About 20 years ago, social media become an essential communication channel and marketing tool. To make the most out of social media, businesses need to have an expert managing their accounts because it has evolved beyond simply posting content online.
While some may outsource this task to interns, it's important to recognize that social media experts are essential to growing businesses as they play a crucial role in public relations, data analytics, and content marketing. Their expertise can be applied across the organization, covering various marketing disciplines.
Companies must leverage social media channels properly by bridging the disconnect between traditional marketers, stakeholders, or lack of experience connecting with other marketing departments to craft a holistic strategy. Consequently, some use social media only to promote products or share random content. Posting pictures of cats and how it relates to your business can work, but there are so many steps along the way to ensure it can be scaled to consistency.
Opportunity 1: Establishing a Strong Brand Identity
Social media managers can build a strong brand identity that sets your business apart from competitors by communicating the unique value to your target audience. Your brand identity encompasses everything from your logo and color palette to your messaging and values.
Social media is an ideal platform for establishing and reinforcing your brand identity. Through consistent and strategic use of social media, you can craft a compelling brand story that resonates with your audience. Here's how:
Consistency Across Platforms
A social media manager ensures that your brand's visual elements, such as logos, color schemes, and typography, remain consistent across all platforms. This visual consistency fosters brand recognition and trust. When customers encounter your brand on various social media channels and see the same familiar visual cues, it reinforces your identity in their minds.
Example: A social media manager must be up to date with the specs of each platform. In my experience, I worked with graphic designers and video editors to achieve consistent branding. 1200x627px for LinkedIn posts, 1080x1080 for Instagram photos, 1020x1980 for Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Stories/Shorts, 900x450 for Twitter (X). And that is just scratching the surface of what a social media manager needs to keep track of to ensure graphic designers are not wasting time having to go back to resize images.
Crafting a Compelling Narrative
Your brand story is a vital component of your identity. Social media allows you to share your brand's story in a way that engages and resonates with your audience. A skilled social media manager can create and curate content that weaves your narrative into every post, tweet, or video, reinforcing your brand's values and mission.
Example: Do you have videos for YouTube ads? A social media manager knows when to cut down your 30 second video down to 15 or how to plan out the content calendar so the timeline of businesses social pages create a positive experience for anyone digging deeper into learning about the company.
Humanizing Your Brand
Social media offers a unique opportunity to humanize your brand. It allows you to show the people behind your business, share behind-the-scenes glimpses, and highlight your company culture. When your audience sees the faces and personalities behind your brand, it fosters a sense of connection and relatability, which can strengthen brand loyalty.
Every businesses has one thing in common: the people. Every employee has a story, a set of values, and reason to come into work. Showcasing the new hire, the booth at the conference as well as the team that built the structure, congratulating a promotion, or even a picture of a work from home setup allows future clients a glimpse of the culture. A company that aligns itself with the consumer is more likely to win business and social media is a perfect channel to showcase company culture and values.
Example: Whether it's a B2B SAAS company or a B2C commodity, relating to the buyer is helpful when making a purchase. Showing off the employees behind the brand, taking photos of an event, and placing content outside that does not directly serve sales makes your company relatable. Lean into user generated content and have social media managers build those relationships with champions of your brand.
Opportunity 2: Expanding Reach and Visibility
In a world where attention is a precious commodity, reaching your target audience can be a significant challenge. However, social media platforms offer an unparalleled opportunity to expand your reach and visibility. When your content resonates with your audience, they're likely to share it with their own followers, effectively extending your reach to their networks. This "viral" potential is a unique feature of social media. A single well-crafted post can reach thousands or even millions of people, provided it strikes a chord with your audience.
Leveraging Hashtags
Social media managers understand hashtags are an essential tool for increasing visibility on platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. They understand the art of hashtag strategy, using relevant and trending hashtags to ensure your content appears in front of users interested in your niche or industry. Using hashtags enhances discoverability and expand the reach of your content making it easier for users interested in those topics to find your posts through searches or by following specific hashtags.
This increased visibility can lead to more engagement, new followers, and broader exposure for your brand or message. For businesses, this means reaching a larger, potentially untapped audience, which can ultimately translate into increased brand awareness and potential leads or sales.
Example: A hashtag tool can consolidate the most popular hashtags to use for different platforms. A good strategy is to pick a hand full of hashtags that have millions of followers, another with 100K-500K followers, and another with under 100K to increase the likelihood of being discovered.
Paid Advertising Options
Social media platforms also offer robust paid advertising options that allow you to target specific demographics, interests, and behaviors. A skilled social media manager can design and execute ad campaigns that maximize your exposure to potential customers. This precision targeting ensures that your content reaches the right people, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversions.
They bring strategic thinking to the table and execute comprehensive advertising strategies aligned with your business goals which includes defining campaign objectives, setting budgets, designing ad creatives, and implementing tracking mechanisms to measure performance.
A well-structured strategy ensures that your paid ads are seen by the right audience and optimized for conversions by continuously monitoring performance and making data-driven adjustments to enhance overall effectiveness. This proactive approach is key to achieving optimal results and extracting the full potential of your paid social media advertising efforts.
Example: I had a client that utilized retargeting campaigns on Facebook aimed at users who browsed through their catalogue. After leaving the site, our team created retargeting campaigns to reach the user on their social feeds which generated a sale a few weeks after the initial visit. A social media manager that is an expert in paid campaigns can expand the reach and keep your brand on top of the customer's mind.
Opportunity 3: Engaging with Your Audience Building Trust and Credibility
Engagement is at the heart of effective marketing. Social media platforms provide a direct line of communication between your business and your audience. This engagement is an invaluable opportunity for businesses to build relationships, gather feedback, and foster brand loyalty.
