by: Rebecca Sims
There are certainly a few rules to follow when it comes to creating your social media campaign for your business. Although the marketing tools for each social media campaign differ from business to business, the bottom line for every business is to increase leads. Here are a few sure fire ways to do so.
1. Be on target, but more importantly, know your target.
Before starting any social media campaign, you must determine who your audience is, and whom you are trying to reach. Ask yourself if you are aiming to generate a presence in your vertical, or generate buzz about a new product or service that you business is offering? Secondly, you should ask yourself what actions would you prefer your audience to take. Do you want them to like or comment on your post? Do you want people to share a product that you offering? Make sure you have these questions in mind before starting your campaign.
2. Focus on quality.
Have you every heard social media enthusiasts say that ubiquitous statement that “content is king?” Well that’s because it is. When you create high quality content that people want to share, it goes viral, which will help your business obtain leads. By creating content that drives engagement, the virality of social media will promote that content, and hopefully, your social links to your business along with it, increasing your “findability.”
3. Be Real.
Believe it or not, social media users enjoy seeing companies that take on a personality. Authenticity is one of the best ways to create a large brand awareness. Take the Oreo vs. AMC social media comical melee that took place back in late September. This horsing around created a sensation, as well as grew both companies’ brand awareness and community just by using comic relief in their tweets. I would advise that most companies who utilize social media take this approach.
4. Integrate Social
Throughout the last few years, it would hard to say that social media doesn’t permeate everything we touch. For example, most shows on television usually have a hashtag at the bottom of the screen where you can tweet them on Twitter. It is the new frontier, sort to speak, of marketing, and more importantly: engagement. Thus, social media should be integrated throughout all marketing efforts, in order to improve results of traditional and more mainstream marketing. Try to review everything your business creates for social media campaign potential.
5. Imitate Successful Campaigns.
Pay attention to what other well-known social media campaigns do, and emulate them with your own creative twist to it. Take the Old Spice Commercial for example.
According to Jeff Bulla’s Social Media blog (www.jeffbullas.com,) Old Spice had some great success with their social media campaign.
- The number one most viewed sponsored YouTube channel of 2012.
- Approximately 240 million views on YouTube
- 80000 new twitter followers in two days
- Facebook Interaction increased 800%
- Most importantly, Old Spice sale figures increased by 107%.
The bottom line for creating a Social Media campaign is lead generation and receive ROI for your social efforts. Lead generation via social begins with building relationships, and creating engagement between you and your customers. By creating a solid social media marketing campaign, you not only bolster your social efforts, but hopefully increase your sales as well.