Social media marketing is a strategy used to connect with target audiences, build brand awareness, and send traffic to a website for little or no money. 

If you want to be successful in business regardless of size, revenue, and industry, social media marketing is critical. Your competitors are currently using it to build awareness and relationships with potential and existing customers. So the longer you wait, the more opportunities you give your competitors to take potential market share 

How Social Media Can Help Your Business

Better communication with your customers

         Social media marketing has changed the way businesses communicate with target audiences. The primary difference between traditional marketing and social media marketing is that businesses can communicate back with target audiences, which is an effective two-way form of communication.  Social media can ultimately help improve customer service and develop deeper relationships with not just customers but also with the media.

More credibility

         If a business isn’t connected to audiences through social media, it could be missing huge opportunities.  Social media can help build brand awareness and attract new customers.  It can also help enhance a company’s overall brand awareness along with sales.

 Create brand evangelists

Consumers make purchases from businesses they like and trust.  There’s no better or more efficient way to create brand evangelists through social media. 

A business can establish a relationship with its followers by providing more opportunities to make prospects into buying customers. When customers are loyal to a brand, they are more likely to stick with it.

Inexpensive way of marketing

         With most marketing strategies, a business has to spend money to make money.  However, with social media, a business can reach millions of people on a shoestring budget. 

*Note - Most social media marketing costs are associated with specific design and advertising.

Increase web traffic and leads

Social media marketing serves online businesses well because it links traffic back to the site.  Not only does social media marketing help with search engine rankings, it helps because of the shareable functionality.   

Designing an Effective Social Media Strategy

 The way you use social media depends on the nature of your business and your target audiences.  Not all social media networks will be an appropriate tactic for your company, so you have to think about the platforms that are most visited by potential and existing customers.

The Social Media Marketing Plan

 To launch any marketing campaign, you need to have a plan to help you reach your goals. Continue reading below to best determine how to develop a plan and framework that works for you.

1). What are your goals?  Where would you like your business to be in 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, and 36 months? 

Once you determine what your goals are, you need to determine your business vision.  A well-thought-out vision statement will help you set realistic goals, stay on track, measure your progress, and ultimately help guide you during the tough times.

2) What’s your business mission?

Your business mission statement should be a concise statement that describes your business philosophy, which is used as a framework to help you make larger business decisions.  The mission statement should answer the following questions:

 A). Who is your target market?

 B). What are the products and services that your business will sell?

C). What problems will your business solve? What needs will your business fill?

 Here are a few mission statement examples from well-known organizations.

Google’s mission statement is: 

“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Starbucks’s mission statement is:

 “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”

Estee Lauder’s mission statement is: 

‘Bringing the Best to Everyone We Touch and Being the Best in Everything We Do.’ 

As you can see, an inclusive, fully- developed mission statement can help your business move from now to the future.

 Target Audiences

Who do you serve?  What does your target audience look like?  Once you have a strong understanding of your target audience, you will be able to develop the right marketing messages, which will save you both time and money.  Essentially, having a thorough understanding of what your target audience wants, you will be able to reach your business goals more effectively.

Goal Setting

What do you want to achieve? What is the point of being in business?

 Potential goals may include:

·      Create brand awareness

·      Generate more leads

·      Drive sales and increase revenue

·      Increase website traffic

·      Provide great customer service

·      Build brand loyalty

·      Position yourself as a thought leader

·      Gain credibility

Planning 

         After you’ve determined what your company’s brand objectives are, then it’s time to develop a plan to guide you through the unpredictable and volatile times.  Your plan needs to include the steps that you will take in setting up the accounts, profiles, and putting together an editorial calendar. 

To help you develop and launch your social media campaign, the next chapter will provide you with all of the information and tips you need.