Social media – The ease of access and its immediacy is fast making the internet an essential part of a companies’ marketing mix. The internet’s interconnectivity allows users to generate business and social connections and share information. Websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram have become central to millions of peoples’ online interaction. Clever businesses have caught onto this phenomenon and have launched successful viral campaigns that have taken the social media sites by storm. International giants like Dell and Starbucks have created waves and set new standards in the field.
The key to a successful social media marketing campaign is that it must attract attention and create a conversation with people who are fans of your brand. The point is that your brand is making their social media experience a better one, so it is important to regularly publish and push new content. As long as what you publish is engaging and relevant enough, your viewers will forward and share the message with other members within their social networks.
Social media is often highly effective for the fact that recipients receive virals from friends. This makes the source seem more credible as opposed to it being an ad issued by a company. Brand owners have also come to realise that executing social media campaigns can be highly cost effective when compared to traditional media.
Why care about social media?
The fact that the internet is used for both work and leisure time means you can interact with your target audience in a unique way by tailoring your messages to the type of people you want to connect with. On top of this, as people tend to trust their peers, the more likes you have can quickly translate into sales.
If you aren’t already familiar with social media, the terminology and the range of different services offered can seem daunting at first. However, it’s worth sticking with it. Most social media services are affordable and easy to use, and they can put your business in touch with customers like never before.
Online marketing and social media
The time is already here, where every company should be engaging through social media to build relationships and interact with potential customers and get new leads.
With 80% or more of consumers now going online for information, reviews, and procurement, it has become critical that everyone, regardless of product or service type, have an online presence. Moreover, it needs to be engaging, unique and user-friendly, because with millions of other sites on the internet, your competitor is just a click away.
Avant Social Media has a team of social media savvy, creative minds and technical wizards who like to push the boundaries of online marketing and web development. We refine and create online brand identities that sell. With proven knowledge and experience we have helped brands to compete successfully in the digital space.
How we make your brand sociable
Avant Social Media offers:
A) Defining a social media strategy
This will include content and activity ideas for everywhere that your brand is active. This means that if you are only targeting one area then this is where we will go. On the other hand, if your brand’s reach crosses borders, we can deal with that also. This means that we could develop one cross-cultural strategy or develop a separate strategy for each specific region. It is important to make sure that the social media subscribe to all legal requirements of the region or regions in which you operate.
B) Keeping the social media current, active and up-to-date
Your social media activity needs to be relevant to your brand and contain content that is engaging, entertaining and appealing to your customers. Your communications or campaigns must also work in conjunction with the events calendar as well as with any milestones for the brand.
C) Make sure you match before you mingle
Your social media activities, regardless of the channels used, must be integrated with all your other online and offline activity. This includes things such as web banners and print. Of course, your social media can include ‘special/exclusive’ content, however it must retain the look and feel of the brand.
D) Get into the mix
With engaging content, your social media activity will garner attention and this will allow you to create and build a sustainable community of followers that can be targeted specifically in future campaigns. Include activities, which members of your community can share with each other and remember; if a video goes viral, it goes worldwide. Together, the Evian and Old Spice vials got over 160 million views.
E) How are you doing?
Avant will produce and give you a monthly report covering application usage and consumer feedback. This allows is to better plan for the future and see where certain aspects could be improved upon or enhanced.
F) Born to be social
Our creative team of writers and designers will give your social media the content and visual appeal it needs to standout from the crowd. On top of this, we have the know-how and experience to provide all of the supporting collateral, such as web banners and ATL material that will keep your brand and your social media activity top of mind.
To summarise
Using social media to give a lift to your business is something that cannot be ignored, especially when these networks are becoming increasingly popular across all ages and demographics. The techniques explained above will help you develop associations with people who want to know what you are offering. These relationships will increase the trust people have in your brand and as people want to buy from those they have a relationship with, they will come to you rather than your competitor.