4 Resolutions To Pump Up The Volume Of Your Social Media In 2018

The social media world is understandably overwhelming!

Every second person uses social media to connect, inform and be informed. Over time, it has transformed into a go-to companion for all our know-hows and know-what’s. Companies realizing the wealth in this opportunity strike right at the heart of the platform to squeeze the best of its features to their interest.

At this point, it would be a horror to know that you haven’t registered your company as part of this revolution.

If you haven’t, start now!

If you have, before getting excited, work up if you’re performing your “A” game or are just in it because somebody told you “Social media is important”?

If your social media strategy for 2017 was terrific, take a second here to pat your back. But, wait! If you plan on sticking to the same agenda this year as well, take a step back.

Social media is constantly, and we mean constantly, evolving. Your pitch that worked today might be tossed down the drain tomorrow. And we don’t want that now, do we? Not a week goes by where there isn’t Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram — you name it, they’re all pushing to keep up with the newest trends and expecting you to run along. If you don’t adapt, your hard-earned reputation and brand image might all come tumbling downhill, and it only takes a matter of days.

Here are few tips to help you get past that fear and onto something solid for your social media initiatives in 2018:

Content is king

Social media and content marketing go together like mac and cheese. One thing that hasn’t changed yet on social media is the need for quality content. And the right kind of content marketing is just what you need to get there. If you are sure your content will hit the right chord, publish it on social media, follow it up with more stories and posts. In order to attract more traffic, your content has to resonate well with your target audience. Understand your platform, understand your audience, and then device an awesome content marketing strategy to win them over — Basically, get the platform right and get the format right.

Very few things are as rewarding as seeing your content spread like wildfire across the web. Investing in high-quality content will get you there. Reach out for these points to ensure quality content development:

• Relevance
• Influence
• Reach
• Engagement

Audience engagement on social media doesn’t always depend on the quality of content!

It is often influenced by human psychology, which old people express as ‘peer pressure’ and new generation as FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

Among the lessons that digital markets can use in their strategy, ‘social proof’ or ‘social influence’ stands out most.

Listen to your audience

Your content structure, format, style, and language might be brilliant. But, is that what your audience is looking for?

The only way you are going to know what your customers want is by listening to what they have to say. It’s important that you use your social media platforms as an extension of your customer service. More customers are going to voice their opinion on social media than via email or over the phone. 

When you understand what it is that your customers expect from your industry, good content will flow out spontaneously and effortlessly.

But how do you get yourself heard in this noise-filled chaos that is social media?

Here’s your stepping stone.

Your focus should not be on “what is the purpose?” Or “what is your cause?” Focus on the people creating the demand — why is the content you create valuable to them? Create content that will suit their needs, and push this through the right channels so it will reach people you want to reach. 

Take Apple’s famous 1984 advert, for example. Even without a visual, most people will recall this advertisement — the one in which a woman throws a sledgehammer into the screen, shattering

Within a single frame, Apple aligned itself with innovation, defiance and made itself iconic. And, nothing in the ad was about Apple’s computers, apart from the last few seconds.

Stay relevant to the platform

The trick to establishing the right approach on social media in an intelligent way is to make sure the content’s tone is consistent with the platform you’re repurposing it for. A tweet that expends 280 characters on the introduction to a case study is going to get zero clicks or retweets, while a two line post on Medium is not going to get the attention it deserves.

No, shorter tweets that summarise a long blog post will not do the trick. It’s about creating content that will catch eyes on different platforms and come across as innovative and fresh each time.

Let’s take the example of case study X, that shows how your company’s actions helped Y client improve their business. Why not make an infographic that can be retweeted on Twitter, or shared on Facebook? What about making a gif for people to send to each other on Messenger? How about a longer blog post analysing the case study on Medium?

Measure EVERYTHING

Don’t run the risk of just whisking away your money with zero profits or ROI. The success of a campaign might mean different things to different campaigns/brands. Understand the purpose of each of your campaigns and analyze accordingly — web traffic, lead conversion, sales conversion, etc. The data you collect here can be used to modify all your future campaigns.

Measuring the effectiveness of your social media campaigns is the easiest way of knowing what’s in and what’s not. If you’re using social media as a marketing tool (which is a very wise thing to do), you must regularly measure the results.

This post was originally seen on www.thewordsedge.ca