Real-Time Interactions
Social media allows for real-time interactions with your audience. Whether through comments, direct messages, or live chats, you can engage with your customers in the moment. This responsiveness makes customers feel heard and valued but also enhances their overall experience with your brand. Social media managers play a vital role in promptly addressing these issues. Timely responses to inquiries and issues demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction, building trust and credibility.
Trust is a precious currency in the world of business. It's the foundation upon which long-lasting customer relationships are built. A well-managed social media presence can significantly contribute to building trust and credibility for your brand.
Example: A social media manager after launching ads should also monitor comments as it can turn a question into a sale. Set aside a time every morning to go through all direct messages on all platforms to see where any opportunities arise or concerns people have about the product.
Customer Testimonials and Reviews
Social media platforms provide a space for customers to leave reviews and testimonials. These endorsements from satisfied customers serve as powerful social proof. A social media manager can encourage customers to share their positive experiences and highlight these testimonials, bolstering your brand's credibility. Authenticity is a buzzword in modern marketing, and for good reason. Social media managers understand the importance of authenticity in building trust. They can help your brand communicate in a genuine and relatable way, showcasing the human side of your business and fostering a deeper connection with your audience.
Example: I managed a B2C client's Instagram Stories and every morning, I received notifications from users that created a story of the product from the previous day. As a thank you, I featured every user generated content onto the business Instagram Story and after a few months, people were excited to show off our product because they knew it got them a free repost. The brand tapped into the users' following and the user tapped into ours. It was a win-win!
Opportunity 4: Data-Driven Insights
Data is the new oil. Social media platforms provide a wealth of data and insights that can inform your business strategies and decisions. Without a social media presence, you're missing out on valuable information about your audience and market.
Audience Insights
Social media platforms offer detailed audience insights, including demographics, behaviors, and preferences. This data helps you better understand your target audience, allowing you to tailor your products, services, and marketing efforts to their needs and interests.
Performance Metrics
Social media managers are adept at analyzing performance metrics such as reach, engagement, click-through rates, and conversion rates. They can track the success of your social media campaigns and use this data to refine your strategies, ensuring that you achieve your business goals.
Competitive Analysis
Social media also provides insights into your competitors' strategies. By monitoring your competitors' social media activity, a social media manager can identify opportunities for differentiation and competitive advantage.
Opportunity 5: Targeted Advertising
Effective advertising is all about reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time. Social media platforms offer sophisticated targeting options that enable businesses to do just that.
Precision Targeting
A social media manager can leverage the targeting capabilities of social media platforms to ensure that your advertising efforts are highly precise. They can define your ideal customer profiles and use demographic, geographic, and behavioral data to reach those individuals most likely to convert into customers.
Cost-Effective Advertising
Compared to traditional advertising channels, social media advertising can be highly cost-effective. A skilled social media manager can optimize your ad campaigns to maximize your return on investment (ROI) while minimizing wasted ad spend.
A/B Testing
Social media managers can conduct A/B testing to refine your ad campaigns. By testing different ad creatives, headlines, and targeting options, they can identify the most effective strategies for driving conversions and sales.
Example: A standard social media audit will uncover all from above and more. An experienced social media ads manager will understand which audiences to target and can pivot depending on performance metrics. I serviced an e-commerce company selling educational toys and textbooks. We quickly discovered our best seller catering to K-12 students best performed when targeting parents of middle schoolers. Although we offered elementary and high school text books, grades 6-8 had the best performing social ads and when my client only had $3,000 per month to spend on Facebook, I maximized ad spend to reach parents with pre-teens which generated a 6X ROAS.
Opportunity 6: Generating Leads and Sales
Ultimately, the success of any business hinges on its ability to generate leads and convert them into paying customers. Social media platforms can be powerful tools for lead generation and sales.
Effective Sales Funnels
A social media manager can design and implement sales funnels that guide potential customers from initial awareness through to conversion. They can create compelling content that educates and persuades, ultimately driving sales.
Call-to-Action Strategies
Social media managers are skilled in crafting persuasive calls to action (CTAs). Whether it's encouraging users to sign up for a newsletter, download a free resource, or make a purchase, they can create CTAs that drive action.
Conversion Tracking
Measuring the effectiveness of your social media efforts in terms of lead generation and sales is essential. Social media managers can set up conversion tracking and analytics to ensure that you can attribute leads and sales to specific social media campaigns.
Opportunity 7: Staying Relevant and Adapting to Trends
The digital landscape is in a constant state of flux, with new trends, platforms, and technologies emerging regularly. Businesses that neglect social media risk falling behind and failing to adapt to changing consumer behaviors and preferences.
Keeping Abreast of Trends
A social media manager is dedicated to staying up-to-date with industry trends and platform updates. They can identify emerging trends and technologies that are relevant to your business and incorporate them into your social media strategy.
Agility and Adaptability
Social media managers are skilled at pivoting quickly in response to changing trends or crises. They can help your business remain agile and adaptable, ensuring that you can seize new opportunities and navigate challenges effectively.
Building Communities
Social media managers understand the importance of building communities around your brand. They can create and foster online communities that provide value to your audience, keeping them engaged and loyal over the long term.
The missed opportunities for businesses that do not have a social media presence are vast and far-reaching. From establishing a strong brand identity to generating leads and staying relevant in a rapidly evolving digital landscape, the benefits of a well-managed social media presence cannot be overstated.
It's essential to recognize the expertise and strategic thinking that a social media manager or expert brings to the table. They can navigate the intricacies of social media platforms, craft compelling content, and ensure that your business maximizes its potential on these platforms.