How To Implement An Effective Social Media Strategy

DATE

June 29, 2021

With 80% of Australians active on social media 68% of SMB’s could be using social media to maximise sales. But how do you use social media effectively?

“Start telling the stories that only you can tell”
– Neil Gaiman (Internationally renowned author)

Your business has its own unique story, its own offering and way of communicating. By building an authentic social media strategy that connects with your customer you’ll already be on the road to success with an effective social media strategy.

By developing a social media strategy, you WILL be communicating with most of your customers, attracting new prospects and influencing their purchasing decisions.

However, with social media constantly changing and the internet crowded with dos and don’ts it can be a confusing landscape to navigate. BUT, this is where WE CAN HELP.

GDR Media Group has successfully implemented effective social media strategies for many businesses across Australia.
From organic content plans to paid marketing campaigns we understand what will work for your business.

Get in touch for a FREE discovery session to find out what we can do for you!

Read on for your guide on how to implement an effective social media strategy.

A Sum Of Two Parts

Any successful social media strategy will, in general, be split into two parts: the ‘organic’ strategy and ‘paid’ strategy.

Your ‘organic’ strategy is everything you post directly to your platforms. This content is ONLY seen by your followers and those who share the content.

Your ‘paid’ strategy is every piece of content that you put advertising spend behind. This is done via boosting particular posts or using the chosen platform’s business features to run an advertising campaign that normally has the following key objectives: drive website traffic, generate leads or conversion. This will get your content seen by NEW people and you can retarget those who are already following you or have visited your website.

Give us a call today and we will be more than happy to delve a little deeper into this for you!

Tell Your Brand Story

It all starts with your story. After all a story well told is a story well sold!

How do you do this? As with any story break it down into separate parts.

When it comes to social media, the perfect way to do this is through deciding on a set of content pillars. This will ensure you do not always post the same type of content and approach your paid social media advertising to guide your target audience through your sales funnel. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

Services

What are your key services and products to promote? This pillar should focus on your BAU content that is regularly drip fed into your content calendar.

Thought Leadership / Industry Insights

This pillar will enable your brand to build its credibility and position your business as a leader in its field. What can you do to educate your customer and therefore heighten awareness of your product

Testimonials

Whether you sell a product or service this is the chance to shout about your success stories! Again, the perfect opportunity to build your brand awareness and credibility.

Milestones

What are the key moments in your story – past, present and future? When was your business founded? If you’re a gym celebrate that 100^th, 500^th or 1000^th member! If you’re a realtor spotlight the properties you have sold and how it has contributed to the success of your business…

With each piece of content, think creatively about how you’re presenting your story…

People are twice as likely to share video content with their friends than any other type of content.
(Source: Hubspot)

General Tips

To keep your content active and on-brand:

Don’t overthink it.
You will learn more about what does and doesn’t work as you go – so don’t make it an overly formal process. If it’s appropriate and related, go for it.
Use your brand personality! 😆
People enjoy interacting with the people behind the brand – especially when you’re posting organic content. So, don’t be scared of having fun with emojis and hashtags. Just be sure to keep it consistent!
Review what works.
At a minimum, once a month look at how your channels have grown and what received the greatest engagement (by engagement we mean likes, comments and shares).
Vary your content.
Don’t get stuck posting the same thing. Give people interesting content, fun stories, and useful ideas so that when you promote a specific call to action your audience is already listening.
Be Consistent
Always post with a call to action in mind and with an image/video. What do you want your audience to do after seeing the post? Like, comment, share or visit your website!

Paid Social Media Marketing

Targeted paid campaigns will help you reach new customers and build brand awareness.

Social media is a major lead generator, bringing in high volumes of traffic to your website.

With 84% of people discovering new products on Instagram a paid social media strategy with a creative ad set and strong messaging will help you reach those sale targets!

