4 Social Media Marketing Tips All Small Businesses Should Know
Over the past few years, social media marketing has transitioned from being a “plus” to being a “MUST” for businesses of any size.
It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, the size of your company, or how long you’ve been in operation. Every business can benefit from social media marketing.
One thing that keeps lots of people from utilizing social marketing is that it can be hard to track results. Nobody wants to spend time, resources, and money on marketing campaigns that don’t yield results.
We’re making it easier to evaluate your social media success with these four steps.
Define and Set Your Goal
The very first step is to have a clear definition of what you want to achieve with your social media marketing. Are you trying to increase brand awareness? Are you hoping to boost engagement? Do you want to drive sales? It’s crucial for you and your team to know the desired result. Otherwise, you won’t know if you’ve achieved your goal.
Identify Metrics
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all metric for all social media campaigns and platforms. The metrics you choose will depend upon your goal. For instance, if you want to increase Instagram engagement, your metrics would be comments and likes. If your objective is to create brand awareness on Facebook, you’d be looking at the reach of your Facebook posts. Whatever benchmarker you decide to use, make sure that it’s clearly defined before you start working on your goal. Without set metrics, you won’t be able to measure your campaign results.
Analyze Data
After defining your goal and metrics, you need to analyze your data to evaluate your progress. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter all have built-in analytics for business profiles. They provide you with valuable information on impressions, engagement, and more. However, if you want data that’s more comprehensive, you should consider using a social media analytics tool. Companies like BuzzSumo, HootSuite, and Sprout Social are just a few for you to consider. It’s best to research to find the tool that will provide the data you’re interested in and fits your budget (there are free programs too). You could also use Google Analytics to track the activity on your website from social media traffic.
Adjust As Needed
Here’s a hard truth: your first campaign may not be successful right off the bat. That’s okay and in no way does it mean that you failed at social media. All data is valuable, even if it tells you that your strategy isn’t working. Review your data to see what is and isn’t producing results. You may notice that followers respond to certain types of posts, or that there are times of the day where you don’t receive much engagement. Use all of this data to your advantage to optimize your strategy for success. Continue tweaking until you discover your best practices.
The digital marketing landscape is always evolving, especially with social media. If you need help with your social marketing – whether it’s content creation, strategy, or posting – we can help.
Contact us today to learn more about our social media solutions.
