Everyone is on social media. Ok… almost everyone.
Facebook. Instagram. Snapchat. The chances are that you and your friends are at least using one of them to interact and socialize.
After all, social media has taken the world by storm. According to Statista, there are approximately 3 billion social media users worldwide!
The use of social media has transcended beyond ‘staying connected with friends and family.’ Instead, it is now actively used to search, buy, and communicate with brands. According to research conducted by HootSuite, 43% of users search for products on social media before finalizing the purchase.
In the words of Bill Gates, “If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business.” Most brands recognize the potential of social media and hence create and follow social media marketing strategies.
Considering the number of people online and their pattern of consumption of social media, it is criminal not to integrate the platform in your business’s marketing efforts.
Yet, these strategies are often quite conventional and hence ineffective. Think of it this way: If everyone is doing the same thing, would you stand out?
No, but you can work your way out of this dilemma by being smart. You can imply these clever social media promotion ideas that you might not be used for your business.
#1. Cross-Promote
You should always be visible on social media. Your presence here should be variegated and on all the available platforms. You can find an audience on every platform because they are using every platform, and they must see you there.
To ensure that your target audience is exposed to your marketing communication, you must cross-promote.
What is cross-promoting? It means that you mention all your social media handles when posting on different platforms. It will help in reminding your audience to follow you on your other accounts.
For instance, if you are a fashion brand that is selling real leather jackets for women online, the majority of your traffic will come from Instagram. It means that the focus of your marketing should be on Instagram. At the same time, other platforms shouldn’t be ignored.
Facebook has tools that can be a better fit for your marketing campaign. Some people might search for leather jackets on the platform. You need to be there when they do that.
Before you launch your campaign on Facebook, promote your Instagram account. A popular account on Instagram will add to the credibility of your brand, and your popularity will help you in gaining a good amount of followers on Facebook.
So, understand the benefits of each social media account and cross-promote to have a strong presence in them all.
#2. Create a Branded Campaign
Does your social media accounts feature a series of random posts that do not link with one another? If so, then you won’t be able to hook your audience and keep them engaged.
Don’t inundate your users with all the information in one go. The trick to optimum user engagement is to give information in bits. This is where branded campaigns can come in handy. Such small and regular campaigns ensure the relevancy of the brand in the consumer’s life.
For instance, let’s say you are a shoe store. Rather than creating random posts about the quality of your product, you can create a branded series about the plights of wearing the wrong type of shoes. This will help your audience in connecting with your brand.
You should come up with branded hashtags for your campaign. Keep it trendy. Something that people will talk about. Make sure that the issue you choose is relevant to your brand, as well as the audience.
#3. Add Shoppable Tags
On social media, everyone wants to gain maximum information in very little content. So, you must find a way to do that. Also, you have to promote your product on your social media accounts without it looking overwhelming and too promotional. The art of interacting with consumers on social media is to underplay it.
Does that mean that you can’t promote your brand effectively on social media? If so, then what is the use of investing in every platform?
Hold your horses! Just because you can’t be overtly promotional all the time on social media doesn’t mean that it isn’t an excellent promotional tool. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook have various features that help in promoting your brand.
One helpful feature is shoppable tags. They are available on Facebook and Instagram, and they allow you to tag your products and redirect customers to product pages of your website. It leads to higher traffic on your website and hence, ‘increased chances of conversion.’
#4. Use GIFs
GIFs have been popular among the digital audience ever since their inception. Currently, over 23 million GIFs are posted daily on Tumblr, and over 5 million are exchanged via Facebook.
GIFS can be catchy and make people chuckle while surfing the internet.
While many associate GIFs with informal content, businesses can use them to their advantage to promote their brands on social media.
Firstly, visual content gets more space on social platforms as compared to static posts. It increases the probability of your graphic content being noticed by the audience.
Moreover, from a promotional point of view, GIFs can be used to create teaser campaigns for your upcoming brand and product launches. It can also help in making your brand more approachable than other businesses in the niche.
To enjoy the benefits of graphic content, the GIFs you create must align with your brand and consumers. Keep adapting and altering according to the response of the audience.
#5. Host a Giveaway Now and Then
Everyone loves freebies. To initiate a trial of your product as well as to grow your online presence, it is an excellent tactic to hold contests via your social media accounts from time to time, and rewarding the winners with give-aways.
According to Tailwind, ‘Instagram accounts that host such contests witness growth 70 percent faster than accounts that don’t!’
To make sure that your audience keeps up with your posts, and engages with all of them, hold such contests now and then.
For instance, you can ask your followers to share your post with a branded hashtag, and they can enter a lucky draw by doing so. Similarly, you can make them create user-generated content with a branded hashtag to increase buzz about your brand.
Now You Know The Secrets!
Use these five smart social media promotional tips to grow and expand your online presence. In today’s digitalized world, if you manage the online platforms effectively, your business will grow.
Are there any other ideas you think will work? Let us know!
Author Bio:
About Ashley Rosa: Ashley Rosa is a freelance writer and blogger. Writing is her passion that why she loves to write articles related to the latest trends in technology and sometimes on health-tech as well. She is crazy about chocolates. You can find her on twitter: @ashrosa2.
