There’s a difference between trending, and being present and active on social media. While it can be extremely beneficial for a company to “trend”, or “go viral”, its also not that easy to do, and not always necessary. The topics and campaigns that go viral have no specific formula that they follow, and sometimes take enormous amounts of work.
But the truth is, you can have a successful social media campaign without hitting the top of the world’s new feeds. The reason that people are on social media boils down to this: They want to be entertained or informed in some way. With this in mind, you can be sure that if you are posting interesting, relevant (to your brand), funny, and quality content, you will have a successful social media reach. Here are 4 tips to help your social media presence:
- Dialogue with your community and build relationships. Your community could be as small as the town you do business in, or as large as the global market for your particular service or product – or even both. Being active means that you do more than just post; it means that you interact with others. After all, social media is a global chat room. No one likes the person who is always only talking about themselves. Talk about others, comment on their posts, and take interest in what is relevant to your community. Whatever you do, make sure that you are not only posting content, but also interacting with the people who like and comment on your posts. Follow other businesses in your area of service, or in a related field.
- Post relevant content. Make sure that the content you post is relevant to your community. If you’re an aerospace manufacturer, than your social media accounts should relate to airplanes and parts and machinery and safety. If you’re a creative company, than your content should be funny, useful, and serve a purpose. For example, check out our new campaign: Where’s the Small Dog in Santa Clarita?Its creatively fun, (When was the last time you saw a company mascot around town?), located in our community (Santa Clarita, CA), and its also useful. We have the opportunity build our brand, while at the same time provide marketing and design tips along the way for free. Whatever it may be, it should provide value, resources, and/or entertainment to your audience.
- Stay current with popular topics. There is no specific formula that companies follow to go viral. But we do know that keeping up to date with current events, innovations, and technologies etc. will help with your social media presence. If the tech community has abandoned brand A for brand D, but you’re still touting Brand A for its “Latest-and-greatest” features, your audience is going to find your company to be irrelevant, and view you as ignorant in your field. In addition, pay attention to popular hash tags and topics. If you can find creative ways to fit those into your marketing campaigns, (while still being faithful to your brand and target market) you’ll gain viewers and clicks that you wouldn’t otherwise have, therefore boosting at least your SEO. (Not to mention brand awareness)
- Track and monitor. Don’t just create a schedule for the next 6 months and dogmatically stick to it. Yes, create a plan and framework, but also expect to change parts and be ready to be flexible. A lot can happen in 6 months, and what is important today, might not be important down the road. In addition, the most important part of marketing – the research and adjustment of plans according to data findings – is often overlooked by those who need it the most: Small business owners, and those just starting up a company. Facebook’s business pages have built in analytics. Websites have built in analytics. There are programs and resources such as Hubspot that combine the analytics from all of your online outlets, so you can know exactly how your campaigns are running and how popular they are. Make sure to tap into these. Maybe you need to change your target audience a bit to tap into a larger market; maybe you need to burrow deeper into a niche market where there is less competition. Whatever it is, constantly monitor your results and adjust accordingly.
If you need help planning your next social media campagin, contact us at Small Dog Creative. We’d love to put our creativity to work for you!