What is Social Media?
Social Media is a virtual platform where people across various walks of life (co)create or share content. The content could be personal or generic. The content shared on these platforms is highly interactive and encourages active participation of all users present in the network.
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What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is a strategy aimed to gain the attention of users across social media. This is done by creating content that attracts the attention of users and encourages them to share it with their social networks. The engagement that the user has with the content, leads to electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Social media marketing (SMM) provides a brand or company with useful insights which will help them serve their target audience better.
If you are planning to get aboard on the new wave of marketing, here are a few tips –
1. Pick the right platform:
There are a number of social media platforms and with each passing day this number just keeps swelling. It is very important for you to decide which platform(s) suits you the best. Pick a platform where you think that most of your users hangout. It is a good idea to start off with only one or two platforms.
Also it does not make sense to be active on all the platforms available just for the sake of it. This will eat up your time and resources.
2. User profiling:
You have to see where your target audience lives online. What platform do they use and what kind of conversations do they engage in. Segment your target audience into age group wise, geographically, etc. Once you know your target audience well, it will be easier for you to start a conversation and keep them hooked on.
3. Choose the tone of your posts:
Your posts should reflect your brand. The language, the tone and the way you present it should be pre-decided. After your user profiling is done, you can decide what tone or language to use in your posts. It makes sense to be casual and informal if your target audience is college students. On the other hand if you are targeting consumers for your SaaS startup then you might want to be more formal and to the point.
4. Capitalise on trending topics:
Your users will stay more engaged if your posts are related to the trending or hot topics. Design engaging content that the users will talk about or will share in their networks. Visual content is proven to be more interactive than plain text.
5. Frequency of posts:
Your posts should be frequent enough for your user to keep a track, but it should not reach a point where it starts to get annoying. People are faced with a lot of information and you should make sure that you are not considered to be spam or else they will unfollow you.
6. Campaigns:
Run campaigns iteratively. Test the response and optimise your campaigns accordingly. Not all campaigns are successful, so stick to the campaigns that really had an impact and ignore the rest. Run only about three to four campaigns a month. It is always important to measure the impact and response to your campaigns.
Social media marketing can be fun. Put on your creative hats and let your creative juices flow. Your users will come looking for you.
For a peek into other online media marketing click here.
