Fundamental Social Media Goals You Should Set

Marketing tactics have evolved over the years and one of the most effective strategies of today is the utilization of social media. Whether you want to create visibility around your brand, get customers to sign up for newsletters, share your latest blog post or consider purchasing a product, social media channels are the perfect platforms for reaching your audience.

One of the largest, and most effective, demographics that brands are targeting right now are Millennials. And if you know anything about Millennials, then you know that there is no better way to reach them than through social media. But even beyond this specific audience, generations of consumers are turning to social platforms like LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram and other networks in order to aid in their research, consideration and validation of trusting a brand and its’ products and services.

Whether consumers are looking for a blog post on a particular service offering, a review or recommendation from a friend about a specific product, or they want to read a whitepaper about a certain industry, content is being searched, consumed and engaged with through social media.

Related: Marketing to Millennials: Understanding Who They Are and How To Win Them Over

Remember that social media tactics and results will differ depending on the brands’ goal. Be mindful of the format of content that performs best on each social platform. Also, different audiences are on different platforms, so be careful of who you’re targeting and where you’re targeting them at. Regardless of the message you’re trying to share and the audience you’re trying to share it with, social media channels are one of the strongest marketing tactics of today. Here are just a few of the many social media goals you should set for your brand.

Create A Specific Tactic For Each Social Media Channel

It’s essential to be present on various platforms since you are trying to cater to multiple audiences. Be sure to conduct research in order to identify the audience that is most present on each channel, as well as the format of content that they most consume on each platform. If you’re trying to promote accounting software to business people, Instagram will not be an effective channel for sharing a whitepaper on streamlining accounting tasks.

Likewise, if you want to get people talking about this years’ hottest ankle boots, you won’t have much success by posting pictures on LinkedIn. If your target audience for a social media campaign is Generation Z, remember that Instagram is the preferred platform over Twitter and Facebook. Or, if you’re targeting the Generation X audience, focus your efforts on Facebook and LinkedIn.

While these may seem like obvious blunders, they happen all too often. So make sure you clearly identify who you want to speak to on each social media channel: business professionals, Generation X, Millennials, etc., as well as what types of content will be engaged with the most through the platforms, such as whitepapers, infographics or custom imagery. Investing time to research your audience and their behaviors will ensure you’re creating and promoting tailored content that consumers will connect with and engage with.

Create And Bolster Brand Awareness

If you want customers to talk about your brand, you have to be visible to them. And unless you have millions of dollars to spend on billboard advertisements, TV commercials and radio ads, odds are that you’ll have to reach your customers through the Internet. Luckily for you, the Web is a powerful place, especially social media platforms. The best way to improve your online influence is by being present –and active– on social media.

If a customer is aware of your brand, and is able to interact with it, the more likely they will re-share your content on their social platforms, which means their followers will see your content. If you want to bolster brand awareness, it’s crucial that your brand have validation, positive reviews and recommendations from real, every-day customers.

If you want to create and bolster brand awareness, it’s crucial that you invest in your social media team. A 2016 report created by Buffer found that 85% of marketers surveyed utilize social media in order to bolster brand awareness. Not only does being on social media promote brand awareness, but it also strengthens the brands’ community, helps with distribution of content, contributes to lead-gen and facilitates customer support. If the brand is reachable on social media, it will create a personal touch with the customer.

Related: Integrating Social Media Strategies with Other Channels

Another key reason why you need to bolster brand awareness is to build up your brand’s’ community. The number of likes or followers that a brand’s’ social media page has is the biggest credibility factor. If 300,000 people are following a particular page, other people –and search engines– will find it to be a relevant and authoritative page.

But developing a community on social media platforms does more than build credibility for your brand, it also strengthens a relevancy factor. Social media platforms consider highly engaging brands that have a large social following to be more visible in search. The more visible you are in search, the more followers you’ll gain, and the larger your community grows, the stronger your reputation becomes.

Leverage The Power Of Influencers

If you’re looking to spread brand awareness and drive conversions through social media tactics, you have to realize that you may not have the largest impact on consumers. Although you might not want to admit it, influencers can actually sell your brand better than you can. Whether you call it Referral Marketing or Word-of-Mouth Marketing, the tactic is extremely effective; and it’s one your brand must capitalize on as a single influencer can impact thousands of people with a single social media post.

