Why a Social Media Strategy is Important for Your Business
Why is Social Media Important for My Business?
Social media technologies have changed the way that companies do business online. Today, it’s more essential than ever to have a social media presence, even if you don’t think your business needs one. As we referred to in our last blog post about online reputation management, customers and potential customers are already online making a mark on your business. If you don’t have your brand represented on social media, you’re allowing the general public to define your online reputation on sites like Facebook and Linkedin.
And it’s not just about your online reputation, it’s about the bottom line. According to an article by Sprout Social, your customers and potential customers are more likely to make purchases from you if you engage with them on social media. Customers are 57% more likely to make purchases from brands they follow, and 71% are more likely to buy after having a positive experience with a brand on social media. The importance of having a good social media presence cannot be overstated.
But taking on social media management for your business can seem like a daunting task. It doesn’t need to be, though. If you don’t have a social media presence for your business, allow us to demystify the process of getting going. It’s never too late to start. And if you do have a social media presence for your business, consider this an opportunity to brush up on your digital marketing strategies.
Getting Started with Social Media
So how do you get started? If you’re a large organization you may have marketing staff, budget and strategies specifically designed around social media marketing. However, if you’re a smaller organization where team members share responsibilities, it can be difficult to know where to start. Fortunately, it’s easy to get out there and start engaging with your customers on social media channels. Here are four main steps to consider when getting started.
Choose Your Platforms
First, pick the channels that you believe are going to be right for your business. This is all about “where” you post and where you engage with your customers. There are a lot of social media platforms to choose from, but for the sake of this article, we’ll consider a few channels that we use here at AeroParts Now. You may already be following us on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube. If not, why not check us out and give us a follow?
We specifically chose these platforms because they reach different customer segments in social media:
Linkedin is great for business-to-business marketing and reaching a professional audience.
Facebook is so ubiquitous now, it’s good for general marketing purposes and important for having a solid business reputation online.
Instagram is great for building relationships with your niche customers who are really enthusiastic about your brand, and gives you an opportunity to offer a more personal and expressive visual presentation of your business.
Twitter is good for disseminating short bits of information and links to articles, though we have seen the least amount of engagement and traction there.
And YouTube, of course, is great for publishing videos and engaging with customers via comments.
These channels, out of all the others, seem to align best with the target demographic we seek at AeroParts Now, though we look at trends to see how members of the aerospace community are using other social media platforms like Tik Tok and Snapchat.
Create Your Messaging
When it comes to “what” you post, think about your brand voice, the frequency of your communications, and the types of things you want your customers to know. Your brand voice is the tone of your communications—are you very serious, or can you be lighthearted? Can you crack jokes? For example, at AeroParts Now, we focus on the benefits of having your own eCommerce storefront, but we also occasionally make posts that celebrate certain national days—most recently, National Opposite Day. We used that occasion to be a bit funny and to drive home a promotional message.
And what about timing? It’s good to stay engaged with customers and post frequently, so start out posting at least a few days a week. This requires some planning. Again, at AeroParts Now, we typically post daily. You may feel you don’t have a lot to say, but there are different types of posts that you can consider:
Promotional posts focus on the benefits of your products and services
Thought leadership posts focus on topics that impact your industry and your customers
General interest posts focus on things that might be fun to share
It’s also important to make more timely posts. Events are great opportunities to engage with your audience that may be in attendance or following the event. On-location posts don’t need to be planned in advance, and can provide a real-time view into customer experience at the event. Live videos are a great way to build engagement, showcase timely promotions, and draw visitors to your social media feeds.
Execute Your Strategy
Once you get started on social media, you need to maintain your presence. That’s the thing about social media—engagement with your audience is an ongoing practice. Your channels require continuous care and attention.
One easy practice is to create a social media calendar. A calendar can help you plan your messaging over a long period of time. With this approach, you write your posts in advance and then post them on a daily basis. Some platforms like Facebook allow you to schedule posts in advance, which can help you save some time and effort.
Better yet, there are great third-party apps like Agorapulse, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social that enable you to schedule social media posts for multiple platforms far in advance. These apps also include streamlined features to allow you to respond to likes and comments, and look at your analytics over time.
In addition to sending posts out, you’ll want to pay attention to comments and direct messages that come in from your followers. Your responsiveness to comments, questions, and direct messages is viewed by followers as a key customer service metric. That’s why it’s critical to respond to any negative comments or questions that come in—quickly.
Of course, it’s difficult to generate a great response without a following. You’ll want to ask your customers, colleagues, and friends to follow and like your accounts to build your audience. This can take a lot of time to do organically, but Facebook and Linkedin have built-in features that make it easy to invite your connections to like your accounts.
Measure Your Progress
Once you get started with a social media plan, how do you know if you’re successful? You’ll need to create some goals, based on metrics that each of the platforms use. Learn the differences between the platforms and how they measure engagement, and you’ll have a good idea of whether or not you’re reaching your target demographic. Some basic places to start include tracking:
Number of followers for your accounts
Number of likes for your posts over a weekly basis
Number of impressions (total number of people who have viewed your posts)
Number of comments or clicks
If your following is growing over time, you should see these metrics grow with your audience.
Platform Differences
Now that you have your strategy in place, how do you tailor your approach for the platforms you have chosen? Here are a few ideas from a few of the leading platforms and their strengths.
Linkedin is a professional social networking site linking millions of individuals and businesses. The first thing you’ll want to do is create your business page on Linkedin. You’ll need a personal account on Linkedin to create a business page, so make sure you sign up for Linkedin first.
Once your business page is created, you can begin posting content. Linkedin favors blog posts, articles and other original content, so consider writing long-form posts to build an organic viewership.
Facebook, the largest of the social media channels, offers a much broader audience than other social media platforms. While it’s important to have a business page for Facebook, keep in mind that you’ll be largely dealing with the general public.
So if Facebook isn’t strictly a business networking platform, why bother? That’s because Facebook is often a place people search for information, products, and services. Also, as we mentioned in our post about reputation management, you can cultivate ratings and reviews on Facebook that can help you in your marketing efforts.
One area in which we continue to see growth is Facebook Groups. We haven’t posted in these groups but we do monitor several key ones that focus on aircraft part trading. Do take note as your target audience can be found in these highly focused groups but requires some time to research and find those groups.
Instagram is a great platform for engaging with your most vocal and outspoken followers with imagery. There are many passionate aviation communities on Instagram and it’s fairly easy to attract a following by making regular aircraft and aviation related posts. One drawback of Instagram, though, is that you cannot post web links to go back to your website. However, generating a solid fan base on Instagram can still be beneficial for your overall online reputation.
Next Steps
So what’s next? If you haven’t already claimed your properties on the social media platforms we discussed, now’s the time to do it. Use the strategies in this post to create your own social media marketing plan, and start engaging with your customers online. And if you haven’t already done so, read our blog post about the crucial importance of online reputation management. Both articles give you a solid foundation to start building your online brand. Don’t wait as someone else might claim your trademarked name and if those individuals are in different countries you might find it very difficult to gain control of your brand names.
All of us at AeroParts Now are ready to help you make these and other strategic transitions to help your online business grow. Please reach out to us any time to talk about how online and eCommerce strategies can accelerate your parts sales business.
