Don’t Give Up On Social Media Marketing Until You Try These Methods
Originally published on YFS Magazine.
Social media trends are in abundance and ever-changing – many of which we choose to ignore. Listening to whispering, scratching and tapping ASMR sounds might not be up your alley. Watching tweens and teens’ lip sync on TikTok isn’t high on your entertainment list. And you may be wondering, “What is a VSCO girl?”
If you run a B2B company you may have convinced yourself social media marketing isn’t worthwhile. Yet, even if you don’t follow the latest trends, cultivating a social media presence could spur the growth your company needs.
However, branding and marketing expert Cynthia Johnson makes a compelling argument for social media marketing, given her brand was built by it. Johnson created an extensive social media presence and launched her branding and marketing agency, Ipseity Inc., around it. She later published a book entitled Platform: The Art and Science of Personal Branding.
Social media marketing is a powerful tool
Social media is powerful in this new age of consumption driven by word-of-mouth and authentic testimonials. It can provide social proof to potential clients and business partners that your audience is engaged, and specific metrics can even track to revenue generation.
A captive social audience is not just for selling. Responsiveness across social media channels will equip your company to test new products, messaging, and more while receiving real-time feedback. This gives you a platform to observe micro trends that can keep you ahead of the curve.
Utilize proven social media growth hacks
Whether you’ve set social media marketing on the back-burner until you have a dispensable budget or you’ve been stressing its importance to your team, it’s time to act. Johnson claims three methods (and useful tools) are game-changers when it comes to growth-hacking social media:
Audience acceleration – Example: Fanbase
Strategic content promotion – Example: Outbrain
Content aggregation – Example: nTuitive
Let’s take a brief look at each method.
Audience acceleration
The key to attracting people to your social media pages is engagement. Nowadays, there are plenty of SaaS companies that have automated social media workflows giving their customers the ability to tap into organic audience growth. These online tools focus on your target demographic and engage with users to spark interest and conversations.
Strategic content promotion
Anybody who develops a Facebook Ad and attempts to convert it to an Instagram Ad knows it’s not as easy as it sounds. Sure, both platforms are owned by the same company (and should work in tandem to support content), but it’s never that simple. Social discovery and content cross-promotion can become a laborious task. Thankfully, there are cloud-based and affordable tools to help businesses do what they do best and lean on technology to handle the rest.
Social media aggregation
Ask anyone working in social media, and they’ll likely share that one of their biggest pain points is creating a unified voice and updated content across channels. Social media aggregation platforms, like Buffer, allow you to create one single post and send it out to all of the social media channels. You can schedule, track prior posts, and ensure your tone and activity is consistent across all social media accounts.
When possible, tap into online platforms that support content you’ve created, work across varied social platforms and allow you to customize audiences, allocate budgets, and much more.
These inexpensive social media marketing hacks can increase productivity and upgrade your team workflows. Whatever your reason for overlooking social media in the past, it’s time to reassess and take your online marketing to the next level.
Written in partnership with BigSpeak.