When it comes to marketing your business and growing your consumer base, social media is not just important, it’s absolutely essential. These days, you can pretty much assume that anyone between the ages of 13 and 30 is active on at least one social networking site. Granted, some social media users are younger, and some are older, but those in the 13-30 range (also known as Millennials or Generation Y) represent a massive portion of social media users, which is why every company should be heavily focused own social marketing efforts.
Most companies these days have caught on to the fact that the more you can increase your visibility on social media, the better. Big brands like Instant Checkmate, Whole Foods Market, Taco Bell, Adidas Athletic Wear, etc., are great examples of how companies can dominate social media by utilizing certain tips and tricks that allow them to reach as many web users as possible. If you want the inside scoop (which you should), then check out the five tips below to learn how your company can achieve social media success!
1. Take Advantage Of Trending Topics
Lots of social media platforms (Facebook, Google+, Twitter) utilize hashtags, which are words or phrases preceded by the “#” symbol. Hashtags are used to track the content of posts and categorize the information based on popularity. If a certain topic is being talked about by a large portion of the site’s users, then the topic is trending. If you see a trending hashtag that has some relevance to your brand, then it’s always smart to create a post using that specific tag. By doing this, your post will show up when people click the tag, and since it’s trending, you’ll reach a larger audience.
2. Respond To Customers
Nothing makes consumers happier than seeing a company that acknowledges and responds to customer comments and concerns in a timely fashion. It shows that the company cares, and that they are available to help. These days, social media has become a popular forum for customers to voice their opinions, which are not always good. It’s important to respond to these messages or comments right away. Many companies, like Taco Bell for example, will respond to negative comments publicly in order to show fans that they’re taking responsibility and owning up to a mistake made at one of their restaurants.
3. Utilize All Social Networks
When companies are starting out on social media, they usually go straight for the kingpins (Facebook, Twitter, Google+) but they forget that there are several other social networks that they could be utilizing. Whole Foods Market is a great example of a company that has dominated the smaller social networks. Sure, they’re active on Facebook and Twitter, but they also maintain a solid presence on Pinterest, which is less popular in the realm of corporate marketing. Whole Foods’ Pinterest homepage shows that they have 150,587 followers, 55 boards, and nearly 3,000 unique pins. That’s pretty impressive, and it proves that there is a ton of potential in utilizing the underdogs of social networking.
4. Keep An Eye On Your Competitors
It’s always smart to stay on top of your competitors’ social media pages so that you can analyze their strategy and see what they’re doing differently. When you’re doing this, make sure to ask yourself a few important questions: What are they doing? Is it working? Are fans engaging with their posts? The reason these questions are important is because you definitely don’t want to emulate a competitor’s marketing strategy if it’s a bad one. If their efforts aren’t working for them, then obviously they’re not going to work for you. Then again, if they are onto something good, then you have to figure out a way to learn from it and apply it to your own efforts without actually copying or duplicating the competition’s social media campaign.
5. Make Your Fans LOL
Laughter goes a long way on social media, which is evident in the fact that funny posts get shared way more than boring informative ones. If someone sees a post in their news feed that makes them laugh out loud, then it’s almost guaranteed that they’re going to share, retweet, +1, or repin it. So, as a company, you have to invoke your inner comedian and find ways to creatively infuse some humor into your social media posts.
What kind of posts do YOU like to see from companies on social media? Let us know in the comments!
Ashley Bordeaux is a blogger from New York, NY. She specializes in writing about branding and social media marketing.
