What is Social Media Marketing
Marketing on social networks is basically a strategy that uses social media as the main communication tool, brand promotion and dissemination of goods and services.
Social media have become so present in our lives that, currently, they perform the function of transmitting information, creating new relationships, besides, of course, being an essential tool in Digital Marketing.
But to give you an idea, it goes far beyond that. Today, the encounter between the brand and its consumers takes place on social networks.
Through these social networks, it is possible to generate revenue from the business, get closer to the potential audience, relate to the public and meet their needs. That is the reason many social agencies are providing social media marketing services all around the globe.
Social networks are also excellent tools for you to follow your competitors and understand how the market moves, whether in your niche or segment.
But what would be the ranking of social networks according to Canadian tastes?
Well, according to the Digital report made by media companies Vancouver in 2021, the 10 most used social networks in Canada, in ascending order, are:
- Youtube
- Facebook Messenger
- Skype
- Snapchat
Now, ask yourself: which of these social networks is present in your company?
Is it worth investing in social media marketing?
Without a doubt, the investment in Marketing on social media is worth a lot, because if the strategy is well applied, it brings a lot of return.
As you have seen, there are thousands of Canadian active on social media daily. And the trend is for this to continue growing.
So, don’t be fooled that just your online presence will set your company apart from the rest.
It is extremely important to strategically define which ones you need to be and act efficiently, always keeping an eye on metrics and data. If you want the best service of social media management in Vancouver then you can reach us out. Because we are one of the best social media companies in Vancouver.
How Social Media Marketing Works
If you want your brand to be seen and recognized by your audience, you should already know that the way to expand your visibility is through social media. Besides social media, there are some other google tools for business but we are not going to discuss them right now. See below the main reasons to create professional accounts on social media:
Your brand gains public visibility
One of the main goals in Digital Marketing is to make users connect and recognize your brand, simply and quickly.
Of course, to reach this level, there is an in-depth market study, brand positioning, communication, definition of the niche of activity and many analyses.
In addition to creating a strong Visual Identity and striking branding.
But anyway, social networks carry great potential for brands that want to be present. If you want to create your strong social identity you can take the help of our social media consultant in Vancouver.
As a result, it is important to recognize that the social media algorithm is based on public interactions.
Therefore, the more your content reaches the right people, the more chances your brand will have shares, likes, interactions, thus establishing positive impressions and greater visibility about your company.
Generates engagement
As we have seen, social networks use engagement as a ranking factor, that is, the posts most displayed to users are from brands and people they interact with the most.
Therefore, for your customers to see you, relate to and trust your brand, you need to engage.
It is considered as engagement in social media: likes, comments, shares, user tags and post saving.
In this way, interact with your audience, create valuable content, respond to comments and create a close relationship with your audience.
Simply responding to an Instagram direct or a Facebook message increases engagement and strengthens communication.
Imagine yourself as a customer: how would it feel to see your question being answered promptly by the brand?
You would feel special and without a doubt, you would visit that company’s profile or page again.
This is what creates a link of trust and credibility, one of the main goals of Marketing on social media!
Social networks are a source of Organic Traffic
Do you want to increase traffic to your blog or website?
Social networks allow you to drive traffic for these purposes, through Landing Pages (LP), sharing blog articles and promoting e-commerce products.
Another way to generate traffic and interaction with your audience is to conduct sweepstakes.
In addition to strengthening your Content Marketing strategy, sweepstakes generate engagement, likes and shares, as long as you use this method correctly.
You can also insert links that point to a particular page in your professional profile description.
Learn how to create a good Social Media Marketing strategy
To take advantage of all the potential that social networks offer, it is necessary to create a good strategy, planning, producing content and analyzing what is working or not.
Unfortunately, many companies still don’t understand the potential of these channels, which creates the false feeling that they don’t pay off.
While companies that use and know the power that social networks have, come out ahead (and generate much more sales).
But before starting to create content and posting around, it is necessary to shape a strategic plan and define goals at that first moment.
Start with a question, for example: What will be the focus of your social networks? On which social network will I engage certain content?
Another very important point is to follow the metrics, as they will guide your strategy. Therefore, the path would be like this:
- Create a strategy
- define a path
- Determine KPIs
- Optimize your professional business profile
Thus, knowing your audience’s needs facilitates the targeting process on your social networks.
Next, you need to put all those goals written down on paper, during the planning stage, into practice and measure them through KPIs, Key performance Indicator or key performance indicators.
For example: if your goal is to generate sales, pay attention to the number of leads generated by social networks.
If you plan to increase brand awareness, then you have to look at the number of mentions and the reach of your publications.
Once the objective is established, you need to follow 10 strategic elements, such as:
- Regularity of posts, as it shows that your brand is reliable and organized, and is always present in a constant way.
