Nowadays, social media marketing is a powerful tool for most businesses, and successful social media marketing can really make your business shine. Depending on how social media is used, it can be a powerhouse that reinforces your company’s brand, it can create quality leads, and it can drive sales, or it can be a huge time waster with no beneficial outcomes. What you as a company need to know is how to create, enforce, and measure the plan. Another thing companies need to be aware of is how social media marketing can differ between different corners of the globe. Social media marketing in China, for example, leans heavily on WeChat and Zhihu, which are two social media apps that are barely used in North America. One strategy some companies use is to consult with social media marketing companies, like Westwin, to help with their social media marketing in China.
What Does Social Media Marketing Entail?
Social media marketing utilizes social media platforms and websites to advertise and promote a service or product. Social media marketing has rapidly become popular for companies because it has many useful features, such as built-in data analytics tools, increased user engagement, and the ability to reflect a company’s brand through posts. Through social media, customers have been given the ability to directly communicate with an ambassador of the company and to receive replies back swiftly. Additionally, through social media marketing, customers and Internet users can post content, like comments or product reviews, which is known as earned media. This earned media allows the product or service to spread even further, thanks to the
increased engagement of the consumer. However, trends in social media marketing are constantly shifting. Social media marketing in China, for example, has shifted away from reaching and engaging new audiences; it has instead focused on persuading consumers to buy their products and to subsequently provide trustful recommendations. Brand trust has become very important in today’s culture, and it’s crucial for your company to have a good reputation.
Social Media Marketing Tips:
To create a successful social media marketing plan, follow these tips:
1. Know what you’re working towards! You may have heard of the goal-setting strategy, SMART, that is incredibly useful for creating successful social media marketing. You must have specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely goals!
2. Who is your audience? Identifying your audience is key to successfully tailoring content towards them. In order to make an effective message, it must be specifically tailored towards your target demographic.
3. Select the most useful platforms! What may be good content for Facebook may be incompatible with Instagram or Twitter. Be sure to tailor your content for the platform you’re posting on!
4. Have someone with social media experience on your team; or, hire social media marketing services. Social media marketing in China, for example, is very different than social media marketing in the States. Having someone who can navigate through different social media marketing cultures is crucial to the longevity of your social media marketing plans.
5. Grow and engage with your audience! Growing your follower count is important to the prosperity of your company. With a wider audience, your product or service will reach a larger number of people. Additionally, creating content that allows you to engage with your audience will increase their positive feelings towards your brand.
6. Track your results! Data analytics are crucial to understanding how well your social media marketing is fairing. You should compare the data from the beginning to the goals you’ve set and see how they measure up to one another; otherwise, you won’t know what’s working and what’s not. To measure, you should look at the before and after of followers, likes/shares/comments, downloads, and clicks.
With these tips, you will be on your way to creating impactful and long-lasting social media marketing strategies in China!