The Top 10 Steps to Getting Started in Social Media Marketing
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What's happening in the world of social media marketing? It seems like every day there’s something new to learn! If you want to succeed in this field, it’s important to keep up-to-date with what’s going on.
That’s why I put together this list of the top 10 steps to getting started in social media marketing. These tips will help you get better at all things digital marketing, including creating your strategy, choosing your channels, and tracking your progress and results.
Step 1: Create a business page
Creating a Facebook business page is your first step into social media marketing, and you have three options for building out your page: 1) create a fan page; 2) create a company page; or 3) create both.
While either option can help you garner followers and customers, there are some key differences between them.
A fan page allows for more creative freedom than a company profile but may suffer from less credibility than a branded account, because it’s not affiliated with an actual business.
Step 2: Get your customer’s attention
We can’t talk about social media marketing without also addressing content marketing. Every good social media campaign begins with a successful content marketing strategy.
If you have great, relevant content (video, infographics, blogs), people will share it on their social networks—which helps you drive traffic back to your website and capture more leads.
Step 3: Turn social media into an extension of your marketing plan
If you’re just getting started with social media marketing, make sure that you’re connecting it with your digital marketing plan.
Set aside a certain amount of time each day for creating and sharing content, participating in forums and posting questions, interacting with others and more. Take advantage of resources available from companies like Hootsuite to help streamline your efforts.
Step 4: Learn from your competitors
Social media marketing is still new, so there are not a lot of experts out there. That’s where your competitors come in.
If you see what they’re doing right and wrong, you can avoid their mistakes while capitalizing on their successes.
You can also look at other brands in your industry and emulate them by taking some of their best social media strategies and adding a unique spin that makes it fit your brand.
Step 5: Run paid campaigns effectively
When done correctly, running paid campaigns can be a great way to bring new visitors and customers into your social media marketing strategy.
However, if you run an ad with no strategy behind it, then it will do more harm than good.
Make sure you’re marketing your business or product effectively before you dive into paid advertising campaigns. Otherwise, your time is probably better spent building up other parts of your strategy.
Step 6: Choose the right hashtags for your business
Choosing relevant hashtags for your business is a vital part of social media marketing.
While you may have created some general hashtags when you first started out, it’s important to keep an eye on which ones are performing well and which aren’t, especially as your company expands its reach.
Step 7: Include relevant influencers in your strategy
Though it’s important to have a comprehensive strategy for social media marketing, you can’t do it alone.
Find relevant influencers and make friends with them! Read their blogs and follow them on social media. Offer your expertise, and be helpful; there’s nothing that is more authentic than being a resource for someone else.
You never know who will come through for you when you need it most.
Step 8.1) Monitor brand mentions on social media platforms
When you’re just getting started with social media marketing, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all of your options.
Before you start scheduling tweets and updates, try monitoring your brand mentions on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
This way, you can make sure you’re addressing concerns as they arise and engaging with customers when they’re most receptive. And don’t forget about Reddit!
Step 8.2) Set up Google Alerts to monitor press coverage and social media activity about your brand
If you want your social media marketing efforts to be truly effective, you need to know what’s being said about your brand and its competitors.
Use Google Alerts (or another social media monitoring tool) to track mentions of your brand on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs and other news sources.
Step 9) Avoid common mistakes by tracking all the data you generate through social media management using tools like Hootsuite or SproutSocial
Social media management tools are important for any business serious about social media marketing. They let you track all of your data from a single dashboard.
The more information you can see, the better decisions you can make going forward, especially if you’re new to social media marketing. You may notice that your followers are not engaging with certain types of content; now’s a good time to tweak your message and try again.