We all know that social media is an important part of any marketing strategy. It’s affordable, wide-reaching, and adaptable, all important reasons to put it to use for your business. If you are new to using social media accounts for marketing, I recommend that you read Tourism Tiger’s blog post on setting up social media.(opens in a new tab) We also have a recent post on creating a social media marketing plan.(opens in a new tab) Both posts outline helpful tips on how to get started with utilizing a variety of social media platforms. These tips will help you to market yourself and your business to a greater audience on the internet.
Once you have your social media set up and you are running a well thought out marketing plan, it is time to go a step further. You built your presence and posting schedule using the best available information you had. If you did your homework, you thought about your target audience, ideal times to post, and what type of content would help you to achieve your goals.
Once your accounts have been live for even one month, there is all of a sudden a lot more information available to you. Social media insights and analytics can tell you who is engaging with your social media profiles. What type of posts are driving the most interest, comments, and shares. What times of day and days of the week your specific audience is most active. Which social media platforms are performing most effectively for your company. They can also provide you with feedback on the performance of your paid campaigns and advertisements.
Flexibility and adaptability are key! Especially for people who own and operate small businesses. Yes, you had a plan going in, now it is time to lean in and adapt your original plan to the realities of how your social media presence is performing. The best way to do this is to look at the data! Luckily, social media platforms provide free information about how people are interacting with your business profile. There are also a wide variety of free online tools you can apply to learn even more about your social media marketing results.
Take a look around the analytics and insights section on the back end of your social media accounts. Play around with setting time frames to review your performance in month-by-month increments or over the last six months to a year. Compare your activities across a variety of platforms using web-based tools like Cyfe(opens in a new tab). Take a peek at your competitor’s social media performance using Similar Web.(opens in a new tab)
First and foremost, you want to understand your audience. Are the people who are virtually engaging with your business the same people who are buying your tours or experiences in real life? If not, why is that? What is the age, gender, location, and language spoken by the people who most often like your posts? Even if this wasn’t the target audience you had in mind when setting up your accounts, it is important to note that you have this following. This also might be a reason to consider how you might better capture the imaginations of your desired target audience.
Next, you want to check in on the effectiveness of your posting schedule. When are your posts getting the most attention? Sure there is a lot of generic data available for when to post on different social media platforms but your profiles’ insights and analytics are catered specifically to you and your audience. As such, it should not be overlooked. As your reviewing data keep your eyes peeled for timing trends. Adjust your strategy accordingly and then check back in a month or two and see how it went. If we said it once, we will say it again, flexibility and adaptability are a must!
It is also important to understand what types of posts are most popular with your audience. If you have an eclectic strategy you should be posting images, links, text, and videos as well as product promotions. What do people like the most? What are people writing in the comments? What are people sharing in their personal networks? Pay attention to your audience! How they act on social media can provide useful insights into your product offerings and professional messaging. Take this opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the likes, interests, and opinions of your network.
Last but not least, analytics can provide important feedback on the performance of your paid and unpaid campaigns. Yes, we use social media to build community but its ultimate purpose is to help you increase your sales and conversions. You want to take a closer look at how it is helping you to achieve those goals. If you spend money on anything, and especially if you spend money on marketing, you want to know if it was effective. Social media insights and analytics give you immediate data on your campaign’s interactions. Use this information to adjust your strategy in real-time and make the most of each marketing opportunity.
Your company’s social media presence and marketing plan should never be stagnant. Continuously adjust and improve it in response to how your audience responds and the changing global situation. We recommend that you set aside a couple of hours each month to consider the free data provided by your various social media platforms. Use this data to make adjustments to your plans. If it doesn’t work the way you were hoping, you can always redirect your course the following month.
Remember also that one of the main goals of any social media marketing plan is to drive sales through your website. If your company’s website isn’t up to date, easy to use, and professional, no amount of social media marketing will save you. If it is time to consider an upgrade, get in touch with us. Websites are what we do best!
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