Marketing is a vast field; half of the people educating you about it don’t understand it deeply enough. That’s how some misconceptions are born. But it’s ok. As we discussed, marketing is a very extensive field, and it’s natural to fall for some lessons/concepts that may not be true or that much helpful. The problem arises when you don’t learn to unlearn those misconceptions and are unwilling to take new lessons. Social media marketing is one of the most commonly misunderstood fields; most of the time, it’s not taken that seriously. In this blog post, we will talk about all the things that we learned and unlearned about social media marketing recently.
You Need to understand the stages before jumping in
There are two ways you can do social media marketing, via using organic methods or paid ones. You are going to need both of these to run successful social media marketing campaigns and establish brand recognition.
Despite using paid content, you can manage to get high returns by investing low costs, as social media offers you unique opportunities to engage with your target audience using customer service. Social media allows you to implement reward strategies, generate reviews and address the concerns of the audience very easily. This type of engagement also nurtures the audience’s trust, which is a crucial part of the campaign.
Moreover, social media is recognized as one of the prime platforms for selling products and services, as many users research brands and products on these platforms. This underlines the importance of presence on social media, as many users make purchase decisions based on what they see online. A single viral post can sometimes build your recognition in the market.
Now, suppose you need to market a restaurant aggregator and a food delivery service. Here is how you will carry out the whole process stage by stage:
You will first create a roadmap for your social media strategy where you will start with focussing on major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. You will choose the platforms where you target audience is active.
To identify your target audience, you will prepare a buyer’s persona where you will figure out a bunch of things like:
- Typical age group that orders food delivery most often. Generally, students working professionals are likely to be your target audience.
- Now, you will target these users within a particular geographic area where you serve.
- Then, you will prepare lucrative deals as per your user’s disposable income to prompt them to order from you.
To get this data, you will use customer analytics to understand customer behaviour. Social media listening will help you identify the conversations about food delivery, restaurants and your competition on your chosen platforms.
Then, you will conduct surveys or polls on social media to gather some more information directly from your target audience.
Along with all this, you will consistently keep a check on how your competition is targeting their audience on social media and what kind of content is helping them engage with them the most.
After identifying your target audience, you will create high-quality content where you will showcase mouthwatering dishes from partnered restaurants and leverage the user-generated content like reviews and photos with branded hashtags for brand recognition and winning trust.
In addition, you will create informative content that explains your services, benefits, and how to use the app/website. Further, you will run contests and giveaways to create a sense of excitement among your audience.
All this will nurture responses from audience in form of comments and DMs. Polls and questions answer rounds will help you gain insights into what your audience’s expectation are.
To reach the ideal customer base, you will also run paid ads on chosen platforms.
For diversifying your content, you will feature the “Hidden gem” restaurants to your audience, announce restaurant promotions and share recipes and cooking tips from partnered chefs.
You will run personalized recommendations leveraging user data from past orders and preferences.
You will keep posting this kind of content regularly and maintain consistent brand voices across platforms, track and analyze your performance and adjust or continue your strategy based on outcome. Alongside, experiment with different content formats and posting times to see what resonates best with your audience.
So, what do we understand from this?
Simple, you cannot mess with stages/steps as building a successful social media presence requires following a logical sequence of steps. Skipping or rushing through these stages can lead to wasted resources and ineffective campaigns.
Social media is not solely for engagement.
Think beyond just likes and shares. Social media is a major touchpoint for consumers researching products and brands. A whopping 34% of consumers use social media to learn about brands and their offerings. This means social media can be a key driver in the early stages of the customer journey, influencing buying decisions.
Social media platforms offer powerful advertising tools. Facebook Ads, for example, is used by 70% of marketers, with 10 million active advertisers on the platform in just one quarter. These targeted ads can reach a highly relevant audience, driving conversions and sales.
Many platforms now allow direct in-app purchases, making social media a seamless part of the buying process. This “social commerce” trend is exploding, with platforms like Instagram and TikTok offering features to buy directly from creators and influencers.
The core message is that your social media strategy needs to be focused on driving those bottom-line results. Just posting random content won’t cut it. Focus on clear goals, targeted messaging, and calls to action that convert followers into customers. Track your results through social media analytics to see what’s working and refine your strategy for maximum impact.
You will not get fast results on social media
It takes significant time and effort to build a community. The perception is that social media is all about getting famous overnight with viral posts. You will have to consistently deliver your audience high-quality content, and respond to their comments and questions.
Usually, you are supposed to start with a social media content strategy where you also have to set goals and the time period within which you have to achieve those short-term goals. If you succeed in achieving your goals, you can build a strong fanbase that may start to come to check your channels and request to be more active. Eventually, they will start to feel great about checking out your products and services from time to time and make purchases often.
