In the last couple of decades, the popularity of various social media channels has exponentially increased. What used to consider as mere modes of entertainment have now become a necessity since the world has rapidly changed into a global village. These channels help us stay connected around the globe and informed about various happenings around us. With so many people spending time over these platforms on a daily basis, it presents the perfect opportunity for marketers to highlight their offerings. SMM (social media marketing) has become an integral component of any digital marketing strategy. Therefore, it is important to form a formidable SMM strategy to stand out from the crowd.

In this article, we will elaborate on the various things one needs to do in their SMM strategy as well as certain things that one needs to avoid. Following these instructions will definitely help in making strategies more effective and efficient. With that being said, let us begin!

Do’s in your strategy

• Gather info about your customers

The very step in forming an SMM strategy is knowing your audience. If your offers target a specific niche, you need to acquire knowledge regarding certain demographics. Try to analyze various factors like the ages of the people in that niche, what kinds of things they like, how much financial spending are they comfortable with to name a few. Doing so will allow you to tailor your content in accordance with their needs and requirements. Try to keep thing cohesive and relevant. If your niche is related to people skilled in technology, try to include technical terms in your posts which keeps their interests intact regarding your marketing efforts.

• Be sufficiently active

Since people visit social media channels quite often, it is important that your content appears in front of them every now and then. For that, you need to be sufficiently active. Be active so that they don’t forget you, but don’t touch the limit to the extent that they start getting annoyed by your spam. Form a median in between to balance stuff out. For instance, when you have something new to share or some additional content, go ahead and share it with them, but reminding them again and again about something which hasn’t changed would be a nuisance. Be vigilant, be clever and be patient in your posts. All you need is a high speed internet to support an active streak which will keep you on your path of progress.

• Timing is everything

In the marketing world of today, timing is everything. The first one to grasp the latest trends ends up making the most profit out of them. You need to be aware of the things happening in the market especially pertaining to your niche. You need to be the primary news breaker for your audience. Try analyzing the type and amount of responses you get during different hours of the day. Knowing when to get the most views is important and once you know that, your efforts become all the more fruitful.

• Stick with your stance

There will often be debates and discussions among your audiences. In any given scenario your opinion might be biased towards a certain school of thought or view. Don’t be overly aggressive with your stance lest you offend someone, nor be completely neutral as to seem shallow. Once you have maintained a stance with your posts, it is important that you stick with it. People don’t appreciate fake-ness in general especially over social media channels where there is wider visibility. Your stance needs to be consistent over different channels to ensure that people can relate to it. For instance, if you appear to be contradicting your company’s stance over Facebook and Twitter, what image does that present to your customers? You need to be aware of related complications, thus, act intelligently.

• Try to be original

It’s possible to attract people with a juicy trending gossip but is only temporary. in order to be successful in SMM, you need people to stick with you for the long haul. For this purpose, originality should be your go-to thing. Everything that you share with our audiences needs to be original. Your ads and posts need to present the personality of your company as an entity. People should be able to relate to that personality exclusively. There will be some commonalities nonetheless, but make sure that the uniqueness overweighs that element. You want to stand higher than your competition. For that, don’t hesitate in adding additional value which helps them in differentiating and remembering you.

• Customer services go a long way

Dependable customer service could be your golden ticket to success. You want people to stick with you for the long run? Provide them with a customer experience they won’t forget. Don’t be shy about going the extra mile to facilitate existing and potential customers. Major companies particularly look for potential clients who would come with a complaint or a query. This means that the customers care enough and if you are able to satisfy them, a bond of loyalty is formed. Word of mouth spreads like wildfire these days and this could be your opportunity to establish that positive word around your offerings.

• Identify your social media fit

It is a given fact that not every social media channel offers the same exposure. Identify your clients and their active time spend over different social media channels. From thereon, you can effectively decide which SM channels to focus on for your marketing efforts. Your audience might be more inclined towards watching videos for which YouTube should be your go-to channel. if your audience enjoys visual representation and your offering is visually appealing, Instagram doesn’t sound like a bad option. As highlighted before, you need to identify your strengths and your audience and then act accordingly.

Don’ts in your strategy

• Never neglect your profile

Your profile is your social media identity. The stronger the profile, the more credible you are. You need to take care of your profile and make sure that you maintain an active presence. Doing so will help notify your audience that they can rely on you for active content related to your niche. Therefore forming that go-to personality is the key; an actively managed profile can help you achieve that.

• Control who you follow

There is no hard and fast rule that states that you have to follow everyone to be in their good books. When you become a notable business entity, people (your audience) start taking an active interest in things that you follow as well. Therefore, try to avoid following controversial or contradictory entities that might adversely affect your own reputation. In addition, this might sound quite basic but generally try avoiding the practice of following your own competitors.

• Take charge over your privacy

Privacy settings for your business profiles are similarly important as they are for your individual profiles. Whenever you share something over the internet, especially over social media channels, it becomes exceedingly difficult, or impossible to entirely take it away. Deleting the post simply wouldn’t cut it since God knows how many people already took screenshots of it. Privacy is just limited to that. Protecting your business profile is of key importance and if anyone gets a hold of your passwords, it could ruin you entirely. Make sure that only selective people, who have their interests at stake, know your passwords so that they don’t come back hurting you.

• Don’t overdo it

Your social media activities always need to be in control. As hinted earlier, don’t overdo your activities to the limit that you start being considered a spammer. In recent years, social media channels have faced quite a backlash with their excessive ads which have reduced the general traffic. Facebook, in particular, has been condemned for including too many which causes inconvenience. You need to avoid being considered among such spammers.

• Never ignore the feedback

Feedback is crucial for betterment. If somebody provides you active feedback, that means they care enough about you and want you to improve. Some people might be doing for the fun of it, agreed, but some of the comments would be genuine. Comments are just one thing though. There are a number of methods to get constructive feedback which would help you improve your marketing efforts as well as your offering. Analyzing the feedback is important and it’s up to you to make the most out of it.

• Automation can be your enemy

An automated process can help you decrease your workload significantly and there is no doubt about that. However, if you implement automation excessively, it will result in losing the element of personalization – essential for people to relate to you. The audience does not want to be associated with robots, rather they want a relatable brand with its own sentiment and stance.

Following these do’s and don’ts is bound to come in handy for your SMM strategy. Besides these, there might be certain other factors that can help your Social Media Marketing strategy work in remarkable ways. Make a thorough check of the various activities your team performs and from there on, you can help them improve these activities for the overall betterment of your strategy.