In an increasingly virtual world, social media marketing is one of the most powerful tools entrepreneurs have at their fingertips. When thinking about your digital strategy, it doesn’t matter how good your product or service is if you can’t actually connect with your target audience! Marketing to customers online is everything, especially when a sizable chunk of the nation is still shopping from home.
Here are some tips and tricks from the NGLCC Digital Media Department to get you started on your social media marketing strategy – or to help you polish up your existing digital landscape.
Branding
In order to create dynamic digital content, you must be especially familiar with the mission and story of your business. Why do you do what you do? Who does your business serve? All digital content that you create for social media must link back to this central concept, whether explicitly or implicitly.
When marketing online, social media is frequently the main point of connection between your business and your target market. Familiarizing yourself with your business’s target audience is key for a successful social media strategy. Having a deep understanding of your target demographics, be it age, race, gender, or sexuality, will allow you to speak in the language of your audience’s experience and establish a deeper rapport with them.
Social Media Posts
One of the best ways to stay on top of your social media game is to plan out content in advance. Creating a social media calendar will help you to keep all of your posts organized. You can even take it one step further with platforms like Hootsuite, which allow you to schedule content to be posted directly to your social media channels. Remember the exception – there are many occasions that require a real-time social response from your business that cannot be prescheduled, including breaking news. Generally, you’ll want to post several times a week without overwhelming your followers.
What happens when all is quiet on the western front? If you’re running low on promotions, new products, or upcoming events to share with your audience, you can always promote external events, organizations, and articles that are relevant to your own cause. Don’t forget to keep your audience involved – prompt them for their thoughts on a certain social topic, or ask them what they would like to see more of from you. Highlighting customers through spotlights and features or engaging with them in the comment section of your social channels makes them feel seen and heard, which overall serves to strengthen your online consumer base.
Graphics
Nothing makes a social media post pop like a colorful graphic! If graphic design isn’t your field, don’t worry. Canva provides a free, easy, tactile solution for graphic design & social media beginners. It offers a variety of templates that you can choose from for your channels, allowing you to customize text, colors, and photos. Still feel overwhelmed? Here are some general do’s and don’ts for using graphics in your social media posts.
DO
- Use large text – people are often viewing social graphics on phone screens. Make sure that they can actually read what you are writing!
- Incorporate photos as often as possible. Putting a face to your brand will make your business feel more tangible to customers, as well as more recognizable.
- Stick to branding guidelines. As often as you can, create graphics that incorporate colors and fonts from your official logo or website. This allows you to establish a consistent, recognizable social brand.
- Visually emphasize key points. Making a certain statistic or word POP with an alternate color, size, or font will help it to stand out to your audience and increase its level of importance.
DON’T
- Overwhelm the viewer with too much text – a few lines will do. Customers have limited attention spans!
Videos
Video content plays a crucial role in social media marketing. Short social videos allow your customer base to directly engage with you and your business beyond a static photo or written message. Don’t worry, video production isn’t just for the pros! Free programs like iMovie and Adobe Spark allow you to easily drag and drop clips to create your own masterpiece. Here are some general guidelines for creating successful social media videos:
- Keep it short and sweet! Remember not to strain your audience’s attention span; 30 seconds to a minute will do. If it’s not essential to your message, CUT IT!
- Include background music! There are plenty of royalty free tracks that can enhance your social videos.
- Include subtitles. Many social videos are watched on silent, so don’t let the message escape! This also keeps social videos accessible to everyone.
Have additional questions? Reach out to the Supplier Diversity or Engagement Center team to utilize one of our experienced suppliers to assist with future communications and social media projects.
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