It’s no surprise that social media has had a huge impact on society since its inception. Around 2004 social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace started becoming a huge part of people’s lives, influencing purchase decisions, music choices, relationships, places we all live and more. From content marketing to Ads we see on Facebook, YouTube and Google, social media has been driving sales for small business and fortune 500 companies alike for over a decade now.
Prior to social media platforms, many brands would use print media, yellow pages, billboards, TV, or even Fax Ads to campaign their business, products or services. As recent as the very early 2000’s we have seen these tactics being used. Today, the competition has switched gears, and it has gone straight to social media platforms and search engines like Google.
Cohesive Branding on Social Media Platforms
There is an uncomfortable truth that comes with social media marketing, and within your particular industry, that truth is your brands’ recognition means everything. Your company’s branding practices can make or break your social media success. Defining your brand and business by simple things such as colors, font, and how you speak on social media platforms can make all the difference in the success and failure in your market sector. Think about fortune 500 brands like Pepsi, every year millions of Americans wait for the Ads that Pepsi will run, whether they are a football fan or not, they tune in to see what Pepsi will come up with this year. Having brand recognition means having a platform in all arenas.
Engineering Content Creation and Progressive Platforms
The type of content you create is directly related to the number of leads you convert into sales. Believe it or not, many companies sell a vast amount of products and services via social media. Think about these stats, according to Zephoria, over 2.7 billion people in the world have a Facebook account, out of the 7.53 billion people in the world, that is a huge portion of the earth’s population as a whole. Now think about this, on average, Facebook users spend about 35 minutes per day on Facebook. Not having a presence in front of a potential clientele of 2.7 billion, can mean all the difference between meeting your sales quota for the month and falling short for the whole year.
Many people do not segment their social media campaigns in regard to content, they just assume that one size fits all when it comes to different platforms, this is not the case. The logistics of content engineering is simple, it basically means you’re segmenting off campaign content to meet the needs of the specific platform you’re posting on. For example, if you are posting on Instagram, you’d post an engaging photo to captivate the attention of your users along with a few words to accompany the photo. Posting content that makes sense on the platforms you are utilizing is critical, and no, one size does not fit all, social media is not spandex.
Targeting Your Audience
According to Lyfe Marketing, social media users are broken down into five age categories. Their search states that 81% of 13-18-year-olds use social media, 89% of people who are 18-29 use social media, 78% of people ages 30-49 use social media, 60% of people 50-64 use social media and 43% of people ages 65+ user social media. Understanding what percentage of your audience is on a specific platform you’re trying to advertise on is vital. As a business, your main purpose is to provide a product or service to those who are looking for it, and using social media to do that is a great way to gain exposure. One of the ways to gain insight into your customers is a survey. According to SurveyMonkey, the first step to reach your target market is to send out a survey to a balanced sample of the general population. Asking stand questions such as age, location, gender can make all the difference in how you market your products, even if your surveys are small and segmented, a little information is better than no information.
Call To Action
When potential customers are on your social media, is the call-to-action clear? Having a simple, clear and visible call-to-action on your social media platforms make the purchasing experience simple for users, which drives more sales for your business, the easier the call-to-action, the quicker the sale. Whether your call-to-action is a link to your website, the product your selling or a link to buy a service, make it easy for potential customers to buy what you’re trying to sell them.