- Content authenticity, as the audience, perceives when a post is not original. Be authentic with your brand’s tone and voice.
- Proper behavior is essential. We know that social media is informal, but any slip can be fatal to your business.
- Retargeting is very important when showing specific ads to people who have already been in contact with your company, so they will come back after seeing an attractive ad and finalizing the purchase.
- Driving traffic to your online store or blog, sharing posts with links and LPs, in addition to drawing lots, are the most common ways.
- Engagement, of course, is what makes people feel motivated to keep following your advice or recommendations.
- Organic growth is based on defined value content and engagement processes.
- Crisis planning is essential for delicate moments, like a slip or even the outbreak of a pandemic (2020 has just proved that). It’s always good to be prepared for future damage.
- Professional team with social media specialist and designer to do a good job, and not let anyone manage these channels.
- Well-defined KPIs as they are responsible for showing the effectiveness of your strategy. Without them, you can’t keep track of what’s going right and you’re likely to make the same mistake twice.
In addition, it is also necessary to understand that each social network has its own particularities, so the way to relate to your audience on Facebook will be different on Twitter.
Main social networks and their good engagement practices
We are in the country where we spend an average of 3h34 on social media per day! And in Digital Marketing, our social agency use these channels because their use is extremely important to reach the target audience. Find out below, everything you need to know about the 5 most important social networks in Canada and their advantages :
Despite Facebook having lost its presence in our daily lives, it is still, by far, the network with the highest number of users in the world!
You can be certain that your audience will be present, regardless of who they are.
There you can create business pages, targeted paid ads (Facebook Ads) and allow engagement and direct contact with your customers.
Use Facebook to generate business by following these practices:
- add a good profile and cover photo, preferably with your company logo;
- complete your profile with all important information such as an address, description, mission, phone and email;
- plan the content you want to spread and set the tone of voice in your posts;
- promote your page and posts;
- analyze and measure the results, but not just focus on likes and shares.
Facebook has the advantage of allowing the use of various types of content, from images, gifs, videos, articles, checklists and even promoting rich materials such as quizzes or e-books.
But first, make sure they are mobile-friendly since most people use the social network through their smartphone.
Always remember to create content based on your persona and your needs.
It is also recommended to never leave your audience unanswered. Whenever you can reply to all comments on the page and in Messenger.
If you don’t have time, as a suggestion, leave an automatic message, and then you can calmly answer the question.
Another tip is to study the best publishing times through Facebook Insights. There you have access to the peaks of access on your page and can analyze the best period for publication. If you want Facebook marketing or posting services then you can contact us.
Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social networks today and has become the darling of the digital market, as it generates a lot of engagement.
Just to give you an idea, Instagram hit a record 1 billion active users in March, establishing itself as one of the most popular digital platforms in the world.
It is extremely easy to use, as the focus of this social network is the image.
But, it should be taken into account that it is a network created only for cell phones since, on the computer, its visualization is still quite limited.
Instagram is very good for business, but it is necessary to bear in mind that the majority of the public that uses this media is younger, with an average age between 18 and 35 years old.
So, create a professional account or business profile right now, if you don’t already have one. You will need:
- Add a name, which can be from the brand or company
- Upload a profile picture
- Write an objective and creative description
- Include directing links
Furthermore, similar to Facebook Insights, the social network provides a variety of benefits and resources through the professional account, such as:
- monitoring the growth of your profile, counting the number of visits, clicks on the description link and Stories, reach, impressions and even the number of interactions per day of the week;
- analysis of its followers’ behavioural profiles based on location, age, and gender data;
- definition of the best times and days of the week for posting, based on peaks of access and interaction;
- for e-commerces, you can mark products in publications, facilitating public access to your store’s website with just one click;
- after gaining 10,000 followers, you can insert URLs in stories.
But for all this to work and generate sales, you must know your target audience, profile your ideal customer (persona) and define your goals well.
This way, you avoid falling into sameness by creating a consistent plan with valuable content for Instagram and other social networks.
This will guide your brand positioning and strengthen your identity as well as the content produced for feed, stories and IGTV.
And, thus, you’ll also be able to generate paid traffic through Instagram Ads and segment the audience destined to receive these publications.
Another valuable tip is that photos with people tend to generate up to 35% more engagement. Therefore, avoid always using the same layout in posts and try to get as close to your audience as possible.
Remember that on Instagram, the sale is a consequence. Marketing strategies on this social network are focused on the relationship and interaction with customers.
LinkedIn is the No.1 professional network in the world. A space totally focused on this corporate bias, containing data from companies and professionals.
And, currently, it has more than 570 million active users worldwide.
