Billions of people are social media users today – over 3.8 billion! Managing your social media presence as an agency can be tough. And then comes the added pressure of guaranteeing internet success for clients. Effective ways to market on social media become crucial especially if your agency serves in the advertising and PR industry. There is no dearth of advertising agencies. There are 8000 PR agencies in the US alone. Measuring social media presence tells you about your dominance within the industry by giving you an idea about your market share. In this article, we share 5 ways to improve social media presence for agencies and strengthen their overall social media strategy.
Know the Social Media Platform
Whether your clients are large corporations or businesses just starting out, every brand needs to boost its brand visibility. Even your own brand needs to boost its online performance. Sometimes brands and agencies make the mistake of treating all social media platforms the same. They are not. If every social media platform was the same, there wouldn’t be so many. Each platform has its own personality so you need to identify and mold your content and strategy accordingly. People use Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Youtube very differently. You cannot expect to attract an audience on Instagram with the same content that you posted on LinkedIn. Here are some of the most popular social media platforms that your agency probably uses.
Facebook Features
As of now, Facebook attracts the highest number of daily users. People come to Facebook to share more personal content, share photos, updates, and general news. These users are generally highly opinionated and will pay close attention to any catchy news on their feed. This presents a great opportunity for marketing.
Twitter Features
Twitter is fast-paced. People have a lot to say within the 280 characters allowed. They are constantly tweeting, retweeting, clicking on links, and moving on. On Twitter, you need content that will keep up – fast pieces of information. They can be tweeted with a short message or link, a photo, or a quick GIF.
LinkedIn Features
LinkedIn is designed keeping professionals and businesses in mind. Most users on LinkedIn are there in a professional capacity. Many of them will follow content via LinkedIn groups et cetera. Being visible in these groups presents a huge opportunity for lead generation.
Instagram Features
Instagram has grown in recent years and it is a platform that adopts a different way of displaying content. People here are more invested in displaying their content aesthetically in the form of theme-based photo-blogs. Businesses and influencers spend hours putting out visually captivating content. And visual content does a great job of capturing the attention of an otherwise capricious audience.
Know the Audience
The next most important thing to do is knowing more about your target audience. Knowing the exact buyer persona helps you personalize your offering when you market your product. These are not your generic display ads from Google/Bing. Running ads on social media allows you to segment your audience. So when you have this choice, personalizing the content increases your chances of gaining potential customers.
This is also where the choice of platform matters. If you are in the B2B market, LinkedIn ads might be more useful to you. Study your target market’s demographics, interests et cetera. Listen to the industry chatter on the chosen platform. You will know about leads who are the most active and interested. Marketing to such people increases your chances of gaining the right attention.
Storytelling
Right, so you now have your target audience, you know the platforms you want to work with. But how do you start? Where do you start? You have to improve your social media presence and brand awareness, but how? The answer lies in the age-old marketing tool – storytelling. As Seth Godin said, “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make but about the stories, you tell.” Storytelling is a great way to start and reach your customers. Let them see the human side of the brand, let them know the benefits they can reap from your services, and be inspired to take action.
This tool is age-old, the only change that has been made is the ease with which you can do it. You have a digital medium like videos and photos which make the story truly appealing. And AI tools help you peek right into the minds of your audience members to tell you all about what they want to know. Monitoring the social chatter around your industry keywords is the first step to start planning your storytelling campaign.
Retargeting and Remarketing
When people search for products or services on Google, they are actively looking for these things – they are hot leads. It is not the same case on social media. To convert the cold traffic from social media into warm traffic you need to remarket. Retargeted customers have a 70% more chance of converting. Social media monitoring helps you plan your remarkable campaigns. Monitor your audience when they engage with your page and posts. Pay close attention to their comments and the posts with which they are engaging. The next time you send out an ad to their inboxes, it could be tailored around these insights.
Another way to remarket your brand to your existing audience members is to gather insights about their topics of interest. Encourage your clients and send out gated content revolving around these topics. These are sure to catch the attention of your cold leads. Once they sign-up for an e-book or a webinar, you can send them promotions that are targeted for more leads down the sales funnel.
To turn strangers into prospects you will need to create brand awareness. Offer helpful pieces of content and educate them about why they need your service or the benefits that await them by signing on. Every step you take via social media can be managed via social media management tools. Remember, building an online brand image comes with patience. Keep monitoring, reading the data, take actions based on the insights, and do not stop measuring the impact.