At this point it’s safe to say that almost everyone frequents some form of social media regularly. So, savvy businesses understand the importance of sharing their messages on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. where potential customers might be hanging out.
But what is the best way to use these social media tools to build brand awareness? How can a business maximize its time investment by creating genuine engagement with its audience?
To learn more about what makes a successful social media campaign, Media Shower reached out to Erika Taylor Montgomery, CEO and Chief Publicist of Three Girls Media Inc. Here’s what she had to say:
How would you define a successful social media campaign?
A successful social media campaign is one that follows the 80/20 rule, engages with customers on a consistent basis with a wide variety of content and provides useful, interesting or fun information to fans and followers in line with the company’s brand.
The 80/20 rule dictates that 80 percent of the content shared should not be self-promotional about the business. Rather, it should be brand relevant articles, images, infographics, memes, videos or other content that is related to the company’s brand identity. 20 percent of the time the content can be self-promotional and about things happening with the business.
What are the elements of a successful social media campaign?
The three elements of a successful social media campaign are planning, consistency and follow-through. You should be planning content by creating an editorial calendar, posting really consistently and following through by responding to fan engagement.
How do you decide where a client should be online? How do you determine what makes sense for them?
I believe that it’s not necessary for companies to be on every social media platform, but they should be on at least one and manage it well. Determining which platforms are appropriate for your business should start with clearly identifying your target audience. Then, determine which social networking platform to engage with based on which ones have users that fall into the target audiences. You can do a simple Google search for things like, “Facebook user demographics,” to see what the general user base is for each platform. Then, choose the platform(s) that has the highest number of users in your target audience.
How does the quality of the content shared on social media affect the success of a campaign?
We like to say, “Quality content is king!” If you’re not providing value to your followers with a good variety of quality content, there’s no reason for customers to keep following your brand. You have to give them a reason to want to come back and engage with you, and you do that with great content.
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