SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETER: HOW CAN IT GROW YOUR BUSINESS?

Social Media Marketer has become more relevant for business success, with internet usage increasing daily, your company’s social media profiles positively or negatively influence the purchasing decisions of your potential customers online and sometimes offline.

Those who search for products and services online evaluate the credibility of your business also based on the contents that are published on Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, and other social networks. Outdated and low-quality posts are synonymous with poor reliability; On the other hand, valuable graphic and textual content ensures a better perception of the brand.

Targeted and strategic use of social media, therefore, becomes essential for any type of business, which through these channels can be dependable, stand out with a tone of voice authoritative, and reach new potential customers. This is why the figure of social media marketing is increasingly in demand in recent years. How does this professional in the digital world work and what added value can he bring to your company?

Let’s find out together in this guide.

THE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETER: WHAT ARE THE STRATEGY

Social media marketing is that professional who deals with planning and executing a marketing strategy that sees its focus on the use of social media.

Its goal is to offer a trustworthy and professional image of the company, creating a trusted community around it and putting it in contact with new potential customers.

If creativity is to be an essential aspect of the social media marketer, what makes the difference in this role is also a strong strategic concept: no post must be an end in itself but must be part of a broader strategy for achieving the objectives set. The strategy is usually outlined within a marketing plan.

To carry out a plan that leads to a profitable strategy, the social media marketer must be proficient in their subject matter. It is not just a question of knowing how social networks work, but also of having studied and trained to be able to make the most of them.

This is why this figure, in general, derives from marketing or humanities studies and may have carried out intensive courses on the discipline.

Another important aspect is the desire to constantly update: the world of social networks is constantly changing, offering new platforms and new features; a promiscuous knowledge of the sector does not allow the company to exploit all these innovations, therefore risking important commercial opportunities.

WHAT ARE THE TASKS THAT SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETER PERFORMS? 

We see them below, differentiating between the preparatory analysis phase and the more practical one.

THE PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS PHASE

The first phase of the work of the social media marketer concerns the retrieval of exhaustive information about the company, which will subsequently lead to the drafting of an effective strategic plan that will define the actions to be taken.

Among the aspects analyzed in this first step, the study of the reference target, the objectives to be achieved, and the choice of the most suitable social networks for the company to stand out.

Let’s see them in detail.

# 1 TO WHICH TARGET DO YOU ADDRESS YOUR COMMUNICATION?

An effective business communication inevitably passes from the reference target study. Considering that social networks are now populated by a large and varied audience, it is necessary to go and identify those users who can be interested in your company and your products or services. The social media marketer analyzes sales data and statistics, interviews the sales department, studies the market to understand who needs what your company offers.

Your target audience is no longer summarily defined, but in detail, just as if it were a real person: this is why we speak of a “buyer persona ”. By this term we mean the prototype of the ideal customer, who will therefore have a name and a surname, an age of his own, a place where he lives, a job, a social class to which he belongs, and so on. Without this preliminary step, it will be difficult to create a communication that captures attention and emotions: the risk is to invest time and money in an activity that will never bring concrete results in terms of new brand visibility and turnover, because it launches messages to everyone, without analysis.

# 2 WHAT GOALS DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE?

Once you have identified the audience you want to attract, we will proceed with the definition of the objectives.

This stage is what distinguishes a makeshift social media manager from a competent social media marketer.

The first moves blindly, focusing solely on the executive part of the work (the creation of an editorial plan, the publication of posts, the activation of campaigns); the competent social media marketer, on the other hand, sets SMART objectives to evaluate the performance of the strategy from time to time and optimize it.

The term “SMART objectives” refers to specific, measurable, realistic, achievable, and goals.

The objective, therefore, will no longer be a generic “increase turnover”, but an “increase in turnover by 10% in the next 12 months”.

What the social media marketer asks at this point is: what does the company want to achieve from an active and constant presence on social media? Although the aim is always the increase in turnover, some aim can help us understand in the short and medium-term if we are achieving the desired results. For example:

• Increase of followers ;
• Increase of post interactions ;
• Get more visitors to the site;
• Increase in requests for information from social networks.

It is based on the pre-established goals that it will finally be possible to choose the best channel for the strategy to be implemented.

# 3 WHAT’S THE BEST PLATFORM FOR ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS?

Once the target has been defined and the objectives set, the next step concerns the strategic choice of the social platform in which to place the company. Being present on all platforms can prove to be ineffective, both in terms of investment costs and in terms of results: each channel has different characteristics, functionalities, and audiences, which therefore may or may not match the type of communication you want to adopt. It will be up to the social media marketer to find the best platform. Here are some examples.

FACEBOOK: A VERY WIDE AND DIFFERENT AUDIENCE

Despite the incredible rise of other social networks, such as Instagram and TikTok, Facebook remains today the social media par excellence, managing to welcome almost 3 billion users every day.

The ability to range between text and multimedia content makes it accessible to a large and diverse audience, which is effectively profiled utilizing paid ads and campaigns. On Facebook, moreover, it is possible to immediately evaluate the reactions of users to posts: there is no longer only the like, but also the heart, the hug, the pouting smile. The optimization of the contents is therefore promoted, as you know exactly what is at “heart” – literally – to your target.

INSTAGRAM: THE LARGE POWER OF IMAGES

Instagram, which has 500 million active users every day, becomes an essential business tool for all those companies that wish to focus on visual communication. The emotions given by the images blend with short and concise texts, which manage to capture the user’s attention immediately. The popularity of a profile is given by the wise use of hashtags, tags, and stories, useful details for the creation of an authoritative and trusted community.

