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Whether you love it or hate it, you can’t deny the impact social media has had on digital marketing. With almost half the world’s population now using some form of social media, businesses both large and small have recognised the importance of utilising social media as a marketing tool.

But there’s so much more to social media marketing than just sporadically posting your branded content with a few funny cat videos thrown in for good measure. Instead, your content needs to be thought out strategically to help you build real connections with your customers and reach your business goals.

Businesses which are social media savvy are be able to:

  • Build an engaged and enthusiastic community of loyal customers
  • Successfully balance self-promotion with interesting and entertaining content
  • Seamlessly incorporate social media campaigns with other digital and traditional marketing efforts

An effective social media marketing strategy is all about planning, creating and delivering consistent and high-quality content that suits your audience.

But first things first, what actually is social media marketing?

Social media marketing refers to the use of any social media platform to connect with your audience to build your brand, increase sales and drive traffic to your website. Popular social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may provide radically different social actions. For instance, Twitter is a social site designed to let people share short messages or “updates” with others. Facebook, in contrast is a full-blown social networking site that allows for sharing updates, photos, joining events and a variety of other activities. The differences between platforms means that content posted to one platform won’t necessarily be suitable for another. 

A social media marketing strategy needs to be made up of campaigns which are targeted to specific audiences and platforms. Campaigns involve a coordinated marketing effort to reinforce information about a brand, product, or service. They should always be strategically focused, have measurable outcomes and influence social media followers to feel or act in a certain way.

Social media campaigns typically involve:

  • Publishing great content on various platforms
  • Listening to and engaging with followers
  • Running social media advertisements
  • Analysing results and adjusting to make improvements

Why is social media marketing so important for your business?

If you own or run a small-medium sized business, you may be sceptical about how much return you’ll actually see from investing your efforts into a social media strategy.

You may think it’s just a fad, or that it isn’t necessary suitable for your particular business.

We’ll be honest, social media marketing is a BIG undertaking that requires time, patience and a bit of old fashion trial and error. It’s not quite as simple as setting up a profile, posting about how great your business is and throwing in some funny cat pictures for good measure.

If you’ve been steadfast in your avoidance social media, your business is missing out on valuable customer interactions. Not only that, but you’re being left behind by your more socially savvy competitors. Your potential customers not only want to learn about your company, but they want to connect with you. If they can’t interact with your business, it’s likely they will seek out competitors who will interact with them.

You simply can’t afford to lose the attention of your customers. Missed opportunities = lost revenue.

Here’s 5 quick advantages of social media marketing

It’s cost-effective to implement
Signing up and creating a profile is free for almost all social networking platforms, and any paid promotions you decide to invest in are a relatively low cost compared to other marketing tactics.

You have a direct connection with your customers
Social media is one of the few marketing strategies that allow you to connect directly with your audience. You can directly communicate with them, gain valuable insights and learn how they perceive your business all from the one platform.

You can drive traffic to your website
Most platforms allow you to post content with a link to your website. When you create compelling content, you can entice your audience click on the link. This directs them to your site, where they can learn more about your business or make purchases.

You can easily evaluate campaign performance
Whenever you run a marketing campaign, you want to know how it’s performing. Social media platforms make it easy for you to track your campaign to see if you’re driving valuable results.

You can generate brand awareness
Social media allows you to market your business to thousands of people around the world at any moment. There is no limit to the demographic, location, or type of consumer that your brand can touch. Every time someone shares one of your post, your reach grows larger. 

What content should you post to social media and how often should you post it?

So by now we have hopefully convinced you of the importance and effectiveness of social media marketing. But you’re probably wondering what on Earth you’re supposed to post to your social media platforms and how frequently. 

As we mentioned earlier, it’s not all about funny cat videos. To get an idea of the type of content you should be posting, take a look at your competitors to see what they are posting, how often that are posting and if their followers are engaging with it. That should give you an indication of what your target markets wants.

Here’s some idea starters to think about…

Facebook:

  • Host a live AMA (Ask Me Anything)
  • Share educational content such as blogs
  • Create weekly themed content featuring images and videos

Twitter:

  • Utilise polls to collect feedback from followers
  • Create moments by Tweets, photos, and videos to summarize a current campaign
  • Tweet out questions to start conversations

Instagram:

  • Partner with influencers to create sponsored content
  • Host giveaways
  • Share and incentivise user generated content

Now, you might be wondering how often you should post content on your social media channels. There’s no real ‘correct’ answer to this, as it all depends on your type of business and which social media platforms you are using.

But to guide your thinking, you should only post when you have quality content to share. Meaning, there’s a reason you’re posting the content. If you post too infrequently, you’re bound to be forgotten by your followers. If you post too frequently, you’ll likely become annoying to your followers. Both situations could potentially lead to a loss in followers and a decrease in engagement.

To avoid this, there are plenty of studies and resources available explaining social media post frequency standards by industry and platform. Every business is different, so find what works for your audience. Then, you can begin experimenting by posting more or less frequently at different times of the day.

Creating consistent and valuable content is no small feat for any business owner. Large businesses have whole dedicated social media teams made up of people who focus on content creation. Unless you have the time, creativity and dedication, partnering with an experienced digital marketing agency to do all the hard work for you can be the best option.

Talk to Crockford Carlisle about your social media marketing strategy.

No matter where you are in Australia, Crockford Carlisle’s Brisbane-based digital marketing team are here to help. We welcome your call on 07 3891 3800. Or you can click here to head to our Contact page and shoot us a message.

And by the way, that’s another thing you’ll notice about the way we work. You won’t get an agency ‘sales pitch’. Right from the first “Say g’day” meeting, the conversation will be about your business and what you want to achieve.

We’ll explore ideas. Look at your competitors. And see what we can see to set you on the right path. From there, if you feel comfortable with our approach, we’ll come 

back to you with a proposal to create a social media strategy that engages your followers convinces them to buy.

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