Alert the media: there’s been a wizard sighting, right here in Salt Lake City, Utah! Social media marketing wizards, that is–but wizards nonetheless! We at Avant8 truly understand the power of good quality social media marketing, and we’ve worked for years on our mastery of this modern magic. Staying true to character, we strive to use our power for good by blessing other businesses with our mythical skills. While the ins and outs of social media marketing are far more complex than one simple blog post can cover, we’d like to pass on at least a little bit of our magic, FYE (for your enchantment).
Why Should We Care?
Aside from the fact that literally everyone is using social media nowadays? There is a surplus of good reasons to invest in quality social media marketing. The world of social media offers a multitude of new and accessible platforms to promote your business and draw in new customers. It also allows businesses to reach a wider demographic, all while collecting valuable data that will help you fine tune your social media marketing approach.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t also point out that in the time of COVID-19, while many of us are confined to our homes, there is ample opportunity to dig deep into the world of social media. Given the limited opportunity for in person networking or event hosting, the online interaction pool is really your best bet! Not to mention everyone also (also confined to their home) is spending a whole lot more of time surfing the social media wave.
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is a measure of how well and in what way consumers recognize and remember your brand. The greater your brand awareness, the more likely and more often a consumer will be familiar with your product, logo, mission, so on and so forth. Brand awareness is an important factor in creating a successful business. You see, if your business sells shoes, you want to make sure that your business is one of the few that come to mind first when someone realizes it’s about time, they get a new pair of kicks. Social media is an excellent tool for increasing brand awareness, as you can reach a wider audience, promote your business, and establish what you’re all about. The more people you reach, and the more often you reach them, the more likely it is that they will think of your business when the time comes that they need to buy whatever product it is you’re selling.
Community Engagement
Engaging followers and social media users is another great way to spread the word around about your business and increase brand awareness. There are a variety of methods to increasing community engagement. If you’re on Instagram, you’ve likely seen some businesses doing giveaways. If you’re a poster business and your Instagram name is @posterpalooza, your giveaway might look something like this: an Instagram post of one of your popular glow–in–the–dark smiley face posters, with a caption stating that one individual will win this free poster – all they have to do is, “1. Follow @posterpalooza 2. Like this post and 3. Tag three friends who love to smile!” This presents an opportunity for users to engage on your account, which Instagram algorithms take note of, thus rewarding your business account and increasing the likelihood that you will reach even more users. Furthermore, it gives users a chance to directly introduce friends to your page. Everybody wins!
Hashtags, Hashtags, #Hashtags !
Using hashtags is an easy way to reach not just a greater audience, but a target audience. Hashtags allow you to tag keywords that are relevant to your brand and business. For instance, if you’re a baker specializing in gourmet cookies, you could tag #BakersOfInstagram, #ChocolateChipCookies, and #GourmetCookies. This connects your post to an explore page, where users can follow those specific hashtags to find posts of their interest. Some businesses even create their own unique hashtag and encourage consumers to use that hashtag when they try their product. This is another form of community engagement, but also a great way to have consumers spread the word about your brand. Furthermore, having your own hashtag can distinguish your brand as more professional. For instance, if you’re a makeup artist named Brianna, you could encourage your clients to post their gorgeous faces with the hashtag “#MakeupByB.”
Collecting Data
The more the data, the better! There are tons of different tools out there to help businesses monitor the traffic and engagement on their social media page. This can help you see what type of audience you’re reaching, when you’re getting the most action, what people seem to like the most, so on and so forth. In turn, this can help you create an informed plan of what to post, when to post and who to target.
Many people don’t know where to start or simply don’t have the time when it comes to analyzing data. That’s why they have social media marketing wizards (like us here in Utah!) to step in and help.