8 proven ways to leverage the power of social media

Social media is powerful when it comes to engaging current and potential customers. It allows you show your audience who you are and what your brand represents. Social media can be used to address an issue quickly which in turn proves to your audience that you’re an expert in your niche.

However, social media is also a key driver of new leads and as such you must learn how to adapt and nurture your relationship with your current customers, new ones and the potential customers to enable your brand a chance for continuous growth.

On this post, I’ll be leading you through 8 proven ways you can leverage the power of social media either as a business or a person.

Identify your target market

The first every business should know is their target market because this will play a very significant role in your business not just online but offline. Knowing who you are targeting enables you tailor your messages clearly in a way that it appeals to them. The less you know about your target audience the less likely you’ll be able to reach them through social media.

When identifying your target market you should begin by clearly the defining your product or service, then you define the objective of that product or service after which you define the people and organization that will want to use what you offer.

Understanding the needs of your target consumers is very important, that way you fully know how you can meet up with their needs through thorough market research which can be done by doing a market survey or getting reviews from your social media followers and groups.

Once you have known who you are targeting, it is easier for you to make decisions on the social media platforms you will be using to reach your target audience. If your target audience is the millennials, you will most likely find them on Facebook and instagram.

That way if you’re running a sponsored ad you’ll know where it should be as not to waste resources that will bring no result. Therefore, it is important to create a target persona, that way your social media messages and objectives would be easier and on point.

Develop a content strategy

You don’t just create a social media page and expect that people will come flocking to your page. In as much as you create viral marketing campaigns, there is no guarantee that people will keep coming back to your page and follow your posts. They’ll probably just visit your page once because of your campaign and if your page is not engaging they’ll move on.

When you don’t have an idea of the kind of contents that will appeal to your target audience, you engage or take assistance from a content development professionals that specialize in social media marketing. They can help you determine what kind of contents will appeal to your target audience and things that will make your page helpful.

If you don’t have enough resources to get assistance from professionals you can do contents that include; useful updates about your products and services, you can give a scrap of information that will give them a peek into your company. This will make your brand more human and help you build rapport with your audience.

You should also note that the time for posting is very important. Imagine you post a very important content and at that time your target audience is not online. When the eventually come online your post will be swallowed up by other posts making it almost impossible for them to see your posts.

Build a social proof

Social proof refers to any piece of evidence from your target audience that verifies your product, service or even your page. It is a tactic brands use to increase their conversion rates which is why logos, reviews and testimonials have become a sole part of social media marketing.

Getting social proof is one of easiest ways to generate more leads online because you have used your product or service and got value for their money will give your brand a mention on their pages.

Social proof inspires trust among your target audience because a lot of online users trust reviews from strangers as much as recommendations from people they know. Offering social proof can make people believe and trust your brand more.

You can have an edge over your competitors by offering social proof and the good thing about social proof is that it can be quite convenient to gather, it doesn’t require a lot of brainstorming. A lot of brands usually get reviews from their customers and post them online for other people/ to see and probably believe the brand.

To get your social proof you can use a social sentiment analysis like sentione, the tool crawls the social web to get mentions and conversations around your niche relevant keywords and your brand.

Respond to inquiries as quick as possible

Research by NM Incite indicates that 71% of consumers who receive positive social care are more likely to recommend the brand to other people. What this means is that helpful response can make a user become attached to your brand, it can also make the same person influence his friends and family to patronize your brand.

It is important to respond to your client’s inquiries as soon as possible, you don’t have to wait for long hours before responding to them. If you wait that long, they will go to another place where there inquiries will be treated on time and guess what? You have lost a potential customer.

Don’t just respond to messages quickly, respond to comments quickly too. You can get a negative comment from a client who must have purchased a product from you and if you don’t respond to it quickly other people will see it and assume your brand cannot be trusted. But if you address the issue quickly, people are more likely to trust your brand.

Keep a close eye on your competitors

There’s a big chance that your competitors are on social so just have it at the back of your mind that your social media presence does not exist in a vacuum. Your brand is competing with other brands within your niche.

So if you need to be ahead you will need to know and probably master their strategies. Know what works for them and what doesn’t it will help you to avoid some mistakes along the line, it will also it will also give you an insight on how to improve on your strategy

You don’t need to copy theirs strategies blindly, you just need to make them better and use them on your social media interactions. You will also need to come up with your own strategies to appeal to your audience.

Invest in social media ads

Running social media ads works well if you haven’t built a targeted social media following or if you are still new on social media. Running sponsored ads will help your brand to be seen by potential leads.

One huge benefit of social media ads is that it is cheaper than the offline ads and you still reach a huge number of people depending on your budget and the social media platforms that you use.

You don’t only have to be new to social media before running ads; old and high profile brand still run social media ads. Using unique messages that speak directly to your target audience, your brand will stay at the top of mind and nurture your leads.

You can run ads when you have a new product you are introducing to your customers. You can also run an ad when you are about doing a sales or giveaway. When you do this people tend to visit your page more and you will definitely get new customers and followers.

Have a sustained campaign

Do not just sit back and relax when social media ad or campaign ends because social media is not a sit and relax platform. You must always remember that you are competing with a lot of brands and once you become even a tiny bit of inactive they take your customers. You need to have a social media plan and strategy that will be sustainable for you throughout the year.

If you think you cannot handle all the stress of handling your social media platforms, the least you could do is hire a social media firm that will ensure that your brand is always active on the social media space.

A lot of companies go as far as hiring a professional staff to work full time on social media. If you have enough financial resource, hiring a professional work full time on social media will work effectively, that way you will be sure that your strategy will be sustainable.

Monitor, measure, analyze

Once you have your social media strategy in place, don’t just blindly implement it. You have to keep monitoring your posts and progress.

You should know the kind of posts that generates the most views, like, comments and even shares. You know the ones that generates more sales, the posts that generate negative comments on you page and the social media platforms that gives you the best conversion rates.