Social media is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to engage with your customers. Not only can you successfully leverage a social media campaign on relatively little or zero budget, but 78% of people who sell on social media outsell their peers who don’t.
So, here are eight top tips to help you run a social media campaign that makes an impact.
1. Audit your current social media presence
Optimising your social presence is essential so make sure it is as complete as possible. Include contact details, opening times and photos in your business profile to increase engagement and raise your chances of getting found in online searches.
2. Know your target audience
Look at who is already engaging with you, who you want to engage with your business, and consider where they are most likely to be.
Do this by researching your existing customer database if you have one. If not, you can create a persona – a fictional "example" customer – of the kind of person who will be interested in your products or services. Include things like their shopping habits, their job title, demographic and location.
3. Choose your social channel
Your offering, audience and the industry you serve will help you decide what social channels will work best for your business – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or Instagram, for example.
For Facebook, the largest number of users are in the 25-30 bracket, closely followed by 30-49-year-olds, whereas 18-24-year-olds are the highest users of Instagram.
Small retailers with physical products to sell may see more value in using visually engaging channels such as Facebook and Instagram. If you’re a professional service or business-to-business, then LinkedIn is most appropriate. Read our guide on content marketing to find out out how you can better market your business on LinkedIn.
4. Create a compelling bio
Your mission statement should convey your business' core aims and values – and there's no better showcase for it than in a social media bio. This should be pithy, meaningful, and memorable, and acts as a quick glance of your mission: do you work to help climate change, reduce plastic waste or only use organic products? Make sure that's front-and-centre across all your business' social media platforms. Hootsuite has a useful guide on how to craft the perfect social media bio.
5. Define your objectives and KPIs
Every marketing campaign should have clear, realistic objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure your campaign’s success.
Some of the main KPIs are the number of impressions your content gets, what your reach is, how many times a piece of content is shared, your engagement rate, and conversions of leads to customers.
These metrics and more will be captured by your chosen social media platform. So, decide where you want to be in a set time frame – for example, how many extra engagements you have had within a month, six months or a year.
6. Plan your content
The most tactical part of your campaign is the planning, curation and deployment of your content. Instagram is all about community and this is evident in the success of user generated content on the channel. This type of content sees a 4.5% conversion rate as well as humanises your brand.
The power of Facebook lies in the shareability of your content – either through the groups you set up that relate to your business or by joining those that are already established. Remember, no-one will want to like or share content without reason. Stories and video content continue to be among the most popular posts on Facebook and Instagram. See what your competitors are doing well and aim to tap into current trends.
Make sure your content ends with a clear call to action. A good tip is to always use verbs and create a sense of urgency to encourage action on the part of the reader such as "buy now” or "learn more”.
There are a number of social media management platforms, including Hootsuite and Buffer, that allow you to schedule, manage and publish your content.
7. Promote your content
All social media platforms have campaign management tools in place to help you boost your content if you have some money to spend. You can set limits on what you pay, choose who you want your content to be seen by and identify areas of the country to target.
8. Track, analyse and optimise
If your posts generate engagement, your following is increasing or you notice a boost in website traffic in your analytics, then you’re on the right path. But you should keep optimising your social media strategy. For example, research and update keywords targets, which you can also use as hashtags, to include in your content.
An American Express® Business Card can help you make the most of your social media campaigns. It's accepted by all the aforementioned tools and platforms, so you can start earning Membership Rewards® points for your ads and promotions. You also get up to 54 day, thereby giving you more flexibility in your budget.
Find out more about American Express Business Cards.
- The maximum payment period on purchases is 54 calendar days and is obtained only if you spend on the first day of the new statement period and repay the balance in full on the due date.
- Membership Rewards points are earned on every full £1 spent and charged, per transaction. Terms and conditions apply.