LINKEDIN: PROFESSIONALISM AT THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING

The potential of LinkedIn is truly huge. First of all, this social network allows the company to get in touch with professionals, finding and evaluating the best candidates on the market. At a strategy level, LinkedIn is the ideal platform for B2B companies, which need to distribute highly professional and, sometimes, technical content. The main purpose is to provide useful tips and posts, therefore building a solid brand awareness that leads to better visibility of the brand on the market.

LOTS OF SOCIAL NETWORKS AT YOUR DISPOSAL

Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are the most popular social networks. However, depending on the core business and the features of your company, the social media marketer may decide to recommend many other social networks as well. A few examples? Twitter, the ideal platform to launch clear messages with very few types available (maximum 280): it can be used effectively to establish short conversations with your followers. This will allow you to build long-lasting relationships of trust, which will lead not only to acquiring new customers but also to having people by your side who spread the word with friends and relatives.

In recent years, the use of TikTok has also spread, which allows you to create multimedia content in a few seconds to spread spontaneity: what matters, in this case, is to show the “behind the scenes” of the company. , making it more “human” in the eyes of the user.

At the beginning of 2021, Clubhouse also came into play: social media marketers are still waiting to understand how it can be used to do business. It is, in fact, a more “special” social network than those mentioned above, as the Clubhouse is divided into implicit rooms, which can only be accessed by invitation; inside the rooms, it is possible to exchange voice messages with the other participants.

The goal is clear: while maintaining the spontaneity of a private environment, a specific topic is discussed and each participant is invited to offer their contribution, making their experience and knowledge available. An excellent means of showing professionalism and, at the same time, assisting those who have questions or doubts to expose.

Once this phase has also been completed, the professional you have entrusted to will therefore know:

• Which audience to address the communication to;
• What objectives to achieve and in how much time;
• In which social platforms your company should be present.

It is at this point that he can plan the best social media marketing strategy for your business and finally start the execution phase of the project.

How can you acquire new customers through social networks? Find out with a consultation.

THE EXECUTIVE PHASE

Within the marketing plan, the social media marketer defines how to use the social channels: how many posts are published, on what days, in what time slots, what topics, and what content, just to mention a few aspects.

Once all these details have been defined, we then proceed with the creation of an editorial plan and the application of the outlined strategy.

# 1 THE EDITORIAL PLAN: THE BEST WAY TO CREATE A “POST”

One of the most frequently made marketing mistakes by companies, especially in terms of social media, is to dedicate themselves to publishing content only in their spare time. This does not allow to maintain consistency in the creation of posts and therefore turns out to be unproductive: on the one hand, the profile loses value in the face of social network algorithms, seeing its organic visibility decrease; on the other hand, the interested user can’t know exactly when content will be released and, therefore, create a sense of suspense in him and waiting. This risk is not run when you rely on a serious and professional social media marketer, who prepares an editorial plan in advance.

In social media marketing, the editorial plan is a calendar that has the goal of planning the publication of content on a platform.

Thanks to the creation of an editorial plan, usually every month, it is possible:

• Modify the topics of the posts to be published, avoiding the risk of repeating themselves;
• Propose different types of content (for example, textual posts, videos, stories, direct) without boring the public;
• Analyze which topics and which contents interest the public the most, studying the interactions, comments, and heated discussions in this regard;
• Create a post for the interested user, who knows exactly when the posts on the company profile are published;
• Speed ​​up the publication phase of the posts: they are ready and only need to be uploaded to the reference social network.

# 2 PAID CAMPAIGNS: HOW TO REACH QUALIFIED AUDIENCES

In addition to the investment for the work of the social media marketer, you will also need to consider allocating part of the budget available for paid campaigns.

Considering that social networks are progressively reducing the organic visibility of profiles, it will be difficult to reach qualified audiences without using a series of sponsored ads.

The social media manager studies the best budget for campaigns for your company: the goal is to achieve the maximum result with the lowest budget. Once this step has been carried out, the social media marketer will establish the goal of the campaign (interactions? New followers? New visitors to the site? Contact?) And the aspects of the audience that will see the paid posts. In this way, it will be possible to increase the visibility of your company immediately and reach exactly the target you are targeting.

Let say the creation of paid campaigns is recommended to the arborists of the strategy, to boost them and acquire a good number of followers, ideal for improving the credibility of the brand, but not only; keeping the sponsored ads active will make it possible to achieve ever greater notoriety on the platform in which the company is interpolated.

# 3 THE OPTIMIZATION OF THE STRATEGY: ESSENTIAL STEP FOR BETTER RESULTS

An essential work phase of the social media marketer concerns the analysis of the results obtained. It is not just a matter of considering the number of interactions of each post, but of utilizing an effective all-round view. What does it mean? The social media marketer will have to constantly ask themselves:

• Did any topic cause outrage, sparking discussions?
• How many users have visited the company website after seeing it on social networks?
• Which regions do you have the most followers from?
• Which topics are of the greatest interest to the public?
• What is the day and time of publication that guarantees the most interactions?

Asking questions of this type allows you to optimize your strategy, identifying which contents are most appreciated by the target you are addressing and obtaining better results.

Without this step, your company moves randomly on the market and risks investing in a strategy that, in the medium and long term, will prove to be bankrupt.

IN CONCLUSION…

Most companies today are present on social networks; Most consumers today rely on these platforms to choose which company to rely on to purchase goods and services. This is why the figure of social media marketing is increasingly relevant for any type of business: being active on social networks is no longer enough; it is necessary to adopt a communication style that identifies the brand on the market and leads it to acquire new potential customers online. Thanks to the analysis of the company, its goals, and its reference target, it is possible to establish a personalized strategy that leads to an increase in turnover in the medium and long term. Let help your business reach it, maximum potential clients, now.