In the last ten years, social media has taken the world by storm. There’s hardly anyone who does not use some form of social media. Whether its LinkedIn for our professional networking, or Facebook and Instagram for our personal and social interactions, WhatsApp for instant communications, or Youtube for our videos, we use social media extensively. 

Companies must also leverage the power of social media to promote their brand in the minds of their target audience. If utilized well, a good social media presence can help them to accelerate their business. As per a report by social media marketing platform Sproutsocial, 78% of consumers are willing to buy from a company that offers them a positive experience on social media. 

Hence, companies must always be on top of their ‘social media’ game. Whether it’s a disgruntled customer, or an irritated employee, everyone has access to social media and companies must be vigilant on social media at all times to address concerns. If social media is left unattended, the company may not only lose customers but also have to address damage to their brand reputation and corporate image. 

Here’s the good news. An effective social media marketing strategy that is well executed can enable a company to reap rich dividends. We list 5 tips that can be of immense help to companies: – 

1. Understand Companies strategic Goals and Objectives: – A company must have a clear strategy in terms of its products or services, and growth plans. The strategic objectives must be translated to clear marketing and communication ideas so that the target audience or key stakeholders can participate in the brand story and help you to get the desired results. Effective social media marketing is not an isolated effort. It must resonate with the company’s strategy and marketing to ensure best results. 
2. Devise a Social Media Strategy based on Target Audience and Desired Goals: – It is important to understand the target audience, their demographics, their most popular social media platform etc. Once a clear understanding is obtained, the objective and desired attainment from each of the company’s social media platforms must be enlisted. Once this is finalized, the company must work on the content across each social media platform. Content is the fuel that runs the social media engine. Good content which is informative, engaging, or entertaining can help companies to get good result from their social media efforts. Hence, a company and its marketing teams must ensure that great content that resonates with their target audience across social media platforms must be curated and converted into a monthly calendar. This will ensure consistency of communication as well as recall with the target audience. 
3. Create Campaigns with defined periodicity: While it is good to post daily or frequently across platforms, the audience must also have something to look forward to when they follow your company on social media. Campaigns are a great way of keeping the audience engaged. For example: – Publishing fun content on a particular day of the week. wellness tips on certain days, key technology aspects of the business on some other day etc. can be a good way to build consistency and recall among the target audience. It also enhances the chances of engagement (likes, comments, and shares) by the audience which, in turn, leads to more people liking the brand on social media. 

Companies may also engage with their followers or fans on social media through polls, webinars, quizzes, crossword puzzles related to the business and so on. This will keep the audience engaged and will help the company to occasionally also share a company update or offers from their company’s brands. 

1. Analyse engagement data and refine the social media calendar: – When a company starts interacting with its followers on various social media channels, all ideas and campaigns may not work. How does the social media marketer know this? Due to the power of data and reports that social media platforms can generate for him. Through self-service interface for data analytics, most social media platforms enable business users to gain access to the company’s social media data. It can help understand the user’s interaction and engagement across each post. Equipped with such insights, the social media marketing team can refine their social media calendar by incorporating new ideas and stopping the use of ideas which may not have been yielding great engagement. 
2. Use trending Story Ideas: – No matter which industry your company operates in, there is always something interesting happening. A social media marketing team must be constantly updated about the latest trends and happenings in its industry and convert it into engaging story ideas wherein the target audience is captivated with the story and the messaging. It is important to use the popular forms of communications such as short videos and reels to ensure that the target audience get the message within a few seconds. It would be interesting for brands to explore tie-ups with influencers, launch their own podcasts, etc. They may also want to upload some knowledge-based value that they want to share with their target audience. This could include creating an infographic or a research report which can be distributed through social media and the user may download it for free by willingly sharing his contact details with the company. 

I hope you found these tips useful. A great social media marketer must incorporate all these tips and also stay extremely updated with the latest news in the said industry to ensure consistent improvement in social media marketing and the key metrics. 

While we have written a very brief account of what could work on social media, we would surely love to hear what your views are. Since it is a topic of great interest, I am sure you would not shy away from sharing your views. Social media is definitely here to stay in some form or other. Companies that would ace their social media strategy and execution will become market leaders or at least have a significant edge over their key competitors. 

Is your company’s social media plan a great one? Please do run it through the above checklist of tips to see if it incorporates all key points and can be enhanced further.