Social Media Secrets Your Business Should Know
Social media marketing has changed the media game. It's now possible to reach your best customers in highly targeted and relatively inexpensive ways. In the past, businesses were limited to TV, radio, print, and billboards. These types of media have their role in marketing, but few provide the kind of immediate feedback that small businesses need to feel confident in continued spending.
However, social media is an incredibly dynamic platform. Each platform's programming, features, benefits, and business models change on a regular basis. These changes in algorithms and policies can mean that the media tactics that produced outstanding results last month are now falling flat. That’s why it’s a full-time job to keep up with the policy changes in platforms and advertising. So while social media might be influential and affordable, it's not a DIY project. Why do some businesses do well with social media while others never gain momentum? The rules are constantly changing, but if you want to make social media work for your business, you should know a few secrets.
SECRET: Social Media Platforms Push Business Posts to the Back of the Line
Simply posting on social media is not enough. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have created algorithms that push your business content to the bottom of social feeds, even if those people have followed your business page. Social media spokespeople claim that this is done to provide a more compelling experience for users, but it also means there’s no free ride for businesses. In fact, some research reports that only about 2% of your page’s followers will ever see your posts.
SECRET: Not all Social Media Platforms are Created Equal
While many platforms like Snapchat and Pinterest report astronomical growth, the great majority of online activity takes place on Facebook. In fact, Facebook outranks other major social media platforms by a factor of ten (or more.) That doesn’t mean that Facebook is the only platform that matters, but it does mean it has far outpaced the competition in both user engagement and marketing sophistication.
SECRET: Businesses Don’t Have to Allow Comments
For many marketers, the thought of allowing people to post comments on their marketing messages is uncomfortable. After all, we’ve all seen the kind of wildly negative comments that can accrue on personal posts. Allowing that kind of access to your business is scary. That’s why most social media platforms offer tools to limit the kinds of comments that can be posted to your account, allowing you to hide comments from other users, or they feature tools to disallow commenting altogether.
SECRET: Companies Don’t have to Spend Much to Get Results With Social Media Ads
You’re probably used to spending thousands on a campaign before you see results. But because social media has such a high engagement level, combined with exceptional targeting tools, it's possible to reach your best customers for very little money. In fact, for a few hundred dollars, you can reach thousands of your best customers within ten miles of your business.
SECRET: You Can Send Social Media Ads to Your Email List
You probably spent a lot of time and effort building an email list, so why not make the most of it? Most social media advertising platforms allow you to upload your email list and send ads to only that list. That means you can focus your advertising spending on your best prospects.
SECRET: You Can Send Ads to People Who Look and Act Just Like Your Email List or Your Customer List
Many social media platforms allow you to upload your email list or customer list, and they’ll create a similar list of people with the same behaviors and characteristics as your list. That means they are basically replicating your list and making it much more extensive—it's like expanding your email list tenfold.
SECRET: You Can Easily Track and Refine Social Media Efforts
Every major social media platform has sophisticated analytics built-in. If you have business accounts, it is easy to see how many people interacted with each post, who saw your ads, and how many people clicked through or liked your ads. That means you can track and optimize your ads in real time, as often as needed. They make it easy to see how many people access your ads on mobile vs. desktop, which messages get more responses, and what kind of people engage with your advertising.
Bottom Line?
Social media can be effective and affordable, but it's a complex tool that works best when you understand all the challenges and opportunities. So, whether you want to try out a single ad or dig into an entire content marketing program, Cup O Content is your one-stop shop. Contact us today for a free analysis, and let us show you how we can caffeinate your content marketing.
Want to read more blogs about social media? Check out these Cup O Content articles.
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