{"id":4355,"date":"2022-03-01T16:50:30","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T21:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/?p=4355"},"modified":"2022-03-01T17:06:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T22:06:04","slug":"5-tips-to-successful-social-media-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/2022\/03\/01\/5-tips-to-successful-social-media-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Tips to Successful Social Media Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Madison Imoto<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With over half the world&#8217;s population on social media, it is no longer an option for companies to have an online presence &#8211; it is a necessity. Businesses both big and small utilize social media to grow their online presence, gain followers and connect with their audiences. However, the sheer number of platforms available and their different uses can make building your online brand feel like a daunting task. But even if you are just getting started or are a pro at this, there is always room for improvement. So here are 5 simple tips to up your social media game and successfully market your brand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Create a Strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each platform needs its strategy. Every platform is different in some way and it is important to understand what works best to create targeted content and generate engagement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some questions to consider are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why am I using this platform?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who is my target audience?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What brand message am I trying to push?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What content works best on this platform?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How can I make my content unique<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol><\/ol>\n<p><b>2. Be Consistent<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While posting consistency depends on the platform, posting content regularly is always a good rule of thumb to follow. Also tying into a social media strategy, creating a content calendar for each platform is another way to keep things on track. This calendar will lay out what kind of content to post over a long period.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regardless of your business size and what platform you are using, be conscious of keeping these aspects consistent:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brand image\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brand message<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Posting frequency<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hashtags\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And if your business is just getting started on social media, sometimes quality is better than quantity. Don\u2019t stretch yourself too thin. Dedicate to posting good content on 1-2 platforms, instead of being inconsistent across 5 platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>3. Create Engaging &amp; Interesting Content<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With social media feeds and timelines being saturated by millions of people, it is important to stand out from the crowd by creating good content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what is good content? While that term is subjective and depends on the platform, here are some general tips for good content creation:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Newsworthiness<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anything that is considered newsworthy is a good idea to generate content around. The pillars of newsworthiness are timeliness, proximity, conflict and controversy, human interest, and relevance.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Media<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Static images should have a clear visual and not include a lot of words (that is what the caption is for).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using gifs or videos is excellent &#8211; the movement attracts the audience\u2019s attention and is more interesting to look at than just an image.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Include your staff! It is a great way for your audience to get to know the faces behind the brand.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Storytelling<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use storytelling as a way to engage the audience and develop a brand voice.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a creative way to convey your message without seeming like you are trying to sell a product.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trends<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Current digital and societal trends are important to stay relevant, but always make sure that it aligns with your brand.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>4. Engagement<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Engaging with your followers is important in building a community and feeling more personable. Ways to do this include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Liking and responding to comments<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Live streaming<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creating polls and quizzes<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Post content that starts<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>5. Track and Analyze Metrics<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Diving deep into social media analytics is one of the most important steps to do when building your brand online. Thankfully, most social media apps already track your metrics, as long as it is a business account. With the data and statistics, you can effectively analyze your strategy and continue to drive performance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Bottom Line<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creating a targeted and effective social media strategy will improve your performance online. Utilizing unique ways to interact with your audience will increase your reach. And most importantly, analyzing your metrics will help you determine whether or not you are on the right track. Social media is constantly evolving and with seemingly new trends every day, these tips will help you to craft your strategy and grow your audience.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Madison Imoto With over half the world&#8217;s population on social media, it is no longer an option for companies to have an online presence &#8211; it is a necessity. Businesses both big and small utilize social media to grow their online presence, gain followers and connect with their audiences. However, the sheer number of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19025,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19025"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4355"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4359,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4355\/revisions\/4359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/prlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}