7 Underrated Yet Effective Social Media Marketing Strategies You Should Consider
Social media remains one of the most effective advertising channels for businesses in this age. With an effective social media presence, you can increase brand awareness, expand your reach, get new leads, and engage your customer base. Therefore, it’s no surprise that companies invest a chunk of their marketing budget in social media advertising.
Yet, experience shows that throwing money at social media marketing isn’t a sure ticket to getting the desired results. You’ll need to employ efficient and effective social media marketing strategies to strengthen your social media presence. In this article, we’ll share some underrated yet highly effective social media marketing strategies for small businesses.
Working With Micro-Influencers
According to a 2021 study, social media users trust the content created by people more than brands. Thus, if you’re looking to earn the trust of your audience, you’ll be better off outsourcing content creation to people who have an appreciable number of followers you’re looking to target. Naturally, you’ll be tempted to contract the most popular name in your industry but this doesn’t guarantee you’ll get the best results.
For one, influencers with millions of followers would cost an arm and a leg. Furthermore, marketers generally worry that many influencers tend to lose their influence as their following increases. They become more celebrity-like and may no longer be able to exert the influence your brand needs.
Publish Platform-Specific Content
Admittedly, there are so many different social media platforms to explore and it could be hard to narrow down your options. However, whatever you do, don’t be tempted to post the same generic content on all the available platforms. Any social media marketing agency worth its salt would know that consumer behaviour differs from platform to platform. Thus, high-performing content on one platform may struggle to garner views or engagement on the other.
To make the most out of your social media campaigns, it’s always advisable to choose a few platforms that fit your brand perfectly, and then create specific content for each of them. This is necessary because audiences on different platforms may respond differently to the same content.
Leverage Look-Alike Audiences
Most social media platforms have features that allow you to model your best customers and find other people that have the same interests or characteristics as them. Savvy entrepreneurs are already taking advantage of this feature and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t. Lookalike audiences are particularly useful when running paid ads on social media.
Once you’ve moved past the testing stage, and have been able to determine the audience that best responds to your ad, you don’t need to spend even more time and money searching for more users that fit that profile. All you need to do is instruct the platform to create a lookalike audience and there’s a high chance your ads will convert as long as you have a top-quality source audience.
Go Live
Livestreaming is fast gaining traction among marketers and brands that are looking for innovative ways to deliver content. A 2017 Livestream study revealed that 8 out of 10 consumers prefer to watch a live video rather than read a blog post. Curiously, however, as of 2021, only 28% of marketers planned to include live streaming in their video marketing strategy.
Perhaps the most important advantage of going live on social media is that the viewers consume content on your time and not theirs. Thus, you can be sure everyone that tunes in already has some interest in your brand, and they’re likely to convert if you can deliver the right value. Furthermore, live streaming is an excellent way to show the faces behind your brand (more to come), and you can always generate novel marketing ideas from the feedback you get from the live audience.
Show The Human Angle
Showing your customers the faces behind your brand is yet another effective social media marketing idea you should adopt. For one, this strategy helps your customers see through the noise and feel like they’re part of your story. Furthermore, they’ll appreciate your transparency and relatability, which makes them more likely to trust your brand.
You can humanize your brand by:
Sharing live videos frequently
Getting all employees and the management team involved
Sharing photos and videos of team bonding activities
Relating your products or services to personal experiences
Showing ample behind the scenes footage
Focus on Community Building
Admittedly, social media is an excellent avenue for brand promotion. However, the best way to promote your brand on any platform is to focus on building a community, rather than promotion. Your social media advertising strategy should lean heavily towards user-generated content as this would improve the general brand perception. You also need to constantly engage your audience, learn what they want, and devise creative ways to meet their needs. Ultimately, if you can get your audience invested in your brand, they’ll always be keen to invest in your products and services.
Outsource to a Competent Agency
Ultimately, if you want even better results, it would be best if you considered employing a competent social media marketing agency. More often than not, brands need to experiment extensively to understand their audience and identify the most effective strategies. Unfortunately, not everyone has the knowledge, time, or resources to work around the numerous strategies available. When you employ a reliable agency like Tap Marketing, you can rest assured they’ll deliver almost instant results with their wealth of knowledge and experience.
There’s no overemphasizing that your social media presence could play a key role in the success of your small business. However, many brands are realizing that conventional social media marketing ideas may not cut it anymore. Thankfully, you can explore some of the underrated strategies shared in this article to get the best out of your social media campaigns.