The Best Practices of Social Media to create a Digital Footprint

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Social media is rated as the top marketing channel for lead generation. Strengthening this point, 51 percent of Facebook users and 67 percent of twitter users say that they are most likely to buy a product from brands they like on Facebook or follow on Twitter. Now since we understand that social media is a great channel for lead generation, we have explained few tactics that can help you know how to use social media for lead generation.

Source: industrialmarketingtoday.com

Share content that showcases your USP (Unique Selling Proposition):
Illustrate your expertise through your content. A social media update is not just about creating some piece of content. It should create some value to the follower. You need to include links so that the core purpose is sufficed. Based on the response of your audience, you can update your social media strategy. If your content is share-worthy, every piece of content you produce is going to go viral. To create trendy and up-to-date social media updates, you need to follow the trends and know what’s happening in the market.
Use social links for promotion:
If you have a notion that having social media profiles or pages on your social web is enough to millions of followers, well you are absolutely wrong. Followers or customers won’t pour into your social media profiles and hence you need to make your own social media efforts. Gaining a great and loyal following on the social web takes a lot of time and efforts. So, start promoting about your social media presence and make them go viral. Include links of your social media profiles on your websites and blogs. Your promotional efforts might take time to show reports, but you are sure to be paid off.
Track conversations of your brands and competitors:
Traditional marketing is all about monologues but social media marketing is about dialogues, having conversations with customers and prospects. Social media has completely changed the perspective towards business. Brands are conversing and interacting with individuals. Once you get insights about your customers, competitors from their conversations, you can get a clear view about the platforms you need to focus on. You can get started by observing the comments you get on your social media profiles and slowly master the art of listening.
Address customers’ issues quickly:
When you get a feedback or a complaint from a customer or prospect, address it immediately if you think it can enhance your brand. But do not repeat the same mistake again. If you do not act on your learning, you might miss on valuable customers. Allot specific time just to check out for comments and answer customers’ issues.
Take advantage of your offline expertise:
Bring all the offline expertise you have created, online. Meet people, communicate and build relationships. Widen and foster relationships. Have insightful conversations with customers, ideate and address any issue they face.
Lastly, the better your customer service through social media, the higher would be your lead generation.Social Media, once meant for recreation and time pass has now become one of the biggest and important hubs for business. With the number of businesses involving in the social conversation increasing rapidly, it is getting tougher for new businesses to venture and capture space in the social web and achieve results.
The main mistake that businesses do while risking into social media is to step right in, without thinking about coalitions, security issues, engagement tactics or analytics. Starting without having a predefined goal is like travelling without a destination. So you need to have specific goals long before you step into the social web.
Here are few best practices you need to take care of before you roll out your social media efforts for your business.

Have a social media policy:
People commit a lot of mistakes when it comes to social media and then try to correct them. This is possible when the social media profile is of an individual. But when it is for an organization or a business, workforce handling the social media profiles should take utmost care to avoid mishaps. Your social media policy should explain about the corporate guidelines and the limitations of an employee when he/she posts something on the social web using business social media profiles.
Identify the social networking sites where your audience is:
When you are at the budding stage on the social web, you need to be careful and precise while choosing the sites from which you are going to communicate with your customers.  Do an extensive research to know where your audience is and build your brand on those sites. It is always better to go where your audience is rather than trying to pool in people where you are.
Be all ears to the information on the web:
Once you decide on the social networking sites you would work on, now derive conclusions as to what you will have to listen to. Now there are millions of messages sent daily and if you want to make sure that you listen to just the right ones, you need to have sharp ears and to catch up what you require. Follow or join only certain people or communities to get the right information you would need.
Measure everything – from click to conversation:
Managing an ever growing social community is no easy task. However with tools like Simplify360, you can get insights that will help you in your daily interactive efforts. Tracking every metrics can help you identify what works and what doesn’t for your business. It also leverages to create better strategies and engage with relevant communities and groups.
Five questions you need to ask yourself before you publish something on social media are:
1      Did I include keywords?
2      Is the content engaging?
3      Will the content give way to lead generation?
4      Is the content being shared of any value to my target audience?
5      Is my posting frequency right?
Few aspects to consider on the social web:
Be authentic | Be accurate | Be share-worthy | Be respectful | Be positive | Be conversational