You’re wanting to create a successful social media campaign for your business, but you don’t know where to start.
This is a common struggle for many small business owners, but don’t worry: LYFE Marketing is here to guide you in the right direction!
With our vast experience in creating successful social media campaigns for clients.
We can help you identify the techniques required for creating your social media presence.
We work with clients in every industry you can imagine.
So these 10 techniques will help you create a successful social media campaign for your business, regardless of what industry you’re in!
How exactly do you create a successful social media campaign for your business?
Create a Strategy Specific to Your Business
There’s a wide array of top social media platforms out there: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, and many more!
Certain social media platforms are better for B2B companies, while others work best for B2C.
We recommend using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ if you’re a business-to-business (B2B) company.
On the other hand, if you’re a business-to-consumer company, we suggest using Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
We’ve seen the best results for clients by taking advantage of the unique benefits of each of these platforms for their…
…particular business type (B2B or B2C).
It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Facebook is #1 on our list of social media channels for business.
With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most widely used social media platform.
Utilizing Facebook as a social media platform for your business is crucial to a successful social media campaign.
Facebook’s wide user base and demographic of users is the main reason it’s at the top of our list.
Almost anyone can find their target audience on this platform and get their brand in front of them.
Twitter comes very close behind Facebook for B2B businesses and has 328 million monthly active users.
Twitter allows you to post photos and videos along with character-limited copy.
This platform is most commonly known for its feed of real-time updates and heavy use of hashtags.
Similar to Instagram, you can search a hashtag and find other posts from consumers and businesses that have used that particular hashtag!
LinkedIn Marketing Services can be a powerful tool for B2B businesses.
Due to its purpose of networking and connecting people specifically to businesses or other professionals.
LinkedIn has 250 million monthly active users, and it is considered to be a platform dedicated primarily to working professionals and companies.
Unlike all of the other social media platforms mentioned so far, Google+ can play a role in boosting your SEO rankings organically on Google!
Posting regularly will not only expose your company to its 395 million monthly active users.
But it also helps Google learn what your website is about and what it should rank for on the search engine giant.
Instagram comes very close behind Facebook for B2C businesses and has 700 million monthly active users! Instagram is a very visual platform.
You can only publish posts that include photos or videos along with a caption.
This works to your advantage as a business because people remember 80% of what they see as opposed to what they read or hear!
Similar to Twitter, using strategic hashtags on your Instagram posts definitely take advantage of hashtags.
You can search a hashtag and find other posts from consumers and businesses that have used that same hashtag.
Pinterest is our third and final recommendation for B2C businesses because it is similar to Instagram in that is has a…
…very heavy emphasis on visuals and aesthetic.
This allows businesses to really highlight their products or services in a way that is appealing to users and potential customers.
Additionally, Pinterest has 200 million monthly active users, 81% of whom are women!
28,641 Facebook likes total (which means 5,067 people found and liked the page organically as a result of word-of-mouth and our other brand awareness efforts like boosted posts!)
When you create your business accounts on each platform, make sure each account has the same (or a very similar) username/handle.
This will make your business easily identifiable, allowing people to find your account easier and faster on social media.
We highly recommend including your social media username/handle on your business cards and/or brochures…
…as well as linking out to each social media platform on your website with social icons, as shown below!
In an effort to maintain consistency, keep your profile photos and cover photos the same as well.
For instance, if you create a Facebook and Twitter account, use the same square photo as the profile picture for each platform and…
…the same banner photo as the cover photo for each platform.
Follow these social media rules on proper sizing of photos.
Next, you’ll need to create a bio or “about” section for each platform.
Your followers should be able to tell exactly what your company or business is at first glance, so keep your bio short, sweet, and to the point.
Some platforms, such as Instagram, even have a character limit for the bio, so keep this in mind when crafting your company’s description.
Feel free to copy and paste the same bio across all your platforms in order to keep your branding cohesive.
Lastly, and most importantly, we highly recommend posting the same content across all the platforms you decide to use.
When it comes to content creation, you’ll want to keep each platform you’re using and its unique benefits in mind for very slight adjustments to the posts.
For example, if you’re using Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for your social media campaign, you can copy/paste the same post to each platform.
Be sure to include hashtags in the text copy for Instagram and Twitter.
Exclude any links in the text copy for Instagram, since links in the caption are not clickable.
We usually advise clients to say “link in bio” or something similar in an Instagram post.
You can also take this opportunity to cross-promote your social media pages and say something like “visit our Twitter page to learn more.”
Make sure the graphics are the same for each platform, as well as the bulk of the text copy, in order to ensure consistent branding.
We were able to grow Café Alibaba’s Twitter presence and gained up to 1,298 followers.
Create Compelling Content
We advise all of our clients to follow our best practices when it comes to their posting strategy.
Our posting strategy is broken up into three equal parts: 1/3 brand posts, 1/3 share posts, and 1/3 sell posts.
A brand post is a piece of content that has a primary objective of engagement.
Brand posts can be anything from motivational quotes to contests and giveaways to reviews and testimonials.
These posts commonly ask a question or seek to interact with the audience in some way.
They are relevant to your business, but include a call to action of “tag a friend,” “comment and let us know below,” or similar calls for engagement.
