Social media marketing: using likes to your advantage

Important com­po­nents of tra­di­tion­al marketing tech­niques include actively con­tact­ing customers through cold calling or dis­trib­ut­ing brochures and flyers as well as placing TV or print ads. Marketing experts describe these efforts as outbound marketing. These measures allow you to directly speak to customers and promote your project or service. With the arrival of content marketing, search engine op­ti­miza­tion, and es­pe­cial­ly social media marketing, the industry has ex­pe­ri­enced a sea change of sorts.

Inbound vs. outbound marketing

When it comes to inbound marketing, the in­ter­est­ed party finds the company, and not the other way round. Main­tain­ing a positive image helps ensure that more customers actively seek your brand or company out. Thanks to social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, it’s becoming in­creas­ing­ly easier for the user to get in touch with busi­ness­es and give them direct feedback; this can come in the form of praise, negative opinions, or demands. This is one reason why correct social media man­age­ment has become more important within online marketing.

Social media marketing is the modern form of referral marketing. A satisfied customer might hit a ‘like’ button or share an Instagram post with their followers, which in turn promotes a brand or product without the company ever lifting a finger. For a social media marketing campaign to be suc­cess­ful, a few factors need to be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion. If you want your business to succeed on social networks, you should…

...offer in­for­ma­tion

Companies can use social media to inform their customers about their products or services. Besides basic in­for­ma­tion, like opening hours and addresses, you can also use social media to spread important news. New dishes on the menu, a new col­lec­tion in your clothing line, or a new colleague in your team: online bulletin boards and timelines offer enough space to post whatever news you care to share. In­for­ma­tion on ren­o­va­tion work, opening hours during public holidays, and job offers can all be dis­trib­uted on social networks. Regular customers are thus kept up-to-date and new customers always have relevant in­for­ma­tion at their fin­ger­tips.

...build up a rep­u­ta­tion

There’s a lot of online com­pe­ti­tion and thanks to the many com­par­i­son platforms, busi­ness­es can quickly get to know their com­peti­tors. This is why a company should place a lot of im­por­tance on a ‘clean hands’ approach and build up a positive rep­u­ta­tion, which is achieved by good customer care and image pro­tec­tion. Companies receive direct feedback from their customers on social media channels, so good man­age­ment of your online community shows that customer opinions are taken seriously. If your social network consists of a trans­par­ent, open com­mu­ni­ca­tion style, then you can create a positive rep­u­ta­tion among your customers

...build and maintain contacts

Social media marketing is the perfect outlet for retaining customers. When liking or following a business, social media users express an interest in the company, which they then share with their own friends and followers. Social networks need to be managed sensibly since images, posts, and in­for­ma­tion are worthless if nobody reacts to them. The more people that like, share, or comment on a post, the more recog­ni­tion the company receives. Direct com­mu­ni­ca­tion brings the company and the customer closer together. A social media profile is a contact point for questions and com­plaints, which in these cir­cum­stances requires real-time in­ter­ac­tion.  

...maximize coverage

If properly used, social media marketing can generate a wider reach. Good posts with high value or en­ter­tain­ment factors are liked and shared. This can then be seen by the user’s contacts, which then mul­ti­plies your read­er­ship even more. Planning and strategy are very important here, so you should take advantage of the available social media tools to help you plan your ac­tiv­i­ties on the network. The financial im­pli­ca­tions are rel­a­tive­ly small in com­par­i­son to those of other marketing channels. Using various tools also lets you measure successes and failures.

...take advantage of the channel’s features

Social media channels offer numerous op­por­tu­ni­ties to arouse users’ curiosity and convert them into new customers. With special offers and campaigns, your company can’t go wrong. If you invite people to events using sites like Facebook, the sense of community among your followers becomes even stronger. Social media enables busi­ness­es to become more familiar with their target groups. You can form con­clu­sions on customers’ pref­er­ences and interests based on the content they share. It’s also possible to monitor the in­ter­ac­tion rate of in­di­vid­ual posts and see which have the best results. Social media tools can help topics be better and more suc­cess­ful­ly developed when they resurface later.

...advertise

With Facebook Ads you can specify the exact target group that should see the ad. Facebook’s user metrics are valuable for all online marketing strate­gies. By specif­i­cal­ly targeting certain groups with your ads, you’re left with little coverage waste.

Facebook is usually the platform that comes to mind when social media is mentioned. It makes sense, given that Facebook is the largest social network in the world. There are obviously many other platforms that can also be used to reach customers and these include sites like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. In our article on social media platforms you can see which options are available to marketing managers.