Social media in business.  At the turn of the century, this was nearly unheard of.  Now, it’s essential.  Social media is a major pillar of communication in the modern era and it’s revolutionised marketing strategy in the process.  With effective social media marketing, you can grow your audience, increase customer engagement, and boost brand recognition.  The upshot?  More traffic and more leads.  That leads to more conversions and higher profits.

So that’s the why.  What about the how?

Here are some tips to keep in mind to make your social media marketing campaign sparkle:

First step, make sure you’re clear about your goals and objectives.  You have to have clear goals before you know how to gear your marketing efforts effectively.  When beginning a marketing campaign, a social media management company will make a clear list of the goals and steps involved.  Then they can set deadlines and monitor the effectiveness of each during the campaign.  This allows you to refine your strategy to get the most bang for your buck.

The next key is to know your audience.  No product or service has a universal appeal.  You’ll want to speak to your target demographic, to the people who are interested in what you have to offer.  This lets you craft your message so that it really lands.  So, know the audience and their motivations.  Know what they want and what will catch their attention.  You can use social media to connect with the audience to engage them and respond to them.  You can get personal and show that you care.  Plus, you can gather feedback to adapt your marketing campaign.

This leads to the next step, which is to craft your content carefully.  Don’t post content just to get something out there.  First, fit the message to the platform.  Facebook is great for news and entertainment to engage your audience, especially Facebook groups.  LinkedIn is ideal for business to business, while Instagram and Pinterest are best when you have highly visual content and use it to link to your main site.

No matter what platform you’re using, make the content short and snappy.  Use good copywriting techniques and vary your content often.  Also, make sure to make use of the descriptions, as this will lead more searches to your post.  Finally, avoid being overly salesy.  You are using a social media platform to connect with your audience on a personal level, so speak to them instead of just sending out promotions.  Set up Facebook groups and make sure to respond to all comments on your Facebook business page.  You can also interact in Twitter chats or retweet posts.   Social media is also great for contests or video content to boost engagement.

Another key to social media marketing management is to make use of images.  A picture is worth a thousand words.  Put simply, when people see a high quality image, it’s more likely to catch their attention and get them to read what you’ve posted.  And if it’s a video, even better.  You can pack a load of engaging content into a fifteen or thirty second video, and it will reach a much wider audience than the equivalent amount of written content.  Make sure to keep the images in tune with your brand and audience, and watch the dimensions of the images so they’re the right size for the platform.

Following the tips above will lead you in the right direction, but that’s just the tips of the iceberg.  Social media marketing is a complex process and it can be a full-time job to do it right.  So, if you’d like to know more, feel free to contact us.  At Reputation by Design, we have the background and expertise to craft a superlative social media marketing strategy for your real estate marketing business.