters to every business. Why does social media matter for business? Let’s jump right in! Why use social media for business? This is a common question — especially for new businesses, businesses that are new to marketing, or businesses that haven’t yet adopted social media marketing. To keep it simple, there are a few main reasons why social media matters to all businesses: Social media matters to business because: Billions of people use it Like so many mothers ask, “If your friend jumps off a bridge, would you?” Of course, the question is asked to prove the point that just because one person does something doesn’t mean that you also have to. However, with social media marketing, you’ll want to follow your friend on this one. With approximately 3.5 billion people using social networks as a form of entertainment and communication, it’s become commonplace to also find businesses on social media platforms. In fact, many people look for a brand’s social media platforms to learn more about them and how they interact with clients. Since most social platforms offer some sort of visual, visitors also look to a brand’s social profile to see images of things like their facility, their products, and even how others use their products. Social media matters to business because: Your competitors use it. Wondering “Why use social media for business?” One of the most important reasons is to stay level with competitors. If you want to stay on par with your competitors, it’s crucial that you use social media for your business. If your competitors aren’t on social media but you are, it will put you one step ahead. On the other hand, if they are on social media, it will ensure that you’re just as visible to potential customers. If you aren’t present on social media, you’ll miss out on the key benefits of social media for businesses that your competitors capitalize on. For example, some benefits of social media for business include:
At the end of the day, you don’t want your competitors to have a leg up, so it’s vital that your business is present on social media. Social media matters to business because: It lets you connect on a deeper level Social media removes the veil between you and your customers. In comparison to your website where users might have to fill out a contact form to get in touch with you, social media allows them to connect with you in the comments of a post, or via a platform’s built-in message platform. This means that customers automatically feel closer to you as a business since it provides an easy way to get in touch. Social media matters to business because: It supplements your website Like humans, your website needs supplements to stay healthy. Social media is one of those supplements for your website. Social platforms help keep your website healthy by providing a steady stream of new traffic from links that you include in your posts. For example, sharing your website’s blog posts on social media is a great example of omni channel marketing since it involves two pieces of your online real estate — your social profiles and your website. This increase in traffic means that your website gets more visitors, more leads, and more sales over time — if you use social media correctly. What are the benefits of social media for business? One of the most-asked questions from business owners is “What are the benefits of social media for my business?” After all, social media marketing takes a strong strategy, planning, and dedication to see results — so businesses often want to know what’s in it for them. Read on to learn about some of the benefits of using social media for your business. 1. It lets you easily monitor resultsIf you’ve ever heard that your marketing efforts are useless unless you analyze them, you’ve heard correctly. Unless you monitor and analyze your current social media marketing strategy, you won’t have any intel into what’s working and what’s not. To experience the most success with social media for business, it’s crucial that you use the built-in analytics platforms that come with most social platforms to look at key metrics. Facebook’s baked-in analytics platform called Facebook Insights, for example, offers i nsights into metrics like page views, post reach, and page followers. On the other hand, LinkedIn’s analytics platform offers metrics concerning visitors, updates, and followers. Social media marketing is a strategy that you can easily analyze and track success — making it ideal for businesses looking to drive real results. 2. It provides advertising options Social media platforms don’t just allow you to post your content, they also allow you to create ads. You can use social media ads to sell more products, increase website traffic, and increase brand recognition and loyalty. Most ad options are baked into social platforms, and an agency like Swift can help you create compelling ads that target your most qualified customers. 3. It helps you increase brand awareness. The more users see your brand, the more you can increase awareness. If you’ve already adopted a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, you’re likely already showing up higher in search results. Fantastic search rankings in tandem with a social media presence and social ads can help you increase brand awareness so that more users remember your business. This also increases the chances that they’ll turn to you when they need you products or services. 4. It’s a traffic driver As we mentioned before, you can link to website content from your social media posts. But that’s not the only way social media works to drive traffic to your site. You’ll also be able to increase your website traffic with social media ads that link to enticing landing pages. When you create a social media ad and a user is interested in the product shown, they’ll click to view your custom landing page. This landing page is housed on your website and includes things like:
