Today, social media marketing is no longer an option for brands, but rather a necessity for businesses across industries. However, if you work at an integrated agency or for a brand, there is a 95% chance that social media may not be the top priority in your entire marketing function.
The remaining 5% are the handful of brands that have cracked the social media code in achieving business results, either in terms of direct sales or awareness levels.
But have you ever wondered why?
In today’s hyper-competitive world, all functions must work together to move the business forward. In an age where brand love and brand trust have become critical metrics, using social media tools as a mere broadcasting platform can only relegate this integral part of a marketing strategy to a ticking activity.
Your social strategy should be an equal split of driving engagement and business while meeting audience expectations. The first thing any social media manager should ask when taking on a new brand is, “why are these people following this brand?”
And here’s how to do it:
● Choose your platforms
● Choose the formats
● Choose your content
● Finally, align your goals between business results and engagement
For example, Facebook’s organic reach, which is almost invisible, is a burning topic of discussion among every social media team. Yet we, at Livspace, get over five million monthly in organic reach without spending a dime. The intervention is then directly reflected in business results that increase website traffic and convince potential customers.
The secret sauce to the numbers is to use the only three content formats that work organically on Facebook – Articles, Groups and FB Watch. Obviously, it’s in line with our audience’s expectations and we’re providing them with the content they’re looking for.
We do this by focusing purely on articles that give our audience tips and tricks, home tours, design ideas and much more. This in turn brings them to our website where they read in detail about the topic they are interested in while also being exposed to the services we provide.
Similarly, Pinterest is another crucial channel for a brand in our category. Here we follow the same path: stories are driven by images and videos with the right SEO keywords and ALT tags, which again migrates people to the site by exposing them to services and getting them into the funnel.
This effort on Pinterest has resulted in over 40 million views per month, again without spending a single dollar on marketing! (Yes, when I first saw this number, I was shocked too!)
On the other end of the spectrum, Instagram and Twitter are purely designed to drive engagement, and those are our two platforms where we reach out and engage our prospects primarily through reels and text tweets that are fun, relatable and shareable. .
Follow and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter.
