Yes, you need social media marketing to enhance awareness of your business. Yadayada… Every marketer will tell you that and it’s probably something you already knew. So, who cares?
Social media marketing’s main purpose is to drive people to your website. It is the most targeted ad platform available on the planet. It’s not a fad, it’s here to stay. With stats from Forbes, social media drives 31% of referral traffic to websites. That’s the 31% of customer leads you don’t want to miss out on. Once on your website, your pages should direct traffic to conversions.
It Won’t Work If…
Here’s the “but.” As a standalone marketing strategy, social media won’t work. You have to couple it with other marketing initiatives to really fuel leads. The key point here is “coupled” with other strategies like video marketing, pay-per-click advertising, SEO, and so on. Together, a well-informed strategy and well-rounded marketing approach is the perfect storm, a money-making one.
And here’s another consideration. Social media strategy very quickly becomes outdated. What you were using six months ago (or sooner) to share with followers is not what you should be using today. You need a deliberate social strategy that builds long-term flexibility as social networks adjust their algorithms and their content structure. The average social media users are watchful and savvy to brands that are missing the mark. You can become irrelevant almost instantly if your content isn’t on point and adjusting with current trends.
The quickest way to become irrelevant is to shy away from professionally produced or live video. Video is disrupting the marketing industry with stats to prove it; In just a couple of years, video consumption will be 80% of all web traffic. Posting video directly on your social media will yield higher engagement and kick your visibility through the roof. Not only that, but people want to hear and see your brand in action. Words are becoming futile; you have to make that visual connection.
Interlace Your Strategies
Create what I call an asset circle to supplement social media sharing. The idea is to have one amazing asset (a video) and capitalize on it. Use that video to re-create other assets for your social media presence. The first step is to start shooting the video. If you are hesitant, welcome to the club. Yes, it’s a fearful jump into the unknown, but it would be more fearful to lose your customers to a competitor who is doing video marketing. After publishing your video, take key ideas from the content and expand them into blog posts on your website. You’ve already laid the groundwork from the video, so it should be a quick turnaround to make some posts. All of those blog posts turn into social media promotional material. Not to mention, they’d perform well embedded on your website for SEO. You see where I’m going with this? Social media has to go hand in hand with other strategies.
Here’s another tip. Break your video up into one to two-minute chunks of digestible material. This will exponentiate the amount of video you can post across your social media. Your followers will always have a new video to watch on your page and give them an insider view.
The Bottom Line
Social media marketing is a digital marketing asset you should be investing in, but in doing so, pair it with other strategies. If you want next-level social media, stop spamming your followers with throw-away content. Give them something meaningful through a video. We can help you re-invent your social media strategy with our proven ROI track record.