Let’s not forget that since social media also helps to increase brand awareness, having a profile can increase web traffic simply by keeping your business top-of-mind. When you have a social profile and stay top of mind with users, they’ll be more likely to navigate directly to your site later. Many people who are just starting out with social media marketing mistakenly believe that their experience with their own personal accounts is all they need to start using various platforms to further their business’s goals. Unfortunately, that’s not the case at all. Much like any other aspect of your marketing strategy, you need to know how to create a social media marketing plan. Without it, your chances of reaching potential customers in a consistent, interesting way are slim, and it may end up being a waste of your time. If you want to make the most of your time spent on social media, you need a comprehensive plan. Keep reading to find out why, as well as step-by-step instructions for creating an effective strategy for your business. Organic or paid social media marketing? See what the experts say. What is a social media marketing plan? A social media marketing plan is exactly what it sounds like – a detailed plan for how you intend to use each of your social profiles to further your company’s goals. Every post, tweet, status, and photo should ultimately be a part of this strategy, and it should aim to deliver a cohesive message across all platforms. The most difficult part of creating a social plan is coming up with specific goals for each platform. While you should keep your tone and style consistent across all of them, each one requires content in different lengths and mediums, and as a result, different forms of measurement and analytics. Because of this, a one-size-fits-all plan simply won’t work. If that sounds way too confusing, don’t worry. The following seven steps will help you create a comprehensive, effective strategy for your social media marketing efforts: Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these seven steps. 1. Examine your social profiles as they areIf your business has no social presence whatsoever, you can skip this step. But if you have any social accounts at all, examining what you’re already doing can help you identify where there is room for improvement. For each platform, take a look at how many times you post per day or week, and what kinds of content you post. Then, look at which posts received the most engagement. For example, do you get more likes or favorites on photos, or on business-related content? If you’ve included links in your posts, which ones had the highest clickthrough? These questions will help you identify what kinds of posts your followers like. When combing through your profiles, you should also take note of the tone you use in your copy. Does it sound serious and professional, or is it more friendly and casual? If multiple people have made posts (or you’ve just used a few different styles yourself), this can also give you an indicator of what your followers respond well to. 2. Scope out the competition Once you have a good idea of how your business is doing on social, it’s time to see how you stack up against the competition. You probably already know who your main industry competitors are, so take a look at their social profiles and see how well they’re doing. If you don’t know where to start, take a look at the “Pages to Watch” section of Facebook Insights, and choose a few of the businesses they suggest. How often are they posting, and what kind of content? Which posts do their followers engage with the most? This will help you understand what your followers (and potential followers) expect from you, and it may even give you some ideas for your own social content. 3. Determine your objectives Arguably the most important part of creating any plan is determining what exactly it is that you hope to accomplish. What do want to achieve with your social media presence? And where does social media fit with your marketing goals as a whole? Social media can serve a wide variety of purposes, but here are a few common objectives you may choose to pursue:
There are many possibilities, and these only scrape the surface of what you can do with social media, but I recommend that you stick to one or two per platform. Connecting with an audience is much easier if all of your posts are intended for the same group of people. 4. Choose the platforms that suit your objectives. For example, if you want to use social media for recruiting purposes, you should definitely be on LinkedIn. But if you want to focus solely on building customer relationships and showing your company’s personality, you could safely stick to Facebook and Twitter. Of course, this decision also depends heavily on your target audience. Not all demographics use the same social platforms, and you may have to do some research to determine where yours spends time online. And if teenagers are a part of your intended audience. 5. Set specific social media marketing goals Part of learning how to write a social media marketing plan is learning to set solid goals. Once you have objectives, you need to create a specific plan for how you intend to meet them. These goals will depend on what exactly you’re trying to accomplish, as well as how much time you’re willing to spend on building your social presence. Your first set of goals should be content goals. How often will you post? What types of content will you share, and in what amounts? What tone and style will you use, and will it be the same across all platforms? From there, you may want to create a calendar or set reminders for yourself. These goals are entirely up to you (or your social team) to meet, so it is 100% possible to meet them even in your first month. The next set of goals, however, depends on your followers. If you’re trying to attract new followers, how many? If you’re trying to build engagement, how many likes or comments do you want per post? These goals will be a bit more difficult to estimate, but your current social platforms, as well as those of your competitors, should give an idea of what to expect. The content calendar approach to goals A great way of handling this is to structure your social media marketing goals as an official, team-wide content calendar. Content calendars provide you with a top-down view of all monthly goals and progress, and ensure there’s no intra-team confusion or overlap. If you’ve had trouble sticking to deadlines in the past, or find yourself failing to post as frequently as you’d like, maintaining a content calendar is a great idea. When you want to perform a month-end analysis of your goals (where you succeeded, where you failed, etc.), all you have to do is look at your content calendar. It simplifies the entire process by keeping all important information in a centralized place. If you’re interested in going the content calendar route, the complexity of it is up to you. You could have a bare-bones calendar that simply marks what dates your social content will be published. Or, you could create a more complex calendar that also tracks things like re-post frequency, engagement levels on different days, and so on. 6. Define which metrics you’ll use to measure After you’ve set goals, it’s time to figure out how you’ll measure your success. For your content and follower count goals, this could be as simple as using tools like Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics. For other goals, you may need to dig a little deeper. If you’re attempting to increase site conversions (like ecommerce purchases or contact form submissions), you’ll need to set up a goal in an analytics tool like Google Analytics. 