Regardless of your industry, social media is no longer an optional part of your marketing strategy. In the U.S., people spend an average of 2 hours on social media every day. That number will only likely increase as we continue to see a decline in traditional media consumption.
Paid vs Organic
Your social media will typically be comprised of two different categories: paid and organic. Paid social media campaigns are the ads you run on each platform. Organic is the content you post on your individual page for free to engage with your audience. While both fall under the umbrella of social media marketing, they tend to accomplish very different goals.
Paid ads are best for getting in front of new people who do not know about your brand. Your organic content is aimed at your followers (people who already know and love you). These messages are very different. The message in your paid ad needs to incentivize these new potential customers to check you out. They should include deals, new products, call to actions and short catchy messaging.
Organic posts, however, have a lot more flexibility. The people who choose to follow brands and companies on social media already love you. They don’t need a quick sell, they want to learn more about your company. The way to do this is by including real photos, behind the scenes info, and any new announcements in organic posts.
Choose Your Platforms
There are many different social media platforms you can be on. New ones come along and old ones change demographics or go away completely (RIP Myspace). Choosing what platforms are important for your business allows you to save time and money. In general, it is important to focus on a few platforms and be intentional with your posts instead of doing a poor job on all of them.
The main deciding factor when choosing your platforms should be your target demographics and your industry. For example: TikTok is hugely popular, however, it requires a lot of creative time. If your target demo isn’t Gen Z or Millennials, it is potentially a waste of time. Similarly, if you are a restaurant LinkedIn is probably not essential for you to be active on.
Plan Your Content
Now that you have decided your paid vs organic strategy and decided which platforms you will focus on it’s time to plan your actual content. Common mistakes we see when companies start their social media journey include:
- Only using polished images. Your social media should feel real. Solely relying on stock photos and polished product images is boring and gives the people seeing them no reason to engage with them.
- Being too wordy. Twitter had it right, people don’t want to read a paragraph. Our attention spans are short, and they are only getting shorter. Many brands want to include as much information as possible and spend a lot of time making sure the wording is perfect. In reality no one cares about your brand as much as you. People see a long post and immediately scroll past. Focus on the most important information, because if they want to know more, they will visit your website where you can house more longform content.
- Not utilizing video content. Video can be intimidating, however, with one-third of online activity spent watching video you can’t just opt out of it. Just like your photos, your video doesn’t need to be perfect or professionally done. Start with some cell phone videos or slideshows created from still images.
How Sierra Can Help
Whether you are a casual social media user or spend hours a day scrolling through Facebook, social media marketing can be time consuming. Sierra Experts can help, as we will plan, write, post and monitor your social media accounts for you. Learn more about our social media marketing services and our other digital marketing by sending us an email to Sales@sierr001-2.sierradevops.com or giving us a call at 412-722-0707.
