What makes a successful social media campaign?

Written on 25 February, 2018 by Julia Hammond
Categories Social Media

While it’s been around for quite some time now, social media is really still a fresh-faced player to many when it comes to the digital marketing game. Many businesses with traditional advertising models struggle to see the value in this online channel. However, the truth of the matter is, social media is popular. It’s where a huge portion of the world’s population (particularly the younger generations) “hang out” and, if you want to catch these potential customers early, you need to ensure your business is present across social networks.

Once you make the decision to join the 21st century, it can be difficult to know where to start. Last week, I sat down with WME Social Media expert, Natalia Pereira, to get the guff on her recipe for a successful social media campaign. These elements will form a foundation for your business within the social media sphere and set you up to ensure you maximise the potential of this ever-growing online channel.

Speak to Those Who Listen

Knowing your brand is the first step towards knowing your audience and, in order to perform well on social media, you need to understand who you’re talking to. Social media is not about what you think is valuable, it’s about what the people who engage with your brand will value. Know why your audience values your brand and you’ll have the perfect vantage point from which to create effective social content. If you are new to the social media scene (and often even if you’re not!), this may mean putting your trust in someone who intimately understands the social network and the audiences that exist there.

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Be Consistent

Consistency is one of the make or break elements of a social media campaign and it’s important to make it a priority. You can do so by planning ahead and using one of the many scheduling tools out there, which you can often download for free!

But what’s the big deal about consistency? There are three steadfast reasons you should be working hard to ensure you are constantly contributing content to your account and here’s why:

The Algorithm

Imagine, if you will, an organism with tentacle-like features, sitting in dark room, munching through the online content provided by social media users around the world. He is Facebook’s algorithm. This organism judges on taste and determines how well your social media page performs among the cluttered digital landscape, sharing it with the audiences who he deems will most likely interact with your page. The more content you feed him, the more he gets a taste for your brand and the better your content will perform online. The less often the beast chomps on your content, the longer it takes for him to recall the flavours and remember the audiences who will enjoy it, in this case, making your organic reach lower and lower each time. In fact, inconsistency can cause the organic reach of your content to fall to less than 1% of your total social audience.

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Activity Promotes Availability

Algorithm aside, the perception of a brand who keeps on top of their social pages is vastly different than that of a brand who only posts every once in a blue moon. Consistency in social posts, translates to consistency in ideas, consistency in performance and consistency in the services offered. It demonstrates that you are an active business and, as such, you are approachable and available. Don’t you want your potential customers to view your business as focussed and up-to-date?

Active Management

Consistency guarantees active management, which is imperative to an effective social media campaign. Management isn’t just about shooting out post after post, it’s about interacting with your audience and replying to comments and messages promptly and in a manner that is reflective of your brand. You must do more than just appear to be providing value to your audience on a daily basis, you actually need to provide that value. That means facilitating and maintaining relationships by offering support through the platform. This also provides benefits to your business in return: you will learn more about your customers, you will grow your audience and you will provide a glowing impression of your brand to future prospects.

Running a business is time consuming and you’re not always focussed on the finer details, like social media. While many businesses inject tens of thousands of dollars into a salary for an in-house social media specialist, there are plenty of third-party providers, like Webcentral, who can help you keep on top of your social accounts for only a portion of that cost. If you think social media is what you’re missing, perhaps hiring a professional to do it for you is the best option for you!

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Quality Over Quantity

Quality content will always win. While consistency is still key, spending more time on fewer posts could be the difference between high or low engagement. There’s a saying, “you’re only as good as your last post” but I’d go so far as to say “you’re only as good as your post before last.” People trust good content and it makes them want to come back for more. Reliability and relevance builds that trust and inspires engagement. Over time, your posts amass to form your social reputation, so if you’re more interested in frequency than paying attention to what your audience wants or needs, you’re likely to lose followers.

Boosting Budget

Recently, Facebook decreased organic reach by up to 90%. This means that your posts are not going to be seen organically by a large portion of your followers. While organic social media is, by no means, dead, a healthy boosting budget will help to get the right users engaging with your brand. By setting aside funds to help give your content a little push towards the right audiences, you’ll find it has a snowball effect. Subsequent post will generally ride the wave of traffic and achieve a higher-than-usual rate of organic engagement.

While it’s not the only way to get your message out there on social media, a boosting budget will give your brand the edge it needs to ensure the right people are discovering your content. Natalia recommends starting at $150 per month for boosted posting.

For more information on how you can improve your brand’s performance on social media, get in touch with Natalia, or any of our social media experts today on 1300 663 995 or via email at [email protected].

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