Social media marketing is probably one of the most affordable and effective ways of marketing. It’s not only affordable and effective for big corporations, but also for small and medium-sized companies. According to the study, the budget allocated for the social media marketing has increased to 12%.  And, social media marketing is also the vital part of digital marketing.

According to the statistics, there are over 2.45 billion social media users all over the world, and this number is expected to reach to 2.9 billion in 2020. Some of the popular social media platforms with millions of active users are the Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Snapchat, and so on.

The people spend a lot of time on these platforms, and the most of the marketers are already capitalizing on this thing. The return on investment is really impressive with social media marketing.

Despite the fact that social media marketing can provide a handsome return on investment and people spend a lot of time on various social media platforms, there are still many marketers that are not being able to enjoy the same return like other successful marketers.

How can a marketer utilize the power of social media marketing?

The key to success in social media marketing or any forms of marketing is knowledge and implementation of the strategy.

Here are some of the ways; a marketer can use social media marketing to boost their marketing campaign.

1.  Start with a concrete plan

There is no point in starting a social media marketing campaign without a concrete plan. The first thing to do before starting a social media marketing plan is to make a concrete plan. Be absolutely sure of what your business objectives are and expectations from the campaign.

Here are some of the things to consider before making a concrete plan.

·  Expectations from the campaign: The first thing to consider before making a plan is to decide what you expect from the overall social media marketing campaign. The expectation must not be overly ambitious or very low.

·  Target audience: Not all the people would want to purchase the product, and one must understand this fact. The target audience must be decided before running a campaign. Most of the social media marketing platforms provide an option to filter the audience.

·  Message: Plan what kind of messages you want to deliver to the target audience. Keep track of various social media trends before planning a message.

·  Plan how social media marketing can fulfill your marketing goals: Be specific on what you want from the campaign, whether it is a conversion, brand awareness, web traffic, or others.

2.  Choosing the best social media platforms

There are many popular social media platforms on the internet, and the best social media platforms depend on the various factors. The Facebook is obviously the social media platform that you do not want to miss out on. For some brands, such as fashion brand or fast food, the image-sharing platforms would provide them with a better rate of return.

Similarly, the Linkedin platform could work out very well for the B2B businesses because it’s a social media platform for professionals. Choose some of the social media platforms that best suit the needs of the brand before starting a campaign.

What next?

After having a concrete plan and selecting the best social media platforms, you’re ready to start promoting a product. Here are some of the ways you can use social media platforms to improve the performance of your posts.

1. Focus on headlines

The people will read the headline before they decide whether to read the whole content or not. The headline must be interesting to grab the attention of the readers. There are hundreds of posts that are promoted on the social media platforms, so the readers will not bother to read the content with a lousy headline.

Create a new and better title to grab an attention of readers. Do not be limited to only one title, instead create multiple titles and do A/B testing to see which content can be promoted effectively.

The tools, such as Buzzsumo can help in researching the interesting titles for the social media content.

2. Customize the content for the platform

It’s not an easy task to customize the content for each social media platform, but in order to perform better on every social media platform, it’s necessary. There is a need to customize the headline, images, description, and the way the message is delivered.

The same content that performs well on the Facebook may not perform well on other platforms, such as the Twitter. For an instance, the Twitter has the word limit, so the way of delivering the message must be different on the Twitter than the Facebook.

3.  Embrace the visual

The study shows that visual content has 40% more chance of getting shared on the social media platform in comparison to the plain text content. And, the more shares mean a better reach and a better engagement.

Try to create an attractive and eye-catching image not only for the brand but also for every single post that you’re planning to post. This can lead to an increment in an engagement. Try experimenting with varieties of images, such as infographics, memes, and so on.

In the case of the image-sharing social media platforms, such as the Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat, the post with a lousy image has no hope of getting an engagement from an audience.

4. Post at the right time

The timing of the post matters a lot. It is one of the important factors that determine the engagement of the particular post. For the post to reach the maximum number of people, the content must be shared at the time when the maximum number of people are online.

The peak times for various social media platforms are different. Conduct a research to be aware of the best time to post on various social media platforms. There are tools, such as Facebook insights, Followerwonk, and so on that can help you determine the right time to post.

5. Post multiple times

Many popular pages and channels on the social media platforms share the same old content, multiple times, and it has given them wonderful outcomes. Most of your followers will engage with the content without even knowing that it is the same content.

There is a good chance that the post will not reach out to each and every one of the followers, so it’s not a bad idea to post the same content multiple times. However, it’s better to make a minor adjustment in the headline, description, and the image before sharing the content.

6. Ask questions

One of the best ways to engage the followers is by asking relevant questions to them. Every person wants to share their opinion, and the comment section is the best place for them to share their opinions.

Do not just drop links on the pages. And, the people will be engaging with one another as well when there are plenty of interesting comments on the comment section. It helps to bring the human connection on the post.

There are plenty of creative ways to ask questions to the followers. Ask a compelling question so that the people would not be able to resist the temptation of sharing their opinion.

7. Reach out to influencers

According to the study, an average return on investment from the influencer marketing campaign is $6.5 for every dollar spent on the campaign. This demonstrates the power of influencers and influencer marketing campaign.

There are hundreds of influencers on the social media platforms, and there is no need to hire influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers. Find some relevant influencers, and ask them to promote your content.

The posts shared by influencers are reached to many people in the niche market. You will be surprised to see the results from the influencer marketing campaign.

Conclusion

Most of the marketers think that the social media marketing is really easy, but this is not the case. Social media marketing is challenging like every other form of marketing. It takes a lot of planning and hard work to succeed in social media marketing.

Following the tips mentioned in the above section of this article will help you to plan and implement a social media marketing campaign to give a huge boost to your overall marketing campaign.

According to the study, around 95% of the online US adults in the age group of 18-34 are likely to follow the brands online. You will be able to get a massive return from your social media marketing campaign if you manage to promote it in a right way.

If you lack enough time to focus on the social media marketing campaigns, then it would be better to hand over this task to an experienced digital marketer or some good marketing agencies.