Ericka Lewis
Successful social media campaigns rely on content marketing for much of their impact and lead generation abilities. If you’re looking for new ways to make your social media marketing strategies work harder for your company, you need to embrace some of these powerful strategies for improving the results of your inbound marketing efforts and for crafting an effective social media campaign.
1. Make it personal
Customers and prospects respond better to relevant content than they do to generic messages that don’t speak to them. Make it personal by addressing the audience directly using words such as “you” and “your” and try to address issues that you know your target audience cares about.
2. Make it frequent
Sometimes it may feel like you are constantly sending your message out to your followers, and perhaps you’re starting to think that it may be too much. In fact, whatever your topic, you probably aren’t posting about it enough. You need to vary the message so you're not sending the same thing every time. Remember that it doesn't have to be all you content. Find other content your audience is interested in and share that.
3. Create a sense of urgency
Many successful social media campaigns include an urgent call to action. Whether it’s an offer with a limited quantity, a short expiration or a requirement to be among the first to sign up, creating a sense of urgency is one of the most successful social media marketing strategies.
4. Encourage sharing
Ask your followers to share your post with their friends and their friends’ friends. Make the campaign witty, useful or thought provoking to help it go viral. Don’t forget to repay the favor by retweeting some of your most important followers’ posts. You might also create a “Friends and Family” promotion that anyone can share.
5. Make it different or remarkable
People are used to seeing offers for five or ten percent off, new product introduction sales, or a free iPad and the like, but if you can create an offer that is truly different and remarkable, you will get much more traction. Before you post it, put yourself in the user’s shoes and ask yourself, “What’s in it for me?” If the answer makes you say “WOW!” then you have a winner.
6. Do some research
Find out the best time to post for your target market so that your campaign hits right at the sweet spot so you can generate more interaction. In the weeks leading up to your new social media campaign, analyze the response to messages sent on different days and times to see when you get the best results. Once you know the best time to launch your content, you will have a better chance of creating a successful social media campaign.
7. Budget
You can certainly throw out an occasional tweet or Facebook post without much budget or thought, but that doesn’t constitute a social media campaign. To be successful, you need a budget that will allow you to develop a more robust campaign. You may also want to put some money behind a few sponsored posts on the different social media networks you use. Be sure to measure for effectiveness.
For successful social media campaigns, take these tips to heart. The best and most successful social media marketing strategies rely on word of mouth rather than just one or two large influencers. Try to make your campaign so catchy that it spreads like wildfire from friend to friend, and then to their friends’ friends. Word of mouth marketing lasts longer, infects more deeply and spreads further than any other type of marketing. That’s the reason why, if done right, social media marketing is ultimately the best form of inbound marketing for long-term results.