7. Measure and revise your social media marketing plan Once you’ve spent a month or two with your plan, it’s time to analyze your success. This is what determines whether or not your strategy is working, and whether or not it’s time to head back to the drawing board. Of course, you need to be honest with yourself here. If you haven’t actually stuck to your plan, analyzing your results probably won’t tell you much. But if you’ve followed it reasonably closely (give or take a tweet), it’s time to take a look at how your results stack up with your goals. If you took the time to define your metrics clearly and set up the correct analytics tools, this should be a breeze. And if you’re happy with your results, then you’re well on your way to social success. If you aren’t so happy, however, you’ll need to revise your plan. If you realize that your goals were too ambitious, this may be as simple as setting more realistic goals with the intention of eventually scaling up. But if you think that your goals were reasonable, and your methods were the issue, you may find it helpful to zero in on metrics of your individual posts. Which ones did users engage with? Which ones did they ignore? Engagement is one of the most telling metrics on every social platform and should give you an indicator of what your followers respond well to. Of course, if you’re completely at a loss, outsourcing is always an option. And while some marketing agencies may only work with clients who allow them full control over all aspects of their strategies, you can also opt to find an agency that works specifically with helping clients build online communities through social media. Time to get started If you haven’t created a social media marketing plan yet (or know that your current one needs work), it’s time to get started. And if you have any questions about coming up with a strategy give Swift Digital Marketing a call at (216) 339-6041 #SwiftDigital Social media has the potential to be a powerful marketing tool for your business. You can use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram to connect with your target audience and encourage them to become customers.
It isn't enough to just create profiles, though — social media requires strategy and maintenance to be effective. These platforms can be valuable for earning and converting leads, but only if you’re willing to invest the time it takes to create a strong social media presence. A great way to make the most of your social media profiles is using social media optimization, or SMO. A strategic approach will help you more effectively develop your profiles and interact with your followers. Call Swift Digital Marketing Agency at (216) 339-6041 to speak with a strategist about social media optimization services from Swift, or keep reading to learn how you can start using it for your business today. Social media optimization: What is it? Social media optimization (SMO) — a relatively new term — harnesses social media networks to grow a business’s online presence and help them achieve their goals. A digital marketing strategy, social media optimization is used to:
When you utilize SEO, you focus on optimizing your site to reach as many searchers in your target audience as possible. This is similar to SMO. With SMO, your focus is on improving your social profiles in order to reach more users in your target audience on each platform. SEO and SMO are great to use in conjunction with one another. They perform similar functions for different areas of your digital marketing strategy. You can make the most of your digital marketing plan by using both. SMO is a great method for growing your digital presence through social media. You can build a strong social media plan to connect with your target audience and drive more conversions. You can also increase brand recognition, generate leads for your business, and more effectively connect with your audience. You can develop a stronger social media presence by utilizing SMO. 7 social optimization tips for businessesIf you are ready to start optimizing your social profiles, there are numerous tips that will help you do so effectively. To get started, follow these social media optimization steps:
1. Create a plan When you are creating any marketing campaign, you want to create a plan with defined goals. It is important that your SMO strategy has clearly-defined goals that you can structure your campaigns around. These goals should be specific and measurable. Measuring success is difficult — if not impossible — with vague goals, so have metrics in mind when you create them. Your goals should all be based on metrics you can easily track. Then, based on the results, you can measure your success and adjust accordingly. A set plan will help you make the most of your SMO strategy. 2. Build out your social media profiles One of the biggest mistakes that companies make is not making the most of the available space on their social profiles. Many companies rush through this process to get their pages launched and leave certain forms blank. And while it takes time to fill out every possible piece of information, doing so is worth your time. If users find your business on social media for the first time and seek out important information, it should all be available on that platform. Your social profiles on each platform are the foundation of your SMO strategy. You need to have strong profiles in order to see results. Start by adding all of the necessary photos, like profile photos and possibly a cover photo, depending on the platform. These are the first things people see when they come on to your page and they should quickly grab visitors’ attention. Your profile photo should be your logo. This will help people associate your pages with your business and is an easy to build your brand recognition with your followers. The second step is to completely fill out your profile information. On Facebook, you can post details like your address, hours, contact information, and services. On Twitter or Instagram, on the other hand, you have a more limited amount of space. Include as much information as you can on each platform. The more information you include on your profiles, the more helpful they’ll be to your followers. This is a great way to improve your SMO strategy. 