52% of all online brand discovery happens through social media feeds. After a company’s website or e-commerce platform, it’s no surprise which channel has now become the bread and butter for almost every B2C enterprise under the sun. If marketers were struggling to prove to their team why social media was not be treated as a fringe marketing enabler anymore, the pandemic offered a fantastic use case.

Now that you have everyone onboard, a new challenge emerges. With a gazillion brands competing for attention fiercer than ever before, how do you strike home? How do you go from mere online presence and content calendar rigmaroles to keep the conversation alive and interesting almost every day?

Daily Social Media Usage Worldwide

Source: Statista

The amount of time people spend on social media, courses a confident upward trajectory from 2012 to 2020. To truly make your social media marketing work for you, here’s a quick roundup of proven business strategies to help you hit the ground running:

1. Drive brand awareness and resonance by being more human

If you are still struggling to gain eyeballs, social media channels offer a fair enough battleground – video being one of the most effective enablers. About 93% of marketers tout that video content on social have earned them at least one customer. An immersive enabler, videos help drive long term brand resonance.

Bear in mind that 85% of Facebook video content is watched without sound. All you need to do is think of a concept that fulfils a logical need or tugs that emotional chord in them. It helps to jot down the traits you would see in yourself and someone like-minded, preferably a customer persona that you want to strike a connection with. Next think of situations in which you could empathize with them, offer useful hacks; think witty ways to make them smile. Like this Twitter post by KFC.

You don’t need to put up billboards next to your rivals to stand out. Social media viewers will remember you all the same even if you can pull off a campaign of pun-intended taglines or anything unique that helps them resonate with you on a human level. Remember: You cannot have them reach for their wallets without first winning their hearts.

2. Don’t shy away from experimenting and showing customers how much they matter

What you sell is not as important as how well you can package it. Every brand can invent its own idea of fun as long as it rings well with your audience. Staples, paper clips, and notebooks aren’t an influential topic to chat about on social media. Yet, notice how the brand turned boring into fun with a few well-conceptualized static posts.

 

Also, if as a brand, you have some real customer numbers to showcase, find a way to portray it on social media. Even if it’s a blog detailing it down. It helps prove to your patrons how much each of them is contributing to your business. In the long run, initiatives like these enable brands to build and sustain active communities and inspire customer loyalty. In fact, 67% of millennials say that if a brand engages with them on social media, they are likely to stay loyal to them. Spotify does this well. It collects continuous data about what songs, playlists, and artists its 30 million users select. The music streaming service combines this information with listener’s location data and demographics offering them an interesting view, to see if any of their favorites made it to the chartbusters.

3. Pay attention and be responsive

One of the top reasons why customers interact with you on social media is to voice their opinion or experience with your product or service. This is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing if you have a dedicated online reputation primed to deal with every sort of customer grievance. A curse if you forget to respond in time or if you have not been able to calm the aggrieved customer with a satisfactory answer.

Brands should nonetheless view this as an opportunity to wow customers. Negative feedback can be turned into a positive experience by being empathetic, responsive, and in some cases by giving discounts or offering replacements. A study by SAP reveals that 60% shoppers say that unexpected rewards are the biggest reason to stay loyal to a brand. Also, don’t forget to promote positive reviews as testimonials. They help build brand authenticity and value.

As a thumb rule, always thank your customers whether good or bad. Try to be as prompt as possible, especially when a customer sends you a direct message. See how the athletic clothing company, Lululemon did this when asked a question on Twitter.

4. Boost conversions with shoppable posts and live streaming commerce

Instagram now offers a huge opportunity for any brand or business eager to sell online. In fact, 84% of users discover new products on Instagram. Companies of all sizes are now leveraging it to turn loyal followers into customers. The platform allows you to tag your products in stories, reels, and live broadcasts, allowing brands to maximize their social penetrations. With zoomable images and almost e-commerce platform-like carousels, shoppable posts act as effective triggers for impulse purchases.

Google also, recently announced its latest experiment of a video shopping platform called Shoploop. It allows brands to pitch their products in a 90 seconds video. For companies with ready product catalogs, getting on to platforms like this will not need much effort and prove extremely lucrative.

5. Retarget your audience

Given the pervasiveness of online, meeting your customers where they are is extremely crucial. And retargeting helps you do just that. Your website may have a throng of visitors – most of them not necessarily converted into customers. Retargeting them with ads on social media based on what they have browsed for, or based on their search terms can help you stay top of mind during their decision-making process. Infact, these ads are 3X more likely to be clicked by retargeted customers than new ones. This also helps them perceive your brand to be much larger and can help attract impressed followers.

6. Get free publicity through UGC

No one can market your brand as effectively and genuinely as your existing customers. Plus they cost you zilch. It’s no wonder why UGC (user generated content) is known to influence the purchase decision of a staggering 90% of customers over branded content. Savvy brands that have encouraged advocacy in the past have seen no small outcome. All you need to do is come up with creative ways to evoke such brand stories from your existing customers.

Brainstorm with your team for a challenge or campaign that your followers and customers will enjoy. It could be as simple as asking them to take a picture using your product, or elaborate on the different scenarios in which have they used it, or why they like your product. You can also ask them to tag their friends and family by giving the campaign an emotional spin.

Next, offer incentives to your participants/ winners by keeping discount coupons, rewards, etc., up for grabs to gain substantial traction. User-generated content in the form of images, content, text, videos, reviews, etc., enables prospective customers to trust your brand and probably consider it the next time they plan to make a purchase. If done well, they can prove to be highly cost-effective and worth every ounce of effort spent, as they convince better than any brand ad.

The best part about social media marketing is that you can start small and scale up at your own budget and pace. Yet, carving a niche and staying competitive and relevant demands years of skilled knowledge of what approach will win and which will sink.

Leading brands across industries have been partnering with Urja to maximize their social media marketing revenues while they focus on more pressing business goals. To know how we can help your brand take on the reins of social success, contact us today.