You’ve already put the effort into making your website a target audience friendly, highly informative yet simply written online sales tool (get in touch if you’ve missed our website content copywriting and Homepage Rewrite services). Now you need to strengthen it, and your brand, with a strategic social media marketing plan.

Does the word strategic take the fun out of social media for you? It might, but it’s not just a token word to get your attention—because we don’t talk like that—social media is serious when it comes to your business reputation and your return on time investment.

Social media platforms are fun to explore and easy to get caught up in but when you’re dealing with social media for business, like using them to generate sales, you need to plan your messages plus know when and how to share them.

Social media marketing is not a quick fix. You can’t just post some pithy comment or a great image and wait for the sales to roll in (though it does help), you’ve got to work at it just like any other sales pitch you make. You need to create content that’s compelling to your potential consumers and interesting enough to share by your existing followers and loyal customers.

It takes time to develop relationships and get known, and respected, in your social media circles. But, it can be done and you can get help to make the most impact with your social media tools.

Have you tried getting started in social media but things aren’t going your way? Take this social media quiz, and don’t worry, everyone stumbles along in the beginning. It gets better as you focus your message and learn what platforms best serve your needs.

3 Things To Think About When You’re Social Media Marketing

1. Define your priorities, purpose and goals for using social media.  Do you want to make sales, give your business a personality or just keep up with what your competitors are doing (Hint: the last option is not the best reason for social media, though if your competitors are benefitting from it you should be too). Create Contagious Content: brainstorm with your staff and talk to your customers to find out who’s looking for your service, what they want to know and where they’re going to find it. This helps you engage people who want to know about your business and not just broadcasting to people who don’t care (it wastes your time and theirs).
2. Choose the right platform to get the response you’re looking for. Twitter and Facebook are obvious platforms to start with because they are popular and there is little guesswork left for audiences to use them to their, and your, advantage. If you can say it in 140 characters with an image that will compel a share, Twitter is your best bet for quick infiltration of a wider audience. If you want to create a relationship with your users and encourage them share their thoughts and ideas with you and others, Facebook easily provides that option.
3. Keep your content fresh and timely without hiring new staff just to keep up with social media demands (though Tangible Words’ copywriters  are available to help with this). Use a Recyclable Annual Editorial Calendar. Recyclable meaning you can preplan and reuse topics each year (for things like your e-newsletter or weekly Facebook posts). And, when you’ve identified your content needs you can write it whenever you have time (like the last afternoon before a long weekend and you need something to do, but not too much to do…). Then it’s waiting for you when you need to post, and don’t have any time, with just a click of a button you’re up to date.

Here’s Another Tip To Make Your Social Media Marketing Better For Your Users & Easier For You

Create at least five blogs of timeless information that answers questions you always get from your customers—it’s called Pillar Content. You can use this content to complement your posts, shares, tweets to gets people directly to information they’re interested in on your website. And, you avoid the apathetic “visit our webpage” with fingers crossed they’ll click on something that makes them want to buy.

Remember, if you have staff doing your social media then you need to think about Social Media Content Policy. In it, you’ll set social media implementation details like frequency, target audience focus, and management tools to avoid duplication of effort. Need help with this? Contact Tangible Words.

Know How Your Customers Use Your Blog To Make Buying Decisions

Your business blog can lead customers to your store the same day they search for your service. "Local searches lead 50% of mobile visitors to visit stores in one day (Google 2014)." Investing time and effort in your business blog keeps your company top of mind with your customers and search engines.

Get the information you need to use your business blog, right now. You'll find out how you can:

• Increase online traffic (to reach more consumers),
• Generate qualified leads (to save your sales team time)
• Make more sales online (to make more profit).

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