Why You Need a Social Media Marketing Strategy for Your Company

Social media marketing is more than just having accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like. It’s imperative that you have a strategy for using social media, one that fits your advertising and marketing goals. In other words, wield social media just like you rely on your trusty coons to help you bag your birds.

In this example, dogs are absolutely necessary for a fox hunt, but it’s not enough to simply “release the hounds.” Sure, your dogs have been bred and trained for the hunt in much the same way that social media marketing sites have been designed for effective business exposure. However, at the end of the day, it’s up to the hunter to lead them to the place where they can capitalize on their innate talents.

Loose Hounds

Of course, it’s not necessarily healthy to think of your customers as treed raccoons or cornered foxes. But you can view social media sites as a pack of dogs whose function is to flush out leads and direct customers to the checkout page. Even though social media marketing sites are designed for that purpose, you still need to manage them strategically to get the job done right.

It’s not enough to simply “have a presence” in social media. Yes, creating accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and others is the first step, but it doesn’t stop there. You have to consider the best ways to use them. Is your material on the various sites tuned to those specific audiences? Is the material you posted redundant, overlapping or incongruous? You need to know, not guess.

Following the Scent

To evaluate the leads coming in from the various social media marketing sites, you need to understand what these customers are responding to. First and foremost, you must establish your brand. Then you need an effective way to measure the response activity. After a proper analysis, you have to design a strategy to capitalize on the opportunities and generate better commercial outcomes.

You need a vision and purpose in your social media marketing strategy. You must define your customer demographics and target them with specific content that’s developed for each separate platform. Above all, you must have a general theme and tenor to everything. As of 2016, 76 percent of Americans —more than two billion people — have a social media profile. And the ROI on social media marketing has already overtaken traditional marketing. The social hounds have found their targets.

Up the Tree and In Your Basket

Traditional marketing is generally a one-way street where your business sends out its message for the consumption of your customer base. Social media marketing isn’t just a two-way street, it’s a roundabout with streets going in every direction. Your business may initiate a product or campaign, and your customers may respond with questions on an open platform. Suddenly, your customers are connected to each other and sharing information on the product being sold or even a competitor’s product. Reviews of both product and service are posted, and the whirlwind is just beginning.

Every company needs to consider the inherent leverage possible in such a situation. The momentum can go both ways, and a solid social media marketing strategy needs to consider either possibility and be prepared to act. It behooves an astute business owner such as you to not simply let the hounds run wild and hope they come back with the game. The hunt needs a vision and a strategy, or your business might just go to the dogs.

If this article has just confused you, you need to talk to Barking Dog Social Media. Let them run your social media marketing campaigns. It’ll make you one smart puppy.

Remember, if you are not the lead dog, the scenery never changes!