Social media marketing explained in Baby Steps
You may be aware of the fact that there are 100 million daily active users on Social Media. So how do you Step in this overwhelming market?
I don’t mean stepping in as a consumer. You may already be a consumer i.e. an active user. Here we are talking about being an Influencer i.e. Marketer/Content writer.
There are tons of social media platforms available in 2020, more than we may know of.
Some of them are here to stay, like YouTube and Facebook carrying around 2.3 Billion monthly active users.
Some of them are Trendsetters for young lads, like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat.
Then few are there for pompous users, like LinkedIn and Twitter.
And many more others serving various kinds of socialization activities. So first, you need to
Pick the right social network
Because the problem with being on all of them simultaneously is that
You don’t want to be on Instagram and do a mediocre job.
You don’t want to be on Facebook and look like you need to get a life.
You don’t want to be a noob on LinkedIn.
You want to be the Best and nothing less.
Influencing all of them all together is next to impossible, I kid you not this time. Some 5 or 6 years ago it was way easier to get traffic from Social media than it is now.
Now their algorithms are really strict because of the colossal competition.
If you are not the best of the best you are not going to do well. So pick the right social network.
Having said that, let’s run a simple diagnosis and find out the ONE platform for you.
If you are
B2B — LinkedIn is for you. It is one step up Twitter for B2B.
B2C — The order goes like this Facebook > Instagram > YouTube
Good at videos — YouTube duh!
If your target audience is
Older demographic — Go for Facebook and Twitter,
Younger demographic — Instagram and Snapchat (in some cases TikTok might come in handy)
But make sure to use the right network from day one.
Once the platform is finalized
Start creating content
It doesn’t matter if you have few followers or no followers at all. Followers come after the content comes.
First things first — Furnish your profile.
Username, Email address, Proper pictures, Good and honest description.
If you lack anywhere on these basic things, you are giving people a reason to not follow you.
Furnishing your profile also includes the acknowledgement of the benefits that people are going to get by following you.
Again, Content is important.
Not sure what the content should look like?
Check out your competitors. Make sure you know what you are dealing with.
For instance, you are in the Logistics business. Check out all the local and global competitors. Study the marketing campaigns of, say, Fed-Ex, or DHL.
Don’t be shocked when I mention them.
No worries if you are a beginner. Don’t underestimate your business — like why should I even look at the giants of this industry when I am nowhere near them. No, they also started at some point.
Studying your competitors will give you a good idea of what content to drop and what to keep.
Don’t know how to create content?
To begin with: Creating content can be as simple as status updates, a video of yourself describing your business, sharing some links of the relevant articles.
Go to www.buzzsumo.com, type in your industry keywords, and get all the relevant articles.
Buzzsumo will also tell you what people like on which SMP (Social Media Platform) so you can resonate findings with your selected platform.
Along with content creation, your connection with people plays a key role.
Build a connection
Sitting behind a computer all day long working on your business sometimes gives you a feeling of isolation. It doesn’t mean you are not connecting with people. It’s “Social Network”
Friending more people, following them, interacting with them — Building connections.
If someone isn’t your friend, don’t invite them to your page directly. Go to their profile, check their posts, and help them by resolving any of their queries.
Look out for people asking questions to your competitors — be nice to them by helping, thank them for leaving a comment if they do.
The more you engage the better. They will come back to your page, engage deeper and you will get a die-hard, loyal, genuine, organic follower.
Don’t go for the followers’ count
Prefer quality over quantity.
Understand the engagement algorithms of your SMP. If you have 100,000 followers but only 100 engaged people, believe me, THAT IS A MESS.
Your SMP will be like “WOAH! This content is sh*t” and your content is going nowhere because no one simply likes it.
Contrarily, If you have only 100 followers but doing all three things
Like — Share — Comment
Social media thinks “This content is amazing, it should go viral”
Conclusion
Don’t push people towards your business. Be Patient — Nourish it organically by engaging and building connections with people. Some businesses require 3 to 12 months of real engagement before the actual sales begin.
So don’t promote it until at least 3 or 6 months. Genuine business isn’t promoted from day one.
Please let me know in the comments section if you found this article helpful in any way. If you think I missed out on something important, do comment.
Or if you have any queries. Shoot them at me.