In Social Media Marketing, LinkedIn is essential for doing business, promoting your company/brand and positioning yourself as an authority in the market.
Even more, if your company is B2B (business-to-business), that is when commerce is between companies, you should be present in this social media.
Also important about LinkedIn is the amount of useful information you can access, such as how long people work in a place or their background.
Therefore, LinkedIn basically acts as a networking network, accepting only content that deals with the business world.
And the great thing about this network is to know what is being said by your network and hear what your audience is talking about.
So use LinkedIn to:
- connect with other professionals and position yourself with authority in your segment, linking this quality to your company;
- find information and numerous quality articles. By being on the network, you can “listen” to what your audience wants and create content to assist them.
- as it is a networking network, it is possible to find work opportunities and also find your future collaborator in the network;
- connect with companies and brands in your industry.
Basically, your profile should contain all the important company data, as well as the profile image and cover corresponding to your business.
A very important tool on the web is Linkedin Pulse, a super interesting proposal that allows you to demonstrate your professional knowledge and add value to other professionals.
That way, when you write, your base receives a notification.
And you don’t only need to write written articles, but also share blog posts, rich materials or e-books.
So write to gain authority and followers. If you are the CEO of your company, make this link, so that not only you, but your business can also become a reference.
Famous social network with character limitations (which is currently 280), Twitter is characterized by the speed of information.
She has become popular when it comes to memes, politics, football or any live that comes out during the week.
In Canada, the social network dropped a little, but it is still widely used by influencers, media outlets, opinion makers, among others.
But what about for business? Is Twitter ideal for use in my business?
Twitter is able to generate interesting insights as it promotes engagement and conversions.
Not to mention that the network is ideal to serve as a service channel. In an era in which the customer experience is prioritized, offering qualified contact generates a great positive impact on the relationship with your audience.
First of all, to start Marketing on Twitter, you need to create a complete profile, which must contain the basics, such as name, photo, cover, background image and bio (profile description).
And to get more followers and know your audience, you need to follow some tips like:
- follow other companies and people in your industry, and retweet/favourite their tweets;
- analyze your audience;
- respond to mentions and messages from your target audience. The tip here is to get creative;
- check what your competitors are talking about to get an idea of what to share;
- publish images and videos (gifs fit this social network very well);
- Create polls and ask questions;
- not focus on sales here, but on generating value and building a relationship with your audience.
Like all previous social networks, Twitter also provides ways to get paid traffic to your profile, through Twitter Ads.
Paid tweets can work in three ways, each of which has its specific function:
1- Promoted Tweets is used when the purpose is to promote a tweet, drive traffic to a particular link, offer promotions or coupons, generate leads or attract attention to your brand.
2- If you want to increase the number of followers, use the promoted accounts function.
3- Choose promoted subjects to capitalize on the current trend (subject) and increase the engagement and visibility of your account.
Youtube
Youtube is the second largest search network in the world!
That’s right, second only to Google, with its two billion active users.
Who has never gone straight to Youtube here to research some recipe or the famous DIY (do it yourself), do it yourself to learn something new?
Thus, Marketing on Youtube is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the platform’s large audience, as well as increase your company’s visibility, intensify your relationship with your audience and generate new conversions.
Thus, we list below the best strategies that should be followed for your business to grow in this network:
- Produce relevant content
- Engage Your Audience
- Promote your Youtube videos in other media, such as blogs, websites, email marketing, LPs, paid media, among others.
- Optimize your videos according to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to appear in the first search results
- Advertise on other channels through Youtube Ads
- Partner with digital influencers
- Monetize your channel, making your profile a source of income
And of course, for all of this to work according to plan, you need to understand your audience – essential in Social Media Marketing, to create content they want to see on your channel.
Define your goals well, as the creation of a YouTube channel can have several functions, such as generating traffic to your website, encouraging the sale of a certain product, or even increasing engagement.
Don’t forget to create a script before you go out and shoot videos. The script must contain a short summary of the video, duration forecast and the sequence of images and speeches that will make up the story.
And more important than producing the videos and making time for editing is also determining the frequency of publication.
It’s no use starting with all that excitement to abandon the project later on.
Preferably, publications should have a constant frequency so that your audience can follow your channel, remaining faithful to your production.
In addition to using SEO on videos, you can opt for paid advertising with Youtube Ads.
To use it, all you need to do is have an account linked to Google Ads to keep track of your campaigns and where your ad appears from there.
Remember that it is important to always keep an eye on the performance of the channel and videos to know if you are on the right path and which points should be improved. To get this big picture, it’s simple. Go to the youtube.com/analytics link and see the top metrics for the past month.
Did you see how important it is to have your brand present on the main social networks on the internet? It is there that you will find a multitude of opportunities to grow and get to know your audience more closely.
