You’re looking to drive more traffic to your businesses website but you’re not sure how to best do that. You ran an internet ad which got you some extra traffic but no new sales. You pay for advertising with yelp, but still have not seen any sales from it. That’s because they’re not targeted!
We’re going get to why you need a social media strategy but to get there, let’s start with a few reasons why you need social media marketing (just the tip of the iceberg!).
Social Media Marketing Improves your SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
There are many ways that social media increases your SEO. One way is to build links within your content. Sharing a new blog post (take me sharing this one for example), services, products, offers, and linking them to your page will place higher web authority on your page and rank it higher as well as driving traffic to it through your social channels.
As you produce great content and interact with your audience, your audience will grow and flourish. Search engines look for social signals and love a profile with a large amount of followers and interactions. However, be sure not to buy low-quality and fake users as Facebook and others will recognize this and penalize you; no use in trying to fool the algorithm.
There is no one best practice to improve your SEO using social media. Search Engines make changes over time and even the most subtle change can impact how they rank you. Keep producing quality content and building your audience and you’re sure to succeed with social media marketing.
Drive Targeted Traffic to your Businesses Website.
As we mentioned earlier, internet adds and yelp can be a great thing; however, they are not targeted and can drive the wrong traffic your way. Social Media lets you target the traffic you’re in need of to help increase business. As your audience grows, your new followers are going to be individuals that are interested in you, your product, and/or your service. Facebook Ads really let you narrow in on who will see your ads, targeting the individuals most likely to interact with you.
Are you looking for a customer who is looking to buy a new bird house when you sell motorcycle repair? No! That’s silly and is not going to work for you. However, getting involved with social groups that are interested in motorcycles, building a follower base of motorcycle owners and those interested in motorcycles, and targeting ads to like individuals will work magic for you!
Social Media Helps Build Lasting Relationships.
Now that you’re building a follower base and interacting with them, I am sure you are also building trust as a thought leader as well as friendships. Customers are more likely to buy from someone they trust than someone they don’t know. You may also have customers leaving positive reviews and spreading the word about you. Customers tend to research online these days before making a purchase, coming across these positive words will greatly increase their likelihood of the buying from you.
Now What
The benefits to using social media marketing are astounding and there are many more of them! Now you may be asking yourself; “This sounds pretty easy, why do I need a strategy for social media?” It’s not as easy as you may think. You can’t just share anything for the sake of sharing. You need great content that really connects with your audience! So then, why have a social media strategy?
Align your Social Goals with your Business Goals.
Are you looking to increase your customer base? Increase revenue? establish yourself as a thought leader and industry expert? Aspects of these different goals may overlap but each has its differences. You want to take the time and effort to create social goals that align with your business goals and don’t counteract them.
It forces you to focus in on who you target audience truly is.
This is a very important aspect of your strategy. Who are you really looking to connect with? Who is your target audience and customer? What is their age? Gender? Income? Profession? Not all demographics will apply to you. However, if you do not know who your talking to, how will you know how to communicate with them? What content to create? What to share? What is going to get your audience to engage with you?
You will review the different social channels and decide which few align best with you and your business.
Now that you have defined who your audience is, what channels are they on? You need to know where to be in order to have the largest reach and most impact. If you’re not sure where your audience is, there are a few options for you:
You can research the demographics of the different channels: average age groups, income, professionals, rural vs urban and so on to determine where your audience is.
Or you may look to your competition. What channels are they on? Where are they getting the most engagement? What is working for them and what is not? This can give you a base guideline to work from.
In Conclusion
We’ve only just begun here but these are three strong reasons to begin with on why you need a social media strategy. Without a strategy, you may be talking to an audience that isn’t all that interested in you. You may even be working against your business goals.
Take the time to clearly define your social media strategy and approach social media marketing in a way that helps you achieve your business goals.
Please share how you go about creating your social media marketing strategy. I am excited to talk with you all!
Until next time,
Keep Smiling.
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