3. Conduct keyword research If you already use SEO for your business, you’re likely familiar with the concept of keyword research. You have to know what keywords your target audience searches in order to decide which ones you should include on your site. SMO follows a similar process. When you are conducting keyword research for SMO, you want to focus on phrases and topics that your target audience likes. You’ll want to research any topics of interest that grab their attention and get them interested. Keyword research is a little different for SMO. You need to focus on keywords that are trending on social media and not necessarily topics people are searching on the web. One way to figure out popular keywords on social media is through Twitter’s keyword report. This feature enables you to track keywords that you think your audience would use. You can add them to this report and track the volume of the keyword over time. This gives you a good idea of which keywords have a high volume of interest. You can use these keywords on your social media pages and create content that includes them. Your research can also include hashtags. Hashtags are a popular way to organize and search for information on platforms like Instagram, and being aware of the ones your target audience uses can help you effectively incorporate them into your strategy. Then, when users search those hashtags, they’ll be able to find your content. When you know what interests your audience, you can tailor your content around those interests. You’ll want to make sure that everything is relevant to your brand, but you can take some of these trending topics and put your own spin on them. This is a great way to draw people to your accounts. 4. Post original content After you’ve done keyword research to determine what kinds of content your audience searches on social media, you’ll need to create content around them. There are two main types of content you can post on your social profiles: Original content, and links to content on other sites. Original content is a great way to get people interested in your business. You can drive users to other parts of your online presence, like your website or blog. This is a great opportunity to drive traffic to places where they’re more likely to convert. Another type of content you can share on your profiles is content from other sites. If you find articles that are relevant to your target audience, you can share them on your profiles and encourage your followers to leave comments with their thoughts. This is a great way to get your followers to interact with your brand. When you post content from other sites, it is important that you select content that has value to your audience. Everything you share should serve a purpose and interest people in your target audience. As you are creating and sharing content, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind. One important habit to get into is including pictures in your content. You’ll keep your audience’s interest by having visual elements in your content and the content you share from other sites. When you create content, you should also try out different headlines and accompanying text. The text you include will have a major impact on clickthrough rates, so it’s good practice to come up with a few different headlines and test them out to see which ones garner the most responses. Once you write a post and are ready to share, you may also want to consider including hashtags, depending on the platform. This will help you track interest in the topic and see if anyone is talking about your content. Content can have a powerful impact on your SMO strategy. By creating and sharing content, you can bring more people to your social profiles and earn new followers. 5. Schedule your postsThere are many tools you can use to schedule posts in advance on social media, and you should take advantage of them. This will prevent you from having to log into your accounts multiple times per day or remember to publish new content. As you schedule your content, you can also make sure that you’re publishing it when your target audience is active on each platform. The time frame when you post will depend on the social site. People are active on certain social sites at different times of the day, and this also varies by demographic. You’ll need to figure out when your target audience uses each platform the most. You’ll also want to control the number of posts you put on each platform. Each one has its own standards for normal publishing schedules, but the important thing is that you don’t overwhelm your followers with posts. On Facebook, for example, you won’t need to post as much. Excessive Facebook posts are often annoying to followers and could lead them to unfollow your page. On a social site like Twitter, however, you could post five times a day because of the structure of the news feed. 6. Include social buttons on your website Adding buttons that link to your social profiles to your website is an easy way to encourage your site visitors to connect with you on different platforms. You can place them in the header or footer of your pages, and so that users can see them regardless of the page they’re visiting. You can also add social sharing buttons at the end of your blog posts and articles. These buttons enable readers to easily share your content on their own social accounts — and the easier it is to share your content, the more likely they’ll be to do so. 7. Monitor your social media analyticsYou need to monitor the performance of your posts on your social pages in order to see which methods are most effective for your business. This will give you an idea of which types of posts are successful and which ones don’t garner as much interest. There are several metrics you can monitor, including impressions, clicks, and engagements. If a post receives a lot of engagement, this is a clear indicator that it is interesting to your target market. You can use this to figure out which types of posts are the most effective for your strategy. Swift knows social media optimizationSocial media is an integral part of your digital marketing plan. If you’re ready to start making the most of your presence on popular platforms, Swift can help. We’re a social media optimization company with years of experience creating effective social strategies. Our team of social media experts stays up-to-date on the latest trends, so when you partner with us, you can be sure that your strategy is constantly being updated for the best results. We know what it takes to drive results with digital marketing. In fact, we’ve driven over $2 billion in sales and over 6.3 million leads for our clients to date. We’ll always put your success first — which is why we have over 550 client testimonials from a variety of industries. Check them out to see what it’s like to work with a top SMO company like Swift Get started todayIf you’re ready to start earning more customers with your social profiles, contact us online or call us today at (216) 339-6041 to speak with a strategist. We look forward to hearing from you! Additional Resources
Call us at (216) 339-6041 today! |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2023
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed