There is always value in exploring new social media strategies, even if you have been able to distribute original content effectively on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. With its ability to unearth new leads, drive conversions and build your brand, social could be the key to unlocking your potential this autumn. Here are six new tactics you can experiment with right now.
SEO for YouTube
YouTube is the most popular format-specific search engine and is second only to Google in terms of search volume. If video is an important part of your content marketing strategy, then it makes sense to implement some form of search engine optimisation specifically for YouTube. SEO on the video sharing platform shares many similarities with traditional platforms such as Bing and Google.
SEO expert Aleh Barysevich advises using the right keywords, tapping into trending topics and queries, and keeping an eye on what your competition is doing to improve visibility on YouTube. Optimised titles and meta descriptions can also be deployed to convey brand messages and to get more people to click through to your videos.
Consider paid social
While organic social media marketing is the most affordable option for small businesses, paid social still has a place in certain situations. Nine in 10 B2C marketers have run ads on social media at some point, and when deployed correctly, paid campaigns can shine a light on organic content that needs an extra push to reach audiences.
How do you find the right posts to promote? Take a closer look at posts that are already driving at least a portion of traffic to your webpages. You can then pay to promote this content so that it appears in the news feeds of your target audience. Running ads for content that is already performing will deliver better ROI compared to an ad strategy that sprinkles funds across a wider variety of content without any forethought.
Paid social should also target ad placements that dovetail with campaign objectives. Marketing expert Brad Smith believes that premium ad placements are unnecessary if you only want to increase traffic to a blog post. Other more affordable means of promotion would be better here.
Think about Instagram
Brands are often in two minds about whether to embrace Instagram. The photo and video sharing social networking service is inherently different from Facebook or Twitter. Images play a major role in content output, and it can be argued that this form of marketing is not ideally suited to everyone. Before opening an account, consider whether Instagram can get more people to engage with your brand.
Don’t worry if your company is not visually oriented though. B2B companies have been able to forge successful campaigns on Instagram without high production videos and glossy photographs. Salesforce, for example, recently used a campaign made of illustrated covers for its eBooks and blogs to appeal to its audience.
The cloud software company used a simple title underneath the images saying: “Need email marketing inspiration? Here are 7 tips for your best email yet.” Combining a blog title with an eye-catching image is a great way to increase engagement on Instagram. You won’t even need a professional production company either to run regular campaigns.
The bottom line is that you don’t need to be visually focused to succeed on Instagram. By being creative, you will be able to slot Instagram seamlessly into your social media marketing strategies.
Outsource social media management
Keeping on top of numerous social media accounts can seem like a 24/7 job, but it does not have to be that way. Outsourcing social media management to a third-party agency will allow you to wrestle back control of your time and budget. An agency will be able to schedule posts during the week so that they reach audiences at exactly the right time.
You can also make use of tools to automate some of the more repetitive tasks such as generating hashtags for a post. These tools can come up with 25 related hashtags for each hashtag you enter – something that will make your content more relevant and fresh, especially if you publish more than once a day.
Repurpose content for social
Your daily or weekly blog can be a regular source of content for social media posts. You can repurpose and recycle this existing content for publication on Twitter or Facebook. Continuing the Instagram focus, you could even create a series of original articles with the view to transforming them into Instagram posts at a later date.
Tailwind marketing partnerships manager Susan Moeller recommends using a five-week Instagram post plan made from non-Instagram content. She believes that the link between the two will lead to more clicks and time spent on your website. Moeller notes: “It also ensures your followers find something worthwhile in their feed, so they click to your blog for more valuable content.”
This is a tactic that can also be used on other social media platforms. If you are set to greenlight a social campaign, think about how these posts can feed into your main blog and create a stream of visitors from one to the other.
Create a guide for others
Your marketing and content team probably knows the ins and outs of social media and how it can benefit your brand, but other departments might not be as well versed in its benefits. You can help others by creating a general style guide that outlines your brand’s purpose on social media and how a specific platform can support efforts such as customer advocacy, sales and recruitment.
A clear style guide is something that can benefit your brand as a whole anyway. This guide should cover everything to do with your company’s branding, such as its logo, colours, tone of voice, point of view and word usage. Translating brand style from a website to social media platforms will bring unity and simplicity to your account management and will ensure that content works across the various platforms you operate. This tactic and the five others listed here could give you a head start in your quest for social media success in late 2020.
