Social media marketing encompasses all efforts to promote products and/or services via social networking websites, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Social media marketing is incredibly powerful because it harnesses the human desire to connect and share, combined with the advanced targeting capabilities of popular social networking platforms. The other appealing aspect of social media marketing is its accessibility and cost-effectiveness. As recently as fifteen years ago, organizations with small budgets were limited in their ability to market their products and/or services. That is no longer the case thanks to the power of social media marketing.
When done correctly and with a strategic approach, social media marketing increases brand recognition, improves brand loyalty, produces higher conversion rates, offers more personalized and richer interactions with the target audience, increases brand authority, boosts inbound traffic, and offers opportunities for reputation management.
One of the most common mistakes business owners make is that they delegate social media marketing to an entry-level employee or whomever has a little bit of free time during the week. While this approach is super convenient and cost-effective, we can attest that it almost never works in the long run because it lacks strategic goals, marketing expertise and consistency. The end results are frustration and complacency. It also often creates a sense of social media marketing hopelessness among all organization members, and even leads some businesses to give up social media marketing altogether. They quit thinking that social media is useless for business and has failed them. The reality of situations like this is that social media did not fail the business; the business failed to use social media effectively.
The good news is that social media marketing does not have to be time-consuming and overwhelming, regardless of your business size and marketing budget. It is all about quality versus quantity, and having a clear goal in mind, instead of aimlessly posting up a storm on as many social media platforms as possible.
Social Media Marketing Strategy
Benjamin Franklin is believed to have said that, “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” The same can be said for organizations that do not have a comprehensive social media marketing strategy. Without clear goals, there is no clear direction, which is a recipe for a potential disaster and a lot of wasted time. This is where we do some of the most important work for our clients. We are here to help you develop a solid social media marketing strategy by creating a custom social media marketing blueprint for your organization, which includes the following: social media platform suggestions, goals, audience profile, social media personality, types of content, list of hashtags, post schedule, content distribution and promotion instructions, response policy, new follower acquisition strategy, and procedures for engagement tracking and evaluation. During the social media marketing blueprint creation process, we get to know you and your target audience, and we jointly find the best ways for your organization to accomplish its social media marketing goals. The end result is a 10-15 page document that clearly outlines your goals and strategy for achieving those goals.
Social Media Content Creation, Curation and Management
This is one of the most fun aspects of what we do. This is when we get to create some of the most awesome content that brings our clients’ social media marketing visions to life. Our goal is to create and curate social media content that will supercharge your organization’s likeability and pull your target audience toward your brand message, and, of course, encourage your social media followers to share the posted content. Our team specializes in creating social media content that is adaptable, authentic, and correctly formatted. The goal is to communicate the client’s gratefulness, willingness to listen, loyalty, passion, responsiveness, simplicity, spontaneity, storytelling, and commitment to teamwork and transparency.
Social Media Content Distribution, Promotion and Tracking
Once the created social media content has been reviewed and approved for publishing, we move to the task of posting it or scheduling it to go live on the selected social media platforms according to the set schedule in the client’s social media marketing blueprint. Social media posts are accompanied by captions, trackable links (URLs), and hashtags (when appropriate). The client has full access to the published and scheduled social media content, as well as a custom report that shows the response (engagement) for each published post. The reports are updated on a monthly basis and can be accessed at any time.
Social Media Marketing Training
If you are interested in sharpening your or your team’s social media marketing skills, we offer onsite social media marketing training. We can spruce up your current social media marketing efforts or we can start from scratch. It is your call. Our team will teach you how to determine which social media platforms are the best match for your organization, what type of content is best suited for your target audience, when and how often you should be posting from your social media accounts, how to track and analyze your social media marketing results, and how to avoid getting bored with your social media marketing activities. Our training sessions are based on your social media marketing goals and can be as comprehensive as needed. They are in half- and full-day formats. We come to you at a time most convenient for you.
Kapok Marketing Can Help with Social Media Marketing
Partnering up with a marketing agency like Kapok Marketing takes away the hassle of constantly scrambling to find the right content to post on multiple social media platforms. It also saves time and money, produces a higher return on investment, and gives you access to a team of marketing professionals and experts ready to help you. As a business owner, one of the best decisions you can make is to focus on what you do best and find outside professionals who can help you with the rest.