By Farid Gasim
Source: Currati
According to Wordstream, over 50 million businesses use Facebook Business Pages with 2 million of them using Facebook for advertising in the US (2016). Instagram, on the other hand, earns $595 million in mobile ad revenue per year.
These stats just show the huge potential of social media marketing and its impact on increasing sales. Most marketers just lack understanding on how to achieve positive results. Social media helps build brand awareness and engage their audience outside of their company website.
Data shows that more than 56% of online adults using more than one social media platform. Thus, the competition to gain the attention of the audience is hard. According to Social Media Examiner’s 2016 Industry Report, “40% of marketers say social media marketing has gotten more difficult for them in the last 12 months.”
Despite the tough competition for attention, a huge audience pool is there just waiting to be wowed. Studies suggest that 59% of Americans with social media accounts think that customer service through social media has made it easier to get questions answered and issues resolved. People will follow your brand when they “like” what you offer. These may come in the form of discounts and special promotions, entertaining content, or customer service.
Improve Brand Likeability
Below are 7 tips to stand out from the competition that will affect how others view your business. From adding some value to encouraging discussions, everything is relevant in your digital marketing strategy:
1. Provide Some Value
Show your audience some value through a mix of quality content. Make sure you share valuable content to your audience –some relevant and helpful pieces. People learn at faster through visual points. So including visual content can boost your audience engagement on social media.
Producing content with practical value is one of the easiest ways for your target market to perceive your brand as a thought leader in your industry. It’s like pushing a psychological button on your target market to share the content.
2. Don’t Sell Too Much
Traditional sales talk and marketing have no place in social media. Apart from a relatively small percentage, people (as opposed to brands,) typically use social media to read information and interact with their friends. Who you are, what you stand for, and what you can offer are the three main things your audience wants to know. All these go beyond your products and services.
People will follow you on social media because you are a thought leader. They will like and share your content because of the value you now bring to their lives. Promotional content shouldn’t sound too ‘salesy’ as this is considered as pushy within the Social Media realm. Most people like to have time to think and process before buying.
3. Nurture Discussions
Don’t just give out information and just wait for your readers to react. Communicate with your audience. Social media is a two-way street. You need to create a conversation. You need to give people some space to share their thoughts and experiences with one another. Ask some engaging questions, get the conversation going and go deep into their thoughts. When you share news, ask them for thoughts on recent developments. When sharing a new product, ask for their feedback.
Whether it’s ego boosting, information gathering, triggering emotion or both – you can always find ways to put the spotlight on the members. You can do this through interviews, photo sharing and more. The ideas is to get them talking.