Whether you use social media for keeping up with national news or just your grandmother, there is no denying that you will have come across a few memorable advertising campaigns during your time spent on social apps. Here, Sam Darr explains how you can use the pocket power of social media to benefit your business.
Social media has become a common substitute for the daily paper, shopping catalogues and waving at actual human beings over the last few years.
Although other marketing media can do things that LinkedIn and Instagram can’t, there are few better ways to put your product in front of a potentially massive number of people with such accessibility.
But accessible doesn’t mean easy, and the possibility of reaching a huge audience doesn’t call for blanket drops of hopelessly hopeful content.
Social media campaigns need to be considered, concise and creative.
Some of social media’s most famous campaigns have simply come from the right connections, and others from huge budgets – I’m going to thumb-scroll past these ideas and focus on a simple five-step plan to creating a successful social media campaign.
Are you looking to work alongside new businesses and organisations? You’ll find plenty of business profiles on LinkedIn.
Looking to sell your product to a specific kind of individual? Use Facebook or Instagram to tap into the perfect profiles using clever post optimisation.
Or do you want to spark a discussion? Put your company among the pigeons by posting your campaign on Twitter.
It’s recommended that your company has a presence on more than one social media platform, but that’s not to say that your posts can be a copy-and-paste across all of your profiles. Choosing the correct platform for your campaign is vital, and each platform offers something different.
‘Social media users encounter dozens of advertising campaigns every single day.’ Yippee!
‘But they don’t much like being directly sold to.’ Oh.
Stick a blatant advert or company promo in a browser’s face and they will simply scroll by.
If you want people to engage with your campaign, make it just that – engaging.
By creating a narrative that runs through each of the posts in your campaign, social media users will become sensitised to your brand and messaging, making it much more memorable and engaging than your average advert.
Think about your key message, what you want to achieve and then get creative – think of a unique way to achieve your goals while portraying your brand’s personality.
‘Mighty oaks from little acorns grow’, as it has been told (I think).
Posting your social media campaigns at the right time of day may seem like a trivial thing to do, but it can make all the difference.
The algorithms for many social media platforms prioritise putting the most engaged-with posts at the top of users’ feeds alongside the latest posts.
In short, if your post receives lots of engagement during its first few minutes in the social feeding ground, it’s much more likely to be successful.
By doing your research and using insight tools to identify the optimum posting time, you can ensure that more active users see your post as soon as its live, increasing its chances of being interacted with and pushing it to the top of the feeds of those who log on later.
So, you’ve chosen the perfect platform, written a winning post and have a nailed-on time to press publish.
If that’s not enough to get users engaging with your campaign, convert those final few readers into reactors by merely asking them to get involved.
By posing a question to your follows, asking them to submit their stories and suggestions or by including a call to action in your post, you should find that many more of your followers will opt to engage with your content
Let me be clear – paying for premium advertising space on social media is not a cheat code that will elevate your campaign to ‘gorilla playing drums for purple chocolate bars’ status.
But if you’ve followed these steps to create an engaging campaign that hits your targets, why not put it in front of a larger audience?
Most social media platforms offer a paid advertising service that will place your campaign’s posts in front of a guaranteed number of users for a relatively reasonable fee.
To take your campaign national, or even global, paid social media advertising is the perfect option.
If you or your business need assistance in coming up with sparkling social media campaigns, get in touch with us by emailing hello@prominentpr.co.uk or giving us a ring on 01473 276126.
Share this article:
Call us on: 01473 276126
Email us on: hello@prominentpr.co.uk
