4 Essential Social Marketing Strategies

4 Essential Social Marketing Strategies

Marketers tend to think of social media as a channel in-and-of-itself—a way to engage, interact and dialogue. But what every marketer should know is each social network or platform has its own requirements. Social is not "done" by creating some content blurbs, posting some video and calling it a day.

When we think about marketing on social networks, we need to understand how they work and why they are different from each other in order to fully take advantage. And then we need to think about how they work together—a seamless social strategy that integrates into a brand's marketing strategy, overall.

Let's take a look at the top social networks and some elements of them marketers should consider in a social marketing strategy:

1. Facebook

Most every marketer today is leveraging Facebook, or trying to figure out how to do so. Marketers can decide how much investment to put against this customer-centric platform and determine their goals. While some see it as a branding play, others are trying to drive direct marketing from it. Either way, consider these points:

• Engagement vs. Marketing: This debate still rages on, but the choices about post intent should follow your strategy, overall. If a brand wishes to balance engagement and marketing, remember that engagement posts (posts that ask questions or encourage response) are more likely to get those sought-after "likes" and comments.

• Likes and Comments: So why are they important? The more likes and comments, the more a page is seen as relevant by Facebook. Just like a search engine, Facebook uses data to decide how relevant posts are and how visible they are to a given marketer's fans.

• Remember Where a Brand's Posts Are: When a post is displayed to your Facebook fans, that message is on their walls, not your brand page. Avoid asking fans to check out any part of a Facebook page without providing a direct link to that page.

• Leveraging Facebook: Like many sites, Facebook wants brands to keep their fans within Facebook's walls—literally. Although you may want to link outside for certain campaigns, remember to link to branded Facebook pages or applications, as well.

• Keep it Short: Just like an email subject line, Facebook posts work better when they are short and concise. Funny how that works. Of course, it's about scanning content and making it easy for fans to engage.

• Timing Is Everything: Forgive another analogy to email, but sending messages out at the right time is really important on Facebook. And just like email, it's based on the customer or fan base. Test different times of day for posting messages to any targeted audience.

• Measure and Measure Again: Like all digital marketing media, measurement is possible and really critical to understanding how much budget should be allocated to Facebook and how this channel contributes to marketing efforts.

2. Twitter

Twitter is a network for both consumer and B-to-B brands. It can be used very successfully for customer service, marketing, engagement, branding and all combinations. Marketers can leverage the power of 140 characters successfully by:

• Having a Strategy: Every marketer needs to think about strategy on every social network. But, with Twitter, it seems more important. It's OK to have more than one Twitter account (one for service, marketing, education, etc.), and that will help make sure messages are relevant for each account, respectively.

• Engaging in the Channel: It's tempting to think of Twitter as a blast of content, but it's really a one-to-one channel. Be prepared for individuals to challenge or respond to a Twitter post as they contribute to the conversation.

• Be Ready to Respond: Not responding to a direct message on Twitter is different from not responding on Facebook, in that messages sent through Twitter were probably directed to the accountholder to begin with. On Facebook, it's all about community. But, on Twitter, it's likely the customer is looking for an accountholder (the brand) to respond.

• Keep it Short: It's best to keep messages even shorter than 140 characters. Allow followers to "retweet" content by giving them room. Try to keep tweets to 110 characters.

• Hashtags Rule: Hashtags are a way of organizing content because users choose how to see their Twitter content by looking at hashtags. This works for brands in two ways—it allows content to appear to new people who are tracking or searching on the topic, and it can lead to new followers on an account as a result. Hashtags are single words, but you can run several words together, like "#MyWishList." See what is trending on Twitter or look at sites like Hashtags.org to help choose appropriate hashtags.

• Create a Voice: A brand can have fun with Twitter. Consider creating some personalities who can leverage the channel. Like all social media, be transparent, but also keep it real.

3. Google+

Much of what has already been said can apply to Google+, and brands are still finding their way in the channel. One additional element that can be leveraged on Google+ is natural search. Google intends to leverage social media even more in search results, so it stands to reason that what a brand says on Google+ might end up in Google's natural search results.

4. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is used by most companies today in a variety of ways—for recruitment, company pages, groups and advertising. Marketers should think of their LinkedIn profiles as introductions to them—for prospective clients, customers and employees, in both consumer and B-to-B markets.

• Company Pages: Make sure to include keywords for natural search in corporate profiles to ensure that the page appears in search listings. Include links to your primary site and other social properties of the brand.

• Relevant Groups: If you choose to create a group, think about your communication strategy. LinkedIn groups can be very busy and interesting places, provided the host takes care of the community. Make sure group members aren't advertising inappropriately. Post interesting and thought-provoking content. Find the sweet spot for conversation through testing and measurement—and, when interest generates conversation threads, do more of the same.