In many ways, social media is a lot like politics in this country. But probably the biggest similarity is how far apart the two sides are on their opinions. In the social media world, those two sides are simple: you either love it or you hate it. Chances are, you either spend several hours per day on one or more social platforms, or you spend five minutes total per week. There’s not many that fall in between those two extremes.

When it comes to social media marketing for businesses, though, there’s really not much of a “yes or no” mentality when it comes to using these platforms; most business owners either A.) Are employing social media marketing but not getting good results, or B.) Know they should be using social media marketing, but don’t have the internal resources or confidence to do so effectively. So let’s talk about a few tips to follow  to ensure an effective corporate social media strategy is happening for your company.

How To Do Social Media Marketing The Right Way

• Be Authentic, Not Pushy and Sales-y. When is the last time you answered a call from a telemarketer and actually bought what they were selling? Hell, when is the last time you just answered a call from a telemarketer? Here’s the thing: people love to buy things, but hate getting sold to. Let’s repeat that. People love to buy things, but hate getting sold to. So in a world where advertisements are a constant throughout the day (the average person typically sees 5,000 ads on a daily basis) the way that you break through the clutter is by being different. Let your advertisements and salespeople do the majority of the selling. Use your social media channels to showcase your company and provide valuable and engaging content to your audience. Overall, social marketing is long-term play, and keeping an audience hungry for more is how you win with that. Plus, publishing content that actually gets viewed and has a soft sell in it is much better for your bottom line than a “hard sell” piece of content that everybody hates.
• Have Fun With It. People love to be entertained, that’s why we do most of the activities we do. Social media is no different. It may surprise you that brands such as Pop Tarts and Wendy’s are killing it in the social media world right now, but when you really analyze their strategy, it’s not hard to find out why: they’re having fun. Typically the content that reaches the most eyeballs in the social media world is one of two things: either really terrible, or super entertaining. Not to mention, showing your company’s lighter side on your social media channels should have an internal positive effect as well, because you’re showcasing why your employees love coming to work every day (in other words, your awesome culture). 
• Video, Video, Video. I’m sure you’ve heard the common video statistics that are constantly thrown out when it comes to the importance of using video in your marketing strategy, so I’m not going to bore you with those. Instead, let’s compare this to modern day happenings. For the most part, newspaper are dying off at a rapid pace, in favor of a different medium that people watch to get their news… ding, ding ding! Video. It’s the exact same information, just presented in ways that people want to consume it. Using video in your social media marketing not only allows you to tell your company’s story in a visual way, but also in an entertaining and fun way (you know, what we just talked about). Not to mention, video allows companies to put faces to names, which, going back to bullet #1 on this list, adds authenticity to your marketing strategy. Three birds, one stone.
• Conduct Market Research. If you’re not learning anything from your social media efforts, then you’re wasting your time. At the very least you should be following your competitors to see what they’re up to. And analytics on what you post will show you whether your audience loves or hates your content, and will give you a good idea of how to adjust moving forward. The amazing aspect about these channels, though, is that they allow you to connect with your current (and future) customers in a forum that literally promotes opinions; after all, it’s right there in the name: social media. Without the social commentary aspect of it, websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,  etc. would never grow and thrive, and now you have that opportunity to embrace those people any time you want. Say you’re thinking about launching a new product line, but you’re not sure whether people would like it. You now have a tool to use to get feedback from the people that matter the most: the ones that will spend money with you.

When done correctly, social media marketing is an effective tool to get in front of your current and future customers at a very low price point. The number one rule in marketing is to be where the attention is, and when you consider that Facebook alone has over 2 billion (with a B) users, it’s a no-brainer that the various channels available offer some of the biggest potential to grow your business. Now it’s up to you to make sure the right strategies are being executed on them.

Not sure you have the skills or capacity to launch and maintain an effective social media marketing campaign? Let Jellison Group Ohio be your strategic partner and take your social game to the next level.