A share post is typically a blog, article, or piece of external content that provides value to your audience.
If you have a blog on your website, we highly recommend linking your own blogs throughout your posts!
This will increase traffic to your site and help increase your rankings with Google in the long-term.
Share posts help you build a relationship with your audience and build their trust, which is the ultimate goal of a successful social media campaign.
A sell post is exactly what it sounds like: it’s the one type of post that is a hard sell to your audience.
These posts direct people to your website, landing page, or direct them to contact you via email or phone.
They typically describe some of the products and services you offer and include a call to action such as…
…“visit our site to learn more,” “click here to shop now,” or “call us today to book an appointment.”
If you’re feeling stuck on ideas for content, we provide great content marketing tips to discover a few tips and tricks on creating posts for your business.
4. Be sure to have appealing, high-quality photography of your product or service – it’s all about the aesthetic!
If you’re using Instagram or Pinterest for your successful social media campaign, you’d better bet you’ll need to create a gorgeous aesthetic for your feed.
If your business sells a product, you should note that 93% of people consider an image one of the most important factors in a purchase decision!
Users on Instagram and Pinterest in particular want to be inspired.
They want to scroll through photos of things they desire and things that make them feel something.
Here is a list of several techniques to apply when taking appealing photos:
– Use natural lighting
– Look for strong contrast
– Embrace white space
– Incorporate a background
– Have a single point of interest in the photo
– Play around with and learn your camera settings (even with a smartphone)
Samples of our Social Media Posts Designs
As mentioned earlier, utilizing hashtags in your posts on Instagram and Twitter allows people to find your social media accounts.
Hashtags increase your reach and business growth on social media, leading to a successful social media campaign overall. S
imply Measured conducted a study and discovered that posts with at least one hashtag receive about 12.6% more engagement than posts without hashtags!
Although Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, we don’t recommend using all of these hashtags, as it can look spammy.
We suggest using 5-15 unique but relevant hashtags for each post you create.
Incorporate hashtags especially into your brand posts, such as “#MotivationMonday” or “#FunFactFriday.”
20% growth rate in just one week!
We talked about providing value to your audience, and contents & giveaways are the perfect way to do so!
Reward your followers, while also giving them the opportunity to grow your following for you. Yes, you read that right.
The primary purpose of running giveaways and contests on social media is to increase your followers and the engagement on your posts.
By giving something away, you can require your followers to “qualify” and enter the giveaway by completing a few quick tasks.
A common set of rules we advise our clients to use is:
1) Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. (This is another great way to cross-promote your other social media accounts.)
2) “Like” this post. (This increases the engagement.)
3) Tag three friends in the comments section of this post.
(This also increases the engagement AND creates the opportunity for those friends to follow your page.)
Try running a giveaway for one month, and see how much your social media engagement and followers increase!
Cater to Your Audience – It’s All About Them!
By utilizing the techniques we’ve discussed above, you’ll be well on your way to building a strong, long-term relationship with your audience.
Credibility and trust are everything.
It’s very important to build trust early on so people will continue to follow you and stay interested in your business!
Creating a successful social media campaign is a long-term game.
Your followers may eventually convert into customers if you build a lasting relationship with them.
8. Don’t forget to engage with your audience!
In addition to providing value to your audience and increasing engagement on their end, you can’t forget to interact back with them on your social media pages.
Someone may send you a direct message with a compliment or question.
A follower might leave a comment on your brand post where you asked them which product is their favorite.
You’ll need to monitor your social media accounts daily and set up notifications, so you don’t miss any of these interactions!
This is another significant step in building a relationship with your audience.
So be sure to respond back to their messages or comments within 24-48 hours, when possible.
You can also hire a professional social media marketing agency to do this work for you if you don’t have time to do it daily.
You’ve already come up with some ideas for giveaways and contests, and you’ve thought of some solid blog topics to use in the near future.
How else can you provide value to your audience?
Social media users are usually seeking one or more things: stimulation, inspiration, information, entertainment.
If you can provide them with at least one of these, you’re giving value to your audience.
Take advantage of brand posts by really inspiring and motivating your followers!
Use share posts to educate and inform them, so they’re learning something new from your social media account!
This keeps your audience engaged and satisfied, contributing to that long-term relationship.
Another excellent way to engage with followers and encourage further brand growth is to re-post photos that…
…customers or clients may have taken using your product or service!
These make for great share posts, and you can tag them in the post to give back for sharing your company with their followers in the first place.
An awesome idea for brand posts is to ask your audience to post a photo of themselves using your product or service.
Mention that they might be featured on your business page to further incentivize them!
Client Satisfaction
Wrapping It Up
Now that you’ve learned 10 techniques to creating a successful social media campaign, what exactly does one look like?
We’ve listed some of our favorites case study archives, along with specific aspects each business is excelling in with their social media campaign.
If you feel a little overwhelmed after reading through these techniques, that’s perfectly okay!
At LYFE Marketing, we lift the heavy weight of managing a successful social media campaign off our clients’ shoulders.
And we can do the same for you and your business.
Feel free to contact one of our specialists to learn more about our social media management package.
You can rest assured knowing that your business and social media efforts are in exceptionally capable hands.