Not hiring a professional is a big mistake
Social media marketing is a vast field with evolving trends and algorithms. Only skilled markets can stay on top of these updates. They are well aware of which platforms will work best for targeting their audience and prepare effective content types.
If you employ a non-professional in social media marketing, they may not be able to craft a content calender, develop eye-catching visuals and write compelling stories.
Professional social media marketers are also aware of right tools and organic reach strategies. This ensures your message is getting shown to the most relevant people, and none of your efforts are going in vain. Without an experienced person, you might miss out on target audience and waste all your time, resources and efforts.
You cannot deny that not everyone can create engaging social media content consistently so better leave it to an expert. SMM professionals consume a lot of trends, posts, and ongoing content, which expands their horizons, making them capable of creating content that people can relate to or find useful.
Another important thing you cannot afford to miss is the engagement and interaction gap. Social media experts can engage with your audience, reply to comments and messages, and cultivate brand loyalty. This level of engagement is a necessity to turn followers into prospects.
Finally, data reigns supreme in social media marketing. A professional can track their campaign performance, pinpoint what’s working and what’s not, and use these insights to fine-tune their strategy.
Social commerce is part of SMM.
Social commerce can be referred to as an extension of traditional SMM strategies that take advantage of built-in shopping functionalities of social media platforms.
Great SMM involves creating engaging content that showcases your products and brand personality. Social commerce uses this content by making it “shoppable.” You can add product tags to photos and videos, allowing viewers to click and buy directly.
How to get started with social commerce:
- Choose the Right Platform. Different platforms have different strengths for social commerce. Consider your target audience and product types. Some popular options include Instagram Shopping, Facebook Shops, Pinterest Buyable Pins, and TikTok Shop.
- Link your social media profile to a business account, upload your product catalogue and set up your shippable storefront.
- Put high-quality photos, videos, and stories that are essential for grabbing attention. Show your products in action, highlight their benefits, and use captivating storytelling to connect with your audience.
- Use your e-commerce platform’s built-in tools like product tags, stickers, and “buy now” buttons. Make it easy for people to discover and purchase your products within the app.
- Use targeted ads and organic SMM strategies to drive traffic to your shoppable content. Track key metrics like clicks, conversions, and engagement to gauge success and refine your approach.
You don’t have to pitch your products in all of your posts.
It’s a common mistake a lot of strategists make when they produce content for social media. People are not likely to look at your content. It’s not serving them any purpose, be it in the form of humour, information updates about something, etc. This simply means first, you have to trade information/fun elements in order to receive some attention in return. This will start building your brand image, and then you can post updates regarding your products and latest collection and create buzz among the audience. Make sure you are carrying out this in an interesting way, too, like by creating polls or live chat.
While creating any post, keep the 80/20 rule in mind where the major content should give the audience some information, entertainment and rest promotion, but that too in a subtle way.
Hashtags ain’t meant for every post.
Hashtags are useful for most posts, but not every single one. No wonder hashtags are like keywords, helping people find your content when they search for those hashtags. By including relevant hashtags, you expose your post to a wider audience interested in that topic. Also, they connect you with people who share your interests. Using relevant hashtags allows you to participate in online conversations and build a community around your content. But there are some cases where hashtags are not necessary, like when you are sharing a personal update with a limited audience on a private social media story, have an extremely specific niche or have a powerful visual that speaks for itself.
You don’t explicitly get bashed.
Many brands/marketers fear that social media gives other companies chances to bash you, which can leave an impact on the audience for a long, long time, but there are a few things that you need to understand.
People complain anyway, and people themselves understand this behaviour and can identify it and rule it out while making a perception about your brand. Even if you restrict your presence on social media, there are other ways where people can voice their opinions, such as by review sites, forums, and complaint boards. Coming out on social media and addressing the concerns will give you a chance to improve customer relationships and build trust.
Your Social Media Should Tell Your Brand Story
The brand story is basically a narrative that defines the essence of the business. It goes beyond the products/services. It includes your purpose, values, mission and “why” behind what you do. It’s about the impact you want to create. This can help you develop an emotional connection with your audience.
Social media sets a perfect stage to uncover your brand story to a wider audience. You can share your journey, introduce your team, showcase your values in action, and connect with audience on a deeper level.
One such brand you can learn this practice best from is Patagonia. This brand is known for its commitment to environmental activism, and its social media showcases it very well.
To proceed with this practice, you should understand the fundamental beliefs driving your company and the type of platform you want to choose.
How to stay away from misconceptions?
To be brilliant at your job, you need to constantly learn and experiment. This means following the latest information, trends, and concepts while using your judgment to assess their value. Kinex Media can be a helpful resource, keeping you up-to-date on social media marketing best practices.