In fact, 90% of all marketers say social media marketing has increased their business’ exposure.
(source: Optinmonster)

Call us today to find out more: 1800 657 797

Monitor Social Media Trends And Algorithm Changes

Social media trends refer to what the vast majority of people and businesses are doing that elicits maximum engagement and results from their followers. Keeping on top of what’s viral can be used to inform your content ideas and the ability to tap into what people are already sharing and engaging with.

Social media platforms are programmed with complex algorithms which manipulate what followers see daily. One simple example of this is: if a person has recently engaged with a page/profile that page/profile will shoot to the top of their newsfeed when they next use that social media channel. These algorithms often change based on data and trends. Outlets such as Hubspot and each specific platform will regularly update users when the next changes are due to happen.

At GDR Media Group we keep our fingers on the pulse when it comes to the latest social media trends.
Regularly check our website and social media channels for the latest media insights

Community Management

Don’t just post and leave it!

Your social channels are the perfect opportunity to connect with your audience and harness potential leads.

At least once a day monitor your feeds to see if anyone has commented on your content or sent you a message.

Also, monitor your new followers – drop them a message to say thanks for the follow and ask them if they would like to find out more about your brand!

As you grow your following follow back those who follow you. The more active you are on your channels the more you will manipulate social media algorithms so that you’re pushed to the top of newsfeeds…

Schedule Posts

With a busy schedule, it can often be hard to keep on top of when content should go out. If you use a content plan to specify what you will post and when you can then use scheduling tools such as Hootsuite, Loomly or Buffer to organise when your posts will be published on your social media channels. These platforms can also help with your reporting with live analytics embedded in their service.

GDR Media Group can implement an effective social media strategy that takes care of every step
– from designing your creative messaging and copywriting to execution and reporting.
Reach out today to find out more.

Using Hashtags

Many brands overkill the use of #Tags! Hashtags are there to tap into your target audience as people regularly follow the hashtags that they’re interested in. On Facebook keep your #tags to a consistent maximum of 3 per post (you’ll see the 3 I’ve used in your post examples!). On Instagram, you can potentially use more but as always be consistent. Also, to maintain the aesthetics of your posts you can use the comments section to tap into more hashtags!

How To Measure Success

Many dashboards exist, as well as analytics that each social media platform houses. These analytics includes:

The rate at which your followers are increasing/decreasing
The reach and engagement of each post and your channel in general
How many people are clicking from your content to your particular CTA
Using Google Analytics on your website you can also measure who is coming to your site from your social media channels
When running paid advertising campaigns you will be able to monitor a wealth of statistics, from your cost per lead to click-through rate and conversion rate

GDR Media Group is here to help you understand how to measure success and take care of implementing an effective social media strategy
so that you can spend more time on what you do best!
Contact us today…

Spotlight on Why Real Estate Should Use Social Media

According to a recent study from the National Association of Realtors, social media is integral to attracting clients and making sales across the industry. Here’s a brief snapshot of the report’s findings:

77% of realtors actively use social media for real estate
47% of real estate businesses note that social media results in the highest quality leads versus other sources
99% of millennials (and 90% of baby boomers) begin their home search online (as opposed to in-person referrals)

What does this mean? Social media is an absolute goldmine for real estate businesses.

Why not use social media to promote upcoming inspections?

Success stories with your customers?

Demonstrate why new clients can trust your business to buy and sell their dream home!

We can help! From content creation through to executing your social media strategy we know what works when it comes to real estate. Tie that in with a multi-channel marketing solution that incorporates print and letterbox distribution and you’ll experience GREAT RESULTS.

Contact us today!

What GDR Can Do For Your Brand

At GDR, our mission is to make marketing meaningful. Everything we do is with purpose, which is exactly the requirement when implementing an effective social media strategy.

Working side by side with your business to deliver an informed social media strategy we promise to:

Immerse ourselves in your brand to develop the best strategy for your business
Take care of your social media strategy from design and creation to running your content plan and paid campaigns, as well as measuring the success of your strategy with regular reporting
Deliver tangible results that ultimately help you reach your business goals and ambitions