12 Ways to Improve your Startup’s Social Media Marketing
“Social Media is not just an idle activity for the young. If you do it right, it’s a +ROI of the valuable time & resources of your startup. Surround yourself with people who not only support you, but share their ideas about ways to “blast” your online presence to get more attention, followers & sales”. Peter/CXO Wiz4.biz
SMM Topics: Plan & Align, Influencer, Analytics, Personas, Opinion, Test, Claim, Attribution models, Take-Over, NPR, Expos, The 5 Whys.
The BiG Boys do it !!! Dutch airline, KLM has developed a Social Media Marketing (SMM) strategy revered by marketers. Twitter, Facebook & Instagram masterfully use SMM to provide outstanding customer service and to advance the organization’s prestig . As a result of this strategy, KLM makes roughly 25 mil Euro from Social Media. After IBM revised their Social Media Marketing strategy to focus on increasing engagement on LinkedIn, the company saw a 4X increase in Sales. It’s all about . . .
REAL LIFE !!! REAL NEWS !!! REAL VOICES !!!
“From our work in business, we’ve found that an effective Social Media Marketing strategy is an incredibly powerful tool to create a multiplier effect on experiential Marketing,” says Daniel Yaffe, co-founder of experience Relationship Mgt Platform Any Road. “It opens connections between the online & offline worlds and helps create brand ambassadors.” Here are 12 ways Social Media marketers can improve their SMM strategy to increase the success of their startup.
1. Plan & Align on the Goals of Social Media Marketing.
Create a Plan that summarizes the Goals of your company’s Social Media strategy & distribute it to senior Leaders, in order to create alignment Ensure that key players, approve the Plan and are aligned on the Goals of Social Media Marketing. Failing to align, will make it difficult for you & your team to live up to expectations – if different managers expect different outcomes.
2. Develop an Influencer Marketing strategy.
Over 95 % of marketers who use some sort of IM strategy, believe it is effective. Brands like Harley Davidson, KitchenAid, & North Face use IM of Leaders or Celebrities – to gain access to skeptical audiences who have become weary of traditional Marketing & Advertising techniques.
3. Use a Social Media Analytics platform.
It’s difficult to know whether or not your SMM strategy is working if you don’t have “analytics” to provide detailed information. For example, if your Social strategy is focused on Instagram, you should invest in a tool like OwlMetrics to understand follower engagement, growth, & click-thru rate. This sort of data can help marketers understand if their strategy is producing meaningful results that impact key metrics like revenue or brand awareness.
4. Create Customer Personas based on Interviews.
When you think “batteries” what’s the first brand the pops into your head? What about when you think about “body spray?” Chances are it took you less than one recall brands associated with batteries or body spray. This is thanks to the remarkable work done by marketers at CPGs (companies that sell consumer packaged goods).
Organizations like the makers of Duracell batteries) and Unilever (the makers of Axe body spray) lean heavily on Marketing teams to create differentiation for otherwise ordinary products. Marketers develop meaningful campaigns by always thinking about the customer first. Marketing “personas” allow the world’s best marketers to do just that.
Duracell & Unilever invest millions of dollars each year in getting to know their customers. They conduct focus groups, surveys & one-on-one interviews to learn what the customer wants. Then they develop Marketing campaigns that make a difference.
Social Media marketers should learn from the best Marketing organizations by developing clear Customer Personas thru Interviews. Talk to current & prospective customers to learn about their needs & desires, then create SMM campaigns that are aligned with what customers “really want”.
5. Have a clear Opinion about Topics that matter to your Target Audience.
There are over 800 million Social Media users on Instagram alone, and there are over 2 billion people on Social Media. As a result, networks have become a crowded place. It’s difficult for brands to cut through the crowd. In order to differentiate your Social Media profiles from others, be sure to develop a clear perspective on the world and make sure that this perspective comes through in the “content” you share. Brands like Slack, Nike, & Rolls-Royce have found Social Media success by sharing content that has a clear & confident style + perspective.
6. Test the “effectiveness” of each Platform in your Marketing mix.
Simply because a Social Media platform is popular among some audiences, doesn’t mean it will work for you. Test the effectiveness of each Social Media platform in your Marketing mix. Use an all-in-one Social Media analytics tool to compare performance across platforms.
It may also be the case that some platforms are better at producing one type of result, while other platforms are more effective at producing another type of result. For example, Instagram might be great at generating brand awareness, whereas Facebook may be better suited for generating purchases.
7. Stake a Claim on new Social Media platforms.
Sometimes having the right approach can make it considerably easier to grow a large & engaged Social Media following. Be sure to set up SM accounts on new fledgling networks in order to reserve your brand – early in the game.
8. Measure success with a Multi-Touch attribution model.
Channels that are Return on Investment + [ROI] are much more likely to find long-term support from company leadership than channels that are ROI (-). But it can be difficult for Social Media marketers to prove ROI if the Attribution model is too narrow. Using a Multi-Touch attribution model, SM marketers can show the impact SM has on acquiring new leads, and in nurturing existing leads down the Sales funnel. Tools like Bizable & BrightFunnel can help SM marketers to estimate the revenue generated thru each Marketing touch, rather than relying on only First-Touch models – which tend to overlook the impact of SM.
9. Try a Social Media profile Take-Over.
An inexpensive way to gain access to new audiences is to do an account Take-over. Here, two brands simply swap accounts for a short period of time, and announce to followers that the Swap is happening. This simple Social Media hack can help startups to access new audiences in a fast & cost-effective manner.
10. Treat Social Media followers like NPR treats listeners.
Full credit Guy Kawasaki on this piece of advice. He suggested that Social Media marketers develop a strategy similar to National Public Radio [NPR]. Most of the time NPR provides “value” to listeners in the form of well-researched news & cultural commentary. Every now & then, NPR will ask listeners to reciprocate by making a small donation to keep NPR on the air. Usually, brands provide “value” to followers while asking nothing in return. Once in a while, brands should then ask followers to return the favor by making a purchase or referring someone else.
11. Attend a Social Media Expo to learn new trends.
The Social Media landscape is constantly changing. One year Snapchat is the darling of Social Media marketers, and the next year its future is being questioned. One year Video Loops are the ideal medium for Social content; the next Live Video is where it’s at.
Why? A good way to stay on top of Social Media trends is by attending a Social Media conference – to learn from Influencers & to network with Peers. Events like Social Media Marketing World provide attendees with the latest info about Social Media best practices.
12. Start asking “The 5 Whys.” . . .
when something goes wrong It’s a technique of systematically getting to the bottom of underlying problems that manifest in various mistakes by asking Why 5x to keep digging deeper into the problem after you get each answer to get deeper & deeper into the root causes.
Conclusion
Social Media Marketing has helped a countless number of brands to increase brand awareness, & acquire new customers. Your startup can make the most of SM by focusing on creating a clear & unique voice that appeals to your Target Audience.
Be sure to invest in an Analytics platform to measure performance, and to test a variety of SM networks to determine which ones work best to drive Key Performance Indicators.
Comments: Do you know any other techniques to improve your Social Media Marketing?
from Huff Post 11/19 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4.biz
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