First of all, let’s clarify what the definition of a strong social media strategy is. A social media strategy defines how your organization uses social media to achieve its goals and the supporting platforms and tools it uses to accomplish this. At a basic level, it’s a simple outline of the goals and measurable objectives for using social media, and the targets you want to achieve. It isn’t a detailed plan of action – you’ll also need a plan, but without a clear strategy, how do you prioritize the activities for a campaign?
Even if you’re not actively involved in social media, other businesses are, including your competitors and most likely a significant proportion of your potential customers. Failing to understand that this is where many people buy and make their decisions means you can’t influence what happens.
If you don’t know what’s trending online, how can you effectively manage your brand reputation online? And how can you ensure that your key messages are heard by the people you want to attract?
The social media still grows fast
The latest research on social media usage shows that two crucial factors are driving the social web:
–Mobile usability – Last year, 53% of web traffic worldwide came from mobile users.
–Mature users tech adoption – on Twitter and Instagram, the 50+ population is the fastest-growing demographic with over 70% growth since 2012.
Improved mobile connectivity globally has increased on the go social activity – from catching up on friends’ updates to sharing content and playing online games. Every business nowadays, including those that were traditionally land-based, have turned their attention to the online community. One of those examples is the casino industry that today has created a completely different gaming culture online. Check out the best UK casino bonuses at SlotsWise and compare the gameplay of the top-rated online casino providers. Marketing institutes measure the reasons why people go online, and insights are that socialising is one of the key drivers. As people spend more time on social media, consuming more content than ever before, you might think that the competition is high. However, with a proper approach and strategy, you’ll focus on using relevant platforms to connect with existing and new customers.
If the first era of social was audience building and engagement, the current trend is focused on e-commerce and personalization. All major platforms have heavily invested in their advertising solutions to attract marketers with the promise of improved APIs, smart targeting and remarketing campaigns. For example, through APIs, marketers can:
–Manage audience data for custom audience targeting
–Create campaigns and ads
–Build custom dashboards and run analytics
–Manage campaign assets: pages, accounts etc.
40% of users are actively deciding what to buy based on what they have seen on social media platforms, including reviews and recommendations, and this will only continue to grow. Peer recommendation has the most influence on holiday gift purchases, more than blogger or celebrity endorsement. Given the importance of peak trading to the overall sales target, you need to plan how to encourage people to share and talk about your products.
Deciding how to connect with a customer is not a tactical decision; it requires strategic thinking. Social needs to align with the other communication channels, so its role is defined and understood, and there are processes and tools in place to cope with demand.
The practice of communications is the most powerful form of marketing as brands are nor built by companies themselves but built by what others would say. By the use of the media monitoring tools, you are not just measuring the outcome but shaping them for your brand and for your business.
If you let a social marketing team simply get on with it, without the strategic and personalized vision above it, you risk inefficiency and inaccuracy.
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