Social Media Advertising
In a world of digital marketing and social persuasion, we now have infinite cyberspace where we can create, share and expose a brand, product or service however we please.
Most organisations today will primarily rely on digital marketing and social media advertising to help boost their social credibility in order to gain recognition much quicker. Although they differ in purpose, both work together to encourage peer-2-peer sharing, whether it’s via PPC, SEO or email.
Facebook, Twitter and all the other social networking sites are great because they are always evolving. This makes them great arenas for advertising. Not only can you alter what you post, but crucially you can measure your success as you go along which can be a defining moment for any business. This reporting will allow you to hold back and spend less where the ROI is not promising, in other words, you can fine tune your activity to ensure success – and which business wouldn’t want this.
Before embarking on any social media advertising campaign, ask yourself what is your purpose? What do you want your audience to think, feel, say or do about your product/service?
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a small, medium or large enterprise what matters is that you understand the importance of delivering a satisfactory customer journey and user experience.
Top Tips for Social Media Advertising
Below are just a few do’s and don’ts that we’ve gathered over time that we think could help grow your business’ social optimisation.
Analyse Old Posts
Not all content you post is going to be appropriate or the right fit for every audience. It is worth looking back and reflecting on the good points and areas you think your viewers take notice of, as well as those that didn’t respond the same. One way to do this is by reading through old posts to see if they have successfully fulfilled the following metrics:
- Awareness – such as impressions reach and mentions
- Consumption – clicks and visits
- Engagement – traffic, downloads and SEO
By completing this task you should be able to establish your tone of voice and will be able to measure the success of your posts in future.
Think Forward
How do you know when your audience is going to be online? Research!
Get to know your target audience and familiarise yourself with popular online trends and when people spend most of their time online. Most social channels will provide you with this data via their analytics, or Buffer’s Optimal Timing tool is great for extracting this data.
Tip 1 – Try to remember during TV and radio ad breaks people tend to pick up their phones and surf social networks!
Tip 2 – Try to build people profiles that reflect your business’s’ audiences: What demographic are they? What are they interested in? What is their online behaviour like? Remember, you can have more than one ‘audience profile’ and this is ok, as it is more than likely that each social channel naturally will cater for a different audience type. This is because different demographics favour different channels.
Update Content Consistently
To put it simply, people pay more attention when you are posting content during sociable hours. You should be using social media to your advantage; sharing information quickly and inexpensively. Not only does updating content look better professionally, but it looks even better when the advertisement converts to relevant and interesting information. The reason for doing all this is because you want to increase your chances of word of mouth advertising as well as word of mouse advertising.
Tip 3 – This is your chance to establish yourself within the market, build customer relationships and the reputation you wish to hold. If people like what they see they will buy into you.
Competitions and Brand Advocates
To push and maximise your view impressions it may be worth considering or changing the way you would normally try to reach your target audience. Offering exclusive deals / competitions is a good way to attract new customers and also a way of rewarding old ones because people are naturally drawn to incentives. It may not be beneficial long term but from a short-term perspective you can gather data quickly and increase rankings and ratings by viewing what people have commented on, shared or liked during that time.
Tip 4 – Push all your social networking platforms, get people to share or forward to a friend to be in with the chance of winning great deals. This should increase positive customer retention and create excitement around your brand online.
Design with Mobile in Mind
The majority of people are now using their mobile device to access information quickly. It is important that your social media advertisement is suitable for smartphone users with small screens.
Tip 5 – Depending on your budget you could consider using “geo – fencing,” a software that tracks the customer as they go. The use of GPS will notify the individual when they enter a location nearby and remind them about your service.
Social Media Advertising: What Not To Do
Because advertising and marketing have become so much easier to measure since we ‘went digital,’ it is no surprise that almost every organisation is now using social media advertising as a way to compete with their biggest competitors.
Below are a few don’ts we have gathered to help your business stay on track with any social media advertising campaign
Don’t Ignore Research
Your research will outline exactly who are tuning in and what they want to see. Ignoring your research will not only make it harder for you to get your message across, but it will cost you money. This is why listening to your research is so important, especially if you do not have a flexible budget. It maximises your campaign’s ROI potential.
Don’t be Unsociable
Make sure you appear helpful and be responsive to those reaching out to you. Take an interest in what others are posting on social channels and share their content to increase circulation and traffic to your profile.
Don’t Share Too Much
Do not over complicate or clutter your posts, plan in advance what needs to be posted on what day. A messy or disarranged message can leave people with a bad impression of your brand. You do not want to suffocate your audience with constant advertising messages – it can be overwhelming. Instead, ensure that there is a nice mix of industry news, useful information, branded content, company updates etc. This is a much more effective strategy to simply pushing products or services – give your audiences what they want; relevant quality content!
Don’t limit yourself to what social platforms you should use
Have an open mind and embrace cultural trends. Be aware that bloggers and vloggers are up and coming and have great influence on the net generation. Participate in popular channels, make the most of its uses and seek innovative ways to capture new audiences.
How Rooster Can Help
To ensure you get your money’s worth in social media advertising Rooster will first evaluate your current social status and credibility. By understanding your core values we build a strategic plans, keeping your aims and objectives in mind we will work to the high standard required to find a better ROI. As a solution we will build long / short term relationships by curating original content with cultural influences and social persuasion in mind.
Get in touch today to discuss your next social media advertising campaign!