Five Commandments Of Social Media Marketing
Social media consultant, Zoe Cairns, shares five best practices that brands should follow to make the most of their social media strategy.
Crafting an efficient social media strategy is one of the biggest challenges for new-age marketers and brand managers. Zoe Cairns gives five tips to help marketers understand how to stand out in the crowded social media world and reach out to the consumers:
1) Build trust
According to Cairns, most people are looking for brand recommendations and social media allows this easily through user generated content. Since people can share their thoughts on social media about any brand, it makes it easier for people to trust a brand if it gets positive reactions on social media.
2) Look for consumer insights
Cairns believes that it’s more challenging for brands to promote on social media because the brand is not in total control of the content that gets generated. However, in her view the user-generated content can provide crucial insights to brand owners and help them approach their audience in a more targeted way.
3) Get the strategy in place
Social media marketing success is the outcome of well planned strategy, says Cairns. She believes that it is important for marketers to know what they want to achieve, be able to differentiate between brand awareness or engagement, and above all know how to choose the right social media platform to target their audience.
4) Don’t hard sell
According to Cairns, it is important for brands and marketers to convert social media conversations to potential leads. However, making a hard sell is never an option. It is important for brands to realise what additional value they can give back to the consumers to keep them engaged. In her view, the mistake that brands often make is to bombard potential customers with communication which often leads to a situation where brands tend to get ignored. In order to avoid it, the art of subtle engagement is the right way forward.
5) Power of algorithms
Cairns is a strong believer in the power of algorithms, especially when it comes to making content strategy for social media marketing. “The best practice is to look at algorithms and guide the content strategy accordingly. I would say algorithms are controlling social media communication in a major way. Moreover, social media itself is not the answer to having a great marketing strategy. It has to be done with other media platforms for effective reach,” she stated.