Social media plays a major role in any successful marketing strategy. Many of you use them in the hope of gaining new customers and increasing your sales. Are you getting the results you want? If not, here are 6 practical tips for effective communication on social media!
1. Determine your digital marketing goals (the S.M.A.R.T. method)
Start by determining your goals, whether they are quantitative or qualitative. Do you want to generate more leads? You want to increase your traffic by 50% in less than 1 month? Do you want to rebrand your business?
The setting of goals is the essential basis for you to be able to establish an effective strategy. They allow you to orient all your marketing actions and measure your return on investment.
The SMART method is particularly effective for organizing and defining your objectives!
- S for specific: your objective must be clearly defined. To set up the necessary means to achieve your objectives (human, material, temporal…). Have a clear and precise idea of what you want to achieve with your strategy.
- M for measurable: track and quantify your objectives. This step is essential so that you can analyze and judge the effectiveness of your marketing actions. Depending on your results, you will know which actions to continue and which to stop or rework.
- A for achievable: Take into account the capacity of your employees to reach the objectives, as well as the means to be put in place. (How long? What tools? How much does it cost?)
- R for realistic (or relevant): evaluate the relevance of your goals. Is your goal profitable and is it really useful? Should it be implemented now? Be careful not to confuse “realistic” with “achievable”.
- T is for time: set key dates to allow you to accomplish your goals while staying within your budget. If you don’t meet the deadlines, the achievement of your goals will be postponed and your investments will be useless.
2. Target your audience to communicate effectively
Do you really know your target audience? Do you know what they like? It’s not enough to simply know what your target is like (for example: male, between 25 and 35 years old, living in Paris), you need to know who they are, what drives them, what position they hold, how they search for information, what their interests are, their passions, their media, their favorite professional and personal social networks…
This information allows you to establish your buyers personas. These are ideal customer profiles that help you understand how your customers act and behave. Thus, you can adapt your posts to each type of customer and encourage them to take action. This is an essential step if you want to communicate well on social networks.
3. Choose the right social networks
Now that you have created your buyers personas, you know which social networks they use. You can then start building your communication strategy on the right social platforms.
Each social network has its own characteristics. Make sure you have enough time, skills and resources to fully dedicate yourself to social networks to determine which platforms you can manage effectively.
4. How to communicate well on social networks using an editorial calendar
Establishing an editorial calendar allows you above all to establish consistency in your publications. This consistency is essential to engage your followers and for the social networks’ algorithm to spread your posts to more users.
To establish your calendar, you will also have to identify the highlights of the year, upcoming events, and the topics that interest your target audience.
Be careful, however, to publish relevant content that arouses interest in your audience. Quality must be privileged over quantity.
You can also choose to schedule your publications with tools like Hootsuite or AgoraPulse. In addition to planning your publications, these tools allow you to have statistics on each post. Thus, you know which formats (image, video, carousel…) and which topics provoke the most reaction.
5. Post at the right time
The best time to post depends on your audience and the social network. Indeed, professionals do not use social media at the same time and as much as teenagers. So you need to find the best days and times to post your content for your audience to see and interact.
In short, you won’t post at the same time if it’s Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
How do you define the right time to publish on the web? You can base it on studies conducted. Here is a guide that summarizes the best times to publish. They will guide you in planning your posts.
You can also rely on your publishing statistics if you use a post scheduling tool like Hootsuite or AgoraPulse. This data allows you to have a real vision and knowledge of the login habits of your audience.
6. Build a relationship with your followers
Engaging your followers has a direct impact on your goals. It allows you to:
- Create a community
- Interact with your target audience
- Stand out from the competition
- Increase your brand reputation
- Increase brand recognition
- Generate leads and attract new customers
- Build loyalty with your current customers
- Increase your sales and revenue
In addition to having an impact on the behavior of Internet users, engagement on your page increases your visibility on social networks. The more interactions you have on your posts, the more the social platform promotes the distribution of your content. You reach more people and this has a snowball effect on your results.
How to communicate effectively on social networks to engage your followers?
When users follow a company on social networks, it is because they share their values and the message it conveys. Above all, they want to feel close to the brand and be part of its community.
To do this, you must interact with your followers at all costs, this will attract their attention and encourage their online engagement.
- Respond to comments and private messages, especially if they are negative
- Ask for their opinion via posts and stories
- Involve them in your decision making
- Launch contests
- Publish attractive and varied content
- Share the backstage of your brand
- Highlight your values and your teams
- Repost stories in which your company is tagged
- Post live videos
- Like and comment on your target’s publications via common #s
Engagement is also about producing quality content.
What content should you create to communicate on social networks?
Don’t just talk about your products or your promotional offers. If your community wants to know about the products you sell, they will go to your website. They can quickly get bored of your page if they see a large majority of content that aims to sell.
On social networks, users are looking for different types of relevant, attractive and useful content. When you talk about your products, present them in an original, non-commercial way, by bringing a human touch.
You can for example:
- Create tutorials on how to use your products
- Talk about your industry
- Present your team
- Involve experts
- Use influencers
- Create Reels, which are Instagram videos of 60 seconds maximum inspired by TikTok
- Use IGTVs, which are long-form Instagram videos: there is no time limit.
- Create guides on Instagram
- Make a post on one of your blog posts
The presence on social media must bring a real added value to its brand and its consumers. Bring answers to your customers’ problems and solutions for their needs.
Have a question? Need help ? Contact our experts! Our teams are at your disposal to provide you with the advice you need for your SMO campaigns, inbound marketing and SEO of your website.
