Social media marketing isn’t going anywhere and the brands that embrace and grow alongside these platforms reap the benefits. And rightly so.
Consumers want to share their personal experiences with a product or service that provides value to their life. Social media platforms provide the point of contact and conversation between your brand and consumer.
You have to pivot every campaign for every platform toward larger goals while always being ready to redirect your efforts in the constantly shifting landscape of social media.
Thankfully, there is a way to accomplish this juggling game of social media and there’s no better time of year to tackle the task than now. Rejuvenate your social media presence with a spring-cleaning and lay a strong foundation for your 2018 social media marketing campaigns.
Social Media Branding and the Keys to Consistency
People crave real human connection and they want to feel that same connection with the brands they invest time and money in. The only way to create a genuine connection between brand and consumer is to consistently remain authentic to your brands identity on every platform you use.
It’s no surprise that one thing successful brands have in common is their ability to create consistency across all channels. By using recognizable assets and brand-specific copywriting, an identity is created that lives in the mind of your consumers.
A memorable brand identity is a genuine one, and a genuine brand is a consistent one.
Rejuvenate your landing pages
Take a moment to assess the landing page of each platform your brand leverages and interrogate each for consistency.
Do all assets and copy align with your brands identity and core values? Consumers become lifelong advocates for brands that are true to their values, especially if those values already sync with their personal beliefs.
Clean up your social media platforms regularly by emphasizing brand identity above all else and keeping your pages up to date. Ask yourself the following questions as you work through the landing profile pages of each platform you use
- What does each page say about your brand? Above all else, you should look for inconsistencies that don’t match up with your brand’s identity. By weeding out the assets and copy that don’t align with your branding strategy you will create a consistent and strong brand identity.
- Does your brand look the same?
There should be a consistency with visual assets as well as branded color pallets or themes. Consumers prefer brands that are easily recognizable and instantly identifiable to them. For example, - Does your brand communicate the same?
The way your brand talks to your consumers should be recognizable and consistent across all channels. - Does each platform tell the same story to consumers?
There is nothing worse than a brand that says one thing, but actively does another. - Fill out information for your social media profiles, pages, groups, and other properties completely. Each field offers the chance to promote a specific aspect of your business.
The more familiar you are with your brand identity and overall marketing strategy the easier it will become to promote the important aspects of your brand on each landing page. You want your brand to leverage every opportunity it can to express itself through every field of every platform.
Social Media Platforms
Start by looking at the platforms your brand currently leverages and identify the type of content you are sharing for each and the audience being reached. Are any of your current platforms falling flat or creating resistance for your brand?
Chances are you don’t need them.
It’s important to understand the platforms you use and to acknowledge that not all platforms are powerful for your specific brand story or engagement. Eliminate platforms that don’t benefit the conversation between you and the consumer.
What are your brands top “power” platforms?
You must understand what the consumer is looking for as well ass what each platform is used for. Knowing what direction to pivot your social media campaign will depends on how your consumer is interacting with content and where.
Use awareness and engagement records from 2017 for all active social media accounts to determine the platforms that enhanced your brand and increased engagement.
Once you know which platforms your consumer is hanging out on and interacting with your brand, you can look to see what other platforms they also use and cross-promote your other social media networks to gain a wider engagement.
- Facebook is still one of the most powerful social media platforms to leverage because of it’s massive audience and it’s highly personalized advertising options.
- Targeted advertising allows you to speak directly to your exact consumer, not vaguely to a vast group of similar people.
- Keep all profiles, pages, and groups updated and social, it’s important to engage with your consumers through every opportunity given to you.
- Promote yourself daily by providing helpful posts on a daily basis, so make sure you plan your content calendar out ahead of time.
- Twitter is all about conversation so it makes for a great platform to get cozy and gossip with your fave consumers.
- Take advantage of the analytics offered by Twitter. You can assess the number of retweets, link clicks, likes, replies, and overall engagement rate as well as the top audience demographics like interests, gender, household income, education, and more.
- Be sure to look at your most dedicated followers and follow them in return.
- Constantly update your Instagram account on a daily basis, provided fresh new photo and video content to increase exposure.
- Plan ahead and cross-post your Instagram updates to Twitter and Facebook so that you don’t have to create new content each time, but instead sprinkle it around over the course of a week so that you gain additional exposure.
- Due diligence is key to finding relevant and trending hashtags. Invite Instagram fans to become part of the conversation and share their photo and video content about your business using a custom hashtag.
Forecasting for 2018
When you begin your social media spring cleaning, imagine what challenges could surface during the upcoming year and the ways you can plan ahead to prevent or solve them.
Look ahead to the coming year and envision what objectives you expect your digital marketing plan to achieve. Can you spot any potential weak spots or leaks in your campaign?
Imagine the challenges that could surface and the ways you can plan ahead to prevent or solve them.
Security and Legal
Always make sure every social media platform you use is up to date with the latest rules and policies being set into place. We are all aware of the influx of Privacy Policy Update email’s over the past few weeks and you want to make sure you’re brand is up to date too.
Conclusion
As you plan your social media campaigns ahead of time remember that keeping your content valuable and helpful is much more important than advertising your products. The connection between brand and consumer is where the magic occurs and there are countless ways to do that. Consider a free Woobox account, it allows you to build as many giveaways, quizzes, and other promotional assets without needing a subscription until you plan to publish and run a campaign.
Stay on top of your social media in 2018 by deep cleaning your profiles and platforms now and keeping them clean throughout the year.