Freshen Up Your Social Media Marketing

With the seasons changing and the New Year quickly approaching, now is the perfect time to reflect on your company’s current social marketing marketing and revamp your company’s approach. It’s time to dust off the cobwebs and redirect your social media efforts because, like the saying goes, there’s always room for improvement.

Five tips on how to freshen up your social media marketing:

De-clutter your content

Social media marketers manage a company’s online presence on a daily basis, making it easy to let the quality of the content slip through the cracks. It’s important to remember what your customers really want. Hootsuite suggests creating content buckets, which help categorize content which performs the best with your particular audience. Take the time to understand your customers and create more tailored content that’ll appeal to them.

But the issue of auditing your content goes beyond de-cluttering it; it’s also a matter if you’re attracting the right audience on your business’ social channels. Social media is a two-way street where both parties have something of value to offer each other. It’s best to check who your company is following on all active social accounts. Unfollowing certain accounts will lead to a fruitful news feed that’s filled with quality, insightful news.

Be aware of the latest social trends

Keeping an eye on the social trend pulse will not only keep your social media content current, engaging and fresh but it’ll also help you stay ahead of the game. With social media platforms constantly evolving, it’s important to note new features that allow your company to better communicate with your customers. Twitter and Facebook are constantly making updates to their platforms and algorithms to better suit their users.

Twitter continues to make changes to its platform, the online conversations responds and shifts along with it. Not to be left in the dust, the ever-famous 140 character tweet has undergone some facelifts (in a marketing standpoint) that are for the better.  Visual elements such as gifs, photos and videos will no longer be included within the Twitter character count.

Facebook has a vast amount of changes as well, primarily centering around video marketing. Now, companies and brands can broadcast live feeds using the Facebook Live feature. This adds a new dimension to your marketing strategy- allowing your customers to interact with you in real-time. But remember your company has to maintain a consistent presencewhen these new features.

Don’t blindly share posts

This may seem like a no-brainer, but the scenario is more common than we like to admit. It’s easy to like or share a blog post simply by reading the headline alone. However, once you open the article, you quickly discover that the article doesn’t share the content you were initially expecting. Some companies have published articles as April Fools’ Day jokes, just to see who’s blinding sharing and who’s actually reading their content. We’re all guilty of it and it’s time to stop blindly sharing.

Check your SEO score

Through a semantic-search algorithm, Google makes sure to present only the most relevant information in their search results. Google’s Knowledge Graph allows users to go in-depth with their research using just a simple search term. It’s important to remember that SEO results do not show up overnight. Starting to manage your SEO efforts now will be beneficial for the future; SEO specialists say that it takes 4 to 6 months to start seeing results.

Another tool that’ll help increase online traffic is Google AdWords. Google AdWords allows businesses to display their ads in the top three spots of a Google search. Optimize your keywords in your social media marketing and find the right ones that will gravitate towards your niche audience.  Google doesn’t charge your company until a potential customer clicks on your ad. This aggressive marketing approach is best for medium-to-large size companies that have room in the budget for paid advertisement.

Create a personalized experience

There are a plethora of tools and social media platforms that make it easy for companies to interact with their customers. But before diving into those tools, it’s important to figure out how your company can deliver an experience your customers won’t forget. First and foremost, consult analytical reports because they’ll help paint a detailed picture as to who your target audience is. Focus on your company’s particular users and learn what motivates them to use your product or service. Understanding how and why will help lay the foundation for a personalized customer experience in the future.

Do some social spring cleaning
What worked this year isn’t necessarily going to work next year. Social media marketing is constantly changing and evolving, making it more important than ever for marketers to anticipate these changes. Conducting social media audits, checking your website’s SEO score and remembering who your target market is are all elements that are necessary when freshening up your social media marketing.

It’s time to shake a few things up. Let us know on our Twitter and Facebook pages how your company is revamping your social media strategy.

[Image courtesy of Unsplash]