How can social media support your wider marketing?

An effective social media strategy with regular activity allows you to build widespread awareness for your brand and reach new audiences that you are unlikely to touch through other forms of advertising.

It can also help you to build strong relationships with your customer base, developing loyalty and promoting a strong brand image.

More than ever in the current difficult climate, businesses are discovering the strong results which can follow from a strategic social media presence: more sales, more new and returning customers, better return on investment, more awareness of their brand – and therefore stronger business growth.

Social media is not only a strong marketing strategy in itself, it also supports and assists other marketing activities and will help you achieve broader results.

There are many ways social media supports and promotes other marketing efforts, for example;

• Podcasts are a very modern and effective way of enhancing your brand marketing and can be a source of fantastic content for your social media channels. Podcasts can give people an insight into what the day to day of your company looks like and gives them a new way of getting to know your business without having to step into your office. The potential of reaching new audiences through podcasting is huge, but this can only be maximised with strategic and creative social media management.
• PR will give you external news articles which can be shared across your social media channels. You can also help nurture your business relationships by tagging sources in your content.
• Highlight your key stats by sharing some example Case Studies. Using relevant hashtags when doing this can also reach new customers.
• Customer service can be enhanced with a click of a button. Customers tend to enquire about products and services through Direct Messages and comments on social posts. Social Media gives you the ability to reach your customers 24/7 and offer first-class customer service in the palm of your hand.
• Successful PPC marketers know that testing is key, so bring that concept over to your social media. For example, use Facebook Audience Insights to get a better handle of your best-performing demographics.
• Attending and sponsoring events are a great way to network with other businesses and will allow you to discuss your services face to face with potential suitors. Many of these are now being moved online to ‘virtual networking events’ but can still give you the chance to connect with your new contacts via social media.

In order to get the most out of your social media, you need to make sure that your social media plays the right role in your overall marketing plan and you are spending your time and energy in ensuring your social media management backs this up.

If you don’t have the time to do this in house, then why not hire a social media agency to take care of the whole process for you?

It’s all well and good knowing the importance of a social strategy but this can still be incredibly stressful and potentially expensive if you don’t know where to start or where to allocate your budgets.

We’ve joined forces with Podcast Labs to tackle this head on and create the ‘Ultimate Podcast & Social Media Package’.

See how this bumper package from Dorset’s two leading specialist agencies can help boost your business to the next level.