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Social media engagement is still growing… and here to stay

The unabated growth of key social media platforms is testament to the continuing importance of social media in our society.

People of all ages, all demographics and all walks of life are connecting to social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Linked In, (to name but a few), on a daily basis.

You only have to sit on the morning commuter train to witness the majority of passengers avidly engaging with their smart phones. Glance over their shoulders and you will see that they are browsing email, the news, the internet, but most particularly, social media.

But exactly why do I need social media for my business and how do I actually make it work?”

Why?

You need social media because quite simply everyone is engaged with it. It reaches all ages, nationalities and cultures. It plays a huge part in how we now interact and communicate with each other and how we assimilate new information. The fact that traditional television and print advertising has been steadily decreasing alongside a clear increase in digital advertising over the last 5 years, is a key indicator of this phenomenon. (Advertising Association reports).

How?

In the first instance, many businesses approach social media incorrectly and, not surprisingly, don’t see any results. Social media is therefore perceived as a mystery, a fathomless entity, a dark art. You can be forgiven for thinking this, especially as the flow of information is so immediate, incessant and apparently ephemeral. How do you even make a ripple in this stream of information? How do you get seen?

10 Top Tips

  1. Plan your campaign: Prepare a well-thought-out programme of content that says something interesting and useful about your business.
  2. Select your channels: Pick your social media channels to suit your target audience.
  3.  Be bespoke: Use each social media channel appropriately, don’t just auto post from one channel to the next (e.g. you can ‘push’ Facebook posts to ‘Twitter’), but this is proven to be less effective than posting individually to each channel.
  4. Use images: Posts with images get more response and make your social media pages look so much more exciting.
  5. Think before you post: Write catchy, thought provoking headlines. Boring statements won’t make any impact.
  6. Joined up thinking: Add links (to your website) and tag, hashtag and share according to channel protocol.
  7. Connect with others: Don’t be afraid to retweet, share and like to interact with partners and clients to build connections.
  8. Social Media Advertising: Run some in-channel ad campaigns. It’s cost effective and delivers insights and statistics to help you learn so that you can better target your next campaign.
  9. Post regularly and consistently: If you post 5 tweets one week and nothing for a month this will not work! Followers will disengage. Better to post once a week on a reliable ongoing basis.
  10. Manage your social media: Don’t let the tail wag the dog. Stick to planning ahead and use tools like Hootsuite and Buffer to pre-schedule your content.

The benefits

Marketers often talk about social media being a ‘dialogue’ with your potential clients. Now is the time to find your voice and speak confidently – you or your business can become an authority within your sector.

Having a consistent and organised social media programme will raise your brand presence, make people more aware of your business and its services, as well as showcase and promote what makes you unique. It keeps your name in front of people and therefore ‘in mind’.

You can use social media to run targeted digital adverts, special offers, competitions and other incentives, as appropriate to your business. You can use social media to take people on a journey, be it a simple click to your website, a link to a bespoke website landing page with a specific trackable call to action or outcome, or to be right on the cutting edge – a short video leading to a chosen ‘action’.

Ultimately social media is where your audience is already, so you need to be there too.

To discuss social media and how it can help your business
call 020 8398 4663 or email the Inca team: contact@incacreative.co.uk

Call 020 8398 4663 for a no obligation consultation or quotation

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