Follow Your Audience

Posted: February 11, 2015, 8:00 p.m.
by Ana Vega.

Social media marketing is designed to gain company or brand recognition through the use of different platforms. But with endless options readily available to help you promote your campaign, how do you know which platforms to use?

Most social media is free of charge — take advantage of it:

1) Make a plan. You can’t start a social media marketing campaign tomorrow and expect it to work.

Determine your goals.
• Are you aiming to converse with the consumer?
• Do you want to drive your audience to your website?
• Is there an identity that you’re trying to create or recreate?

Forming goals are important because eventually you are going to want to look back and measure your success.

2) Get to know your resources and how they work.

Facebook
Facebook has 890 million active users daily, but that doesn’t mean you can go crazy on this platform. Facebook is a casual place to keep up with your friends or to create your business’ fan page. You should keep the information you post relatable, clear and easy to read. But aside from the basics, what else can Facebook offer?
• With the click of a button you can track progress by monitoring your page’s analytics.
• Facebook offers the ability to cross platform with other sites.
• It’s mobile.

Twitter
First things first — you need to gain followers. From there, it is important to entertain them when appropriate. Don’t just push campaign information; mix it up a little with a variety of different tweets. And most importantly, don’t forget to interact with your target audience through favorites, retweets and some dialog.

Instagram
If you want to engage your audiences then this platform is for you. The engagement on Instagram is 15 times the amount of Facebook. You have free rein of how you choose to use the medium, but it seems to work best for organizations whose target audiences are visual learners. So, keep it creative and appealing.

LinkedIn
This platform probably isn’t the first tool that comes to mind when thinking about implementing a campaign. However, LinkedIn isn’t just for professional interaction. By asking your customers and clients to give your business a recommendation, you will gain reliability and credibility in return.

YouTube
Companies make mistakes when they create a video with the expectations of it going viral. Instead of having that mindset, keep your eye on the prize by creating a video that adds value to your target audience. Also, here’s a quick tip: Make a “How to” video because they tend to rank higher up on a Google search result.

This post explores only five of the available social media platforms. With the endless supply of social media, you practically have each audience in the palm of your hand. That’s why it is important to stay up to date with the trends and know how to use each site effectively. Choose the best options to cater to your audience.