How can you make social media work for you?

Social media is the connection tool of the century and is an incredible tool to have in your marketing arsenal. In an ever-increasing digital world, making social media platforms work for you is a key component in building a thriving e-commerce business. Having an effective social presence allows you to reach a much wider audience. With 424 million new users coming online in the last 12 months alone, your scope for attracting potential customers cannot be ignored. As people browse, they are ready to be influenced, and your profiles are the perfect opportunity to showcase your products. However, it’s vital you’re using it in the best way possible, so how can you do that?

CREATING A PROFILE

Creating a convincing profile is more than just setting up an Instagram page. Taking the time to establish a consistent brand, with robust branding guidelines to maintain this, will certainly help create the omni-channel marketing approach that resonates so well with consumers. Linking your profile to your website, for example, will help generate more leads, and further embed the omni-channel feel. Read our article here on omni-channel branding and how it can help boost your social profiles. Having a well branded, and aesthetically pleasing social presence helps your current customers, and future prospects, recognise your company and place trust in the information you are sharing on the platform. Your company mission should be at the forefront of your branding, and should emanate from the content you produce. Ensure you’re profiles are fully complete, including an informative bio and recognisable profile image, and you’re good to go.

VALUES

Your social media doesn’t have to remain entirely in the promotional realm, it can also branch into education. If the company mission aligns with a wider cause, such as reducing environmental damage to the planet, then something as simple as creating a post, or resharing content from others, shows your prospect customers what your business stands for. Your content is a chance to present an extra dimension of the brand, and you may be drawing in people who wouldn’t have considered you before, simply based on values.

ENGAGING

Social media also creates a unique environment that is perfect for interacting with customers on a more personal level. Use this opportunity to give your brand not just a colour, logo and tone, but a personality. Embody this when creating content and responding to users. Make use of the features the platforms offer too. 58% of Instagram users say they’re more interested in a brand after seeing it in a Story, so don’t miss out by only focusing on your feed. Remember, you are trying to place trust in your products, and to do so, you must place trust in your brand. An additional way to do this is using your page to share company updates, and internal updates. Letting your customers in on how you operate as a group of colleagues, and not just as a business selling something. This is especially effective on LinkedIn where you may not just be looking to attract customers, but new hires too. It’s also an opportunity to connect with other businesses that you may be with collaborating with.

USING THE CORRECT PLATFORM

Choosing the correct platform is also important, and may be why people are not responding to your business as you would have expected. Aligning your target market with the profile of the main users of the platform means your content is most likely to resonate with those viewing it, and you can be more confident in the chances of conversion into sales. For example, a product aimed at younger generations may not perform well on Facebook, but could go viral on Tiktok. Consider what platforms are popular in your geography too. Facebook is the most common platform in Europe with YouTube close behind, for example.

TRACKING

In order to improve your campaigns over time, its fundamental you track your KPIs. Consider a monthly review of your previous campaigns, and analyse what created the best engagement and generated the most leads. It’s also important to review across the different platforms that are being used by the business. Doing this means you’re able to establish what content your followers engage with most, and what propels your profiles out to further users. If one platform is consistently underperforming it may be that it’s not the right platform for your business.

ADS

Most platforms also offer ads, which give you’re the opportunity to expand your outreach. These can be extremely valuable and will be displaying your content to a much wider audience than just your organic traffic. It may also be worth investing in influencer advertisement. Choosing the right influencer who’s audience are the products target markets means your product is being shown to a huge audience who are likely to be interested. You wouldn’t skip your five-a-day, so don’t skip using social media in your marketing strategy. Your brand image, reputation and sales will certainly thank you if you invest the time in creating and managing well branded social platforms.

GET SOME SOCIAL MEDIA SUPPORT

Here at Kelkoo Group we have specialists who are able to support you on a wide range of Ad Campaigns, including, Facebook and Instagram ads. We’re able to specify your campaign targeting, help set up your ads, analyse results and more. Click here to find out more.