Is it true that social media can be used for an effective digital marketing strategy? Then what needs to be considered in using social media for promotional purposes?
What do you think of when you hear about social media? Maybe there are some of us who still think that social media is just a child’s game that has no business value. That’s true, if we discuss in 2001.
Today the use of social media is not limited to just a means of communication. Social media has turned into a place to channel ideas, creativity, to develop a company. Social media is no longer just a place to gather or communicate.
Social Media, A Virtual Country
In 2020, there were 69.2 million active users from Indonesia on Instagram. Of course, this is a fantastic number, considering that social media platforms are only applications. This figure has touched about a third of the Indonesian people!
Obviously it’s impossible if the numbers only contain school children, right? It could even be that your employees are also active on social media and get new information there.
Now social media users are very diverse. International brands have also started to use social media, and take advantage of social media platforms as a place to interact with their customers.
How Can Companies Promote Through Social Media?
In simple terms, companies can promote by starting to interact with social media users. Brands can provide their ideas and viewpoints to social media citizens, according to the brand ‘s field.
For example, fashion brands can share the latest fashion updates to get potential fashion customers. Of course the promotional techniques that can be used are not only limited to that. Here are some methods of social media promotion that are often used by social media marketers
Using Content Marketing
Content marketing is the most basic method in developing social media. By using content, brands can communicate their ideas (including ongoing promotions) to their target audience.
Next is how do you develop the next content strategy to turn followers into your customers (conversions)
Challenges in content marketing:
- Content is irrelevant, so it doesn’t bring in audiences.
- Need to make a different plan every month, can’t just be monotonous
- Need to create various kinds of content
Utilizing Digital Ads
Digital Ads such as IG Ads, FB Ads, TikTok Ads, or LinkedIn Ads are arguably a shortcut to reach audiences on social media. By using digital ads, you don’t have to wait for the audience to find your account. Because the ads will reach them.
Installing digital ads also doesn’t need to spend a lot of money. On IG and FB for example, you only need to spend a minimum of 20,000 per day and you can start advertising.
In addition, digital ads support audience targeting features, optimization based on goals, track results, and limit costs. Its features are very helpful to increase your social media presence in no time.
Challenges in digital ads:
- Setting the right targeting Setting the right
- goals
Partnering with Influencers
Next is to partner with influencers or accounts that have a big influence to lead the opinions of their followers. By partnering with an influencer, your brand can ‘hit’ their name and introduce your brand to the followers that the influencer has.
And because of its ability to lead opinions, followers will usually tend to believe what the influencer says.
The challenge of using influencers:
- Not all influencers are professional, you need to do a strict sorting
- If you choose the wrong influencer, the potential for negative ROI can occur. Even just for awareness , you can’t even go
through the Activation Event.
Still in touch with other accounts, it’s just that the activation event is not always with influencers. Event activation is an activity where you hold certain events to increase the brand’s reach to the audience. The event can be webinar, competition, or just a talk show .
You can host events alone, or in collaboration with other accounts relevant to your business. Many brands are doing this strategy and getting quite large conversions.
Challenges in event activation:
- If the event held is not interesting, then 0 participants may occur
- You need to allocate funds if you invite speakers from outside the company
Through Client Reviews and Testimonials
The next trick is to use your own resources, namely reviews and testimonials from clients- Your clients are active on social media.
This strategy relies on the word of mouth or word of mouth. In fact, people are much more confident in the information provided by those closest to them. Therefore, it is important for you to collect positive feedback that clients give to you. Then you can then repost it to your business account, to attract attention and give the impression of being trusted to the audience.
Challenges in reviews and testimonials:
- Not all clients want to give testimonials
- There are clients who choose to use a second account, so there is no big influence from their side
Social Media You Shouldn’t Miss
There is a lot of great potential when your business enters to social media. In addition, people’s behavior is now more trusting in companies that are active on social media. Of course because it’s an active company, it means having a real team and activities as opposed to one that isn’t. Especially if you are in the service sector.
Now it’s all back to you, do you still view social media as a child’s game? Or do you see if social media has great potential for the development of your business?
