Avery Phillips
Avery T. Phillips is a freelance human being with too much to say. She loves nature and examining human interactions with the world. Comment or tweet her with any questions or suggestions.
Do you want to learn about some interesting social media hacks for your small business? If yes, here's a blog that talks about these hacks that you can easily apply in your business.
If you didn’t implement a social media marketing campaign in 2017, your small business might not even be in business anymore. If you are just starting out, you should know that social media is instrumental when it comes to attracting customers to your business.
In 2017 we saw some social media marketing practices fall flat, and others that worked but became outdated. In 2018 you need to know which social media marketing techniques will drive people to the landing pages of your business’ website. If you captivate your target audience and engage new and existing customers via various social media platforms — letting them know of your company website — the traffic to your website will explode, and so will business.
Below are a few social media tips to engage your existing audience and point new customers to your business website in 2018.
1. Instagram Stories
Last year, Instagram analyzed what worked well for Snapchat, implemented the same concept, and is now more popular than Snapchat. Instagram copied Snapchat, making videos and pictures that expired after 24 hours accessible to a larger audience — eliminating the need for two apps that did the same thing, and attracting users away from their competitor.
If 2017 is any indicator of 2018 in terms of social media trends, Instagram Stories will continue to be a great platform to design your content for. Let your audience know of events, and direct them to your website’s marketplace landing page for sales going on in real time. Let your customers in on promotions and contests that can play out right over social media. Instagram Stories will only continue to captivate and engage your audience, as it is proving to be successful in engaging your audience in real time.
Instagram boasts over 800 million monthly users. This amount of usage presents an opportunity to aim your marketing strategy to an abundance of target audiences. Instagram Stories are a quick and easy way to appeal to an existing audience while attracting new customers. You can track who views your stories to see if your business is being seen or if you need to rethink your content strategies, as well as target a specific audience with the choice of filtering out users who your content isn’t meant for.
2. Augmented Reality
One thing that Snapchat did well in 2017 (and was also copied by Instagram) was implementing augmented reality into their pictures and videos. Augmented reality is a technology that blends real life with virtual reality audio and visual aids. In Snapchat (and Instagram) filters, users are able to enhance a picture of themselves, taking a real photo of themselves or others and applying a virtual reality hat and sunglasses on their head and face, for example. You may have seen the most popular “dog ears and tongue” filter.
Although the augmented reality is fun and silly at times for taking photos of yourself and others, it can be an invaluable tool for marketing your business. Innovative business professionals are thinking ahead to utilize augmented reality in social media content in the form of advertising. Currently, it is being thought of for brand recognition — bringing your business logo into users’ homes via the pictures and videos they take.
As augmented reality develops further, it can be applied for much more. A clothing store can let people “try on” different clothing to see how it will look on them before they physically touch the merchandise. In another instance, a furniture business can let you see how a coach will look and fit in your living room by augmenting it into your house via virtual reality. Augmented reality has promising advertising potential for you and your business as it continues to develop.
3. Influencer Marketing
Users of social media in 2017 showed to be continually swayed by influencer marketing, and 2018 will be no different. Influencer marketing is nothing new with sports ads showing celebrity athletes using and endorsing their products, however, social media marketing doesn’t require macro-influencing or a high-profile celebrity to attract customers. Users of social media use different platforms to subscribe to specialized pages they get their information from and will listen to the bloggers, YouTube, and Instagram personalities who specialize in the content they prefer. Micro-influencers may be a better, reasonably priced way to have a respected member who is well versed in your audience’s niche to promote your brand.
Influencer marketing recognizes this kind of loyalty and will contact the personalities in these specialized niches, admired and respectfully listened to, for the endorsement of a business product. Subscribers will then see this person whose opinion they value using your product and look to your business to buy it. Social media personalities hold valuable influence over large and specialized audiences and with the right personality and target audience in mind, you’ll gain the votes of customers.
Whether you are looking at B2B or B2C marketing, a little influence from respected members of your target audience will go a long way. Influencer marketing isn’t specific to any social media platform, so utilize a prominent business figure on LinkedIn for your B2B marketing while working with a popular blogger for your B2C marketing on Facebook and Instagram. Alongside building a customer base, influencer marketing facilitates working relationships with key figures in your business’ realm of operations.
It is up to you to find out a social marketing campaign that works well for your business, and in the ever-changing world of Twitter hashtags, Snapchat filters, and Facebook likes, you’ll need to be looking for the next big thing to captivate your audience and gain a customer base. Innovative and effective marketing will drive audience traffic straight from social media onto your business website landing page.
Just as the times change, so do your customers, and so must advertising campaigns to keep their interest. 2017 has shown us a teaser of how the above techniques can be effective, and with the proper implementation can benefit your small business significantly in 2018.
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