Unlike ads or branded content, referrals from customers are typically more genuine and unbiased. Therefore, customers are more likely to purchase an item if they heard or read about it from someone they know or trust. According to a Nielson study, 82% of consumers in the United States seek recommendations before making a purchase. The study goes on to draw a significant correlation between someone sharing or talking about a brand on social media and their purchasing behavior; 67% of survey responders said they are more likely to purchase a product after a family member or friend shared it on social media or through email.

Related: Getting Started with Social Media Influencer Outreach

While consumers follow friends and family members on social media, they may not turn to them for advice when it comes to their purchasing decisions. But if they follow a celebrity or social media influencer, they may seek their opinion or experience to validate a purchase. These influencers are perceived as credible, genuine and unbiased, so their followers are more likely to get behind a product if an influencer supports it.

In fact, SimilarWeb reported that individual influencers are a powerful traffic driver and are appearing in the top 20 referral sources for leading online retail destinations. One particular influencers’ website is the fourth largest traffic driver to Revolve.com – an e-commerce site that is estimated to hit $1 billion in sales this year. This goes to show the power that influencers have in the purchase funnel, and why brands need to leverage that clout.

Increase Traffic To Your Website

While your end goal may be to generate more leads, have consumers download a whitepaper, sign up for a newsletter or ultimately lead to conversions, none of these objectives can be achieved if consumers don’t visit your website. Remember that sending visitors to your site is the first step of the process, the second –and most important part– is keeping visitors on your site until they have completed a certain task.

Related: How to Deliver Value at Every Stage of the Customer Journey

If you want someone to download a whitepaper, make it readily available to them once they hit a landing page. If you want someone to purchase a certain item, provide them with all of the material they would need in order to feel comfortable making that purchase. This is where it’s crucial that your site contains content that targets consumers who are at various stages of the purchase funnel. Create content for customers that speaks to the benefits of your product, why the customer needs it and how they can get it. Give them all of the tools on your website so that they don’t leave your page and go to a competitor’s’ site in order to make their purchase.

Your Audience To Support Your Brand

Social media channels are not platforms for brands to bombard consumers with aggressive sales pitches. Don’t force products at people, if you’re constantly trying to get them to buy something from you then odds are they won’t be following you on social media for long. The most important thing is that you provide value to your community and represent your brand as an industry leader. Use your social channels to engage with your community; keep in mind that engagement can come from gentle CTAs that you include in your posts.

Ask people to vote on their favorite summer lipstick color, encourage them to share their favorite quinoa recipe, challenge them to post a picture of a water thermos on their next hike. This will help bring your brand to the forefront of their minds, without pushing them to go buy something. Remember that your brand needs to be authentic and should genuinely care about its’ community. Fun and encouraging posts drive customer engagement while your brand is able to subtly showcase a new product that it encourages consumers to explore and consider.

Stay Engaged With Your Audience

Once you’ve invested the time and effort to secure a customer, or gain their attention via social media, it’s important that you maintain that effort in order to preserve that trust and relationship with your audience. If a customer shares one of your brands’ products, or leaves a review about your brand on social media, be sure to like, retweet or engage with the content that they posted.

Show your gratitude for the support that they’re given your brand. If a follower constantly shares every cinnamon vodka-based recipe that your brand promotes on social media, try tagging that consumer in the newest social media post, share the new product with them directly. Building a community has to be equally beneficial for both parties, so think about how you can reward your followers. Share codes, promotions, sneak peek offers and other incentives that only your followers are able to take advantage of.

This will show that you value their support, that you’re genuinely interested in them, and this authenticity will create a strong trust between the consumer and your brand. While this may be time consuming, it’s certainly worth the effort to establish a long-lasting and powerful relationship with your community.

It’s crucial that you establish visitor loyalty through your social media efforts. The more often a specific user comes to your website, the longer they stay on the site, and the longer they’re on your page the more likely they are to convert.

Remember that a conversion isn’t just making a purchase, it can also mean downloading a whitepaper, sharing an infographic on social media, signing up for a newsletter, or another meaningful action. As long as consumers are engaging with your brand, that means they are promoting and validating your brand to their followers. And brand loyalty is one of the key factors to long-term growth for your business.

Wrapping Up

Remember that while building up your social media team and your presence on various social channels may be tedious, it is absolutely worth the investment. Building up a community will allow you to engage with them in a meaningful way, just be sure that you’re establishing a mutually beneficial relationship.

Not only will this strengthen your brand’s’ relationship with a follower, but it could turn your follower into a promoter, and influencer, for your brand. Creating a positive experience with your audience through social media will help increase brand awareness, loyalty, customer satisfaction, lead to conversions and ultimately increase revenue for your brand.