The best practices for your social media strategy are actionable insights your pet brand can adopt to ensure business growth during 2023. Here are 10 strategies to improve your social media output this year.
1. Be clear about your buyer persona
Buyer personas are semi-fictional characters that represent your ideal customer segments. Your ideal customer segments will come from data obtained in your market research and insights from your current customer database.
In order to create your buyer personas, you will need to be clear about the following information:
Demographic information: age, gender, annual income, location, family situation, and education.
Personal interests: hobbies, travel, volunteer work, etc.
Professional information: the industry they work in, their job title, and the company size
What do they believe? What are their aspirations? What do they want to achieve? What drives them?
What are their pain points? Which challenges are they facing? What are their struggles?
How your offerings fit into their lifestyle.
Social media usage and their communication style.
Once your buyer personas are created, it'll allow you to execute your marketing plan with more accuracy by crafting a tailored approach for each of your customer segments. This will ensure you reach the right people and deliver the right message.
2. Share diversified content
It is crucial to pay attention to what your ideal customer enjoys and where most of their time is spent. Expressing the same idea or concept in a different creative way on your social channels is a great way to mix up your marketing strategy. Make sure the way you're expressing your ideas matches up with the unique audiences of each platform, as we discuss in the next section.
Some tactics you can implement:
Upload native videos where possible -- instead of sharing a link to the video on YouTube, upload it directly to the platform so it'll have greater reach and rank higher in the algorithm
Create video stories that live for 24 hours and focus on something particular such as calling out a great review, a quick preview of a new design or color that's "coming soon"
Use native polls on Facebook and LinkedIn for another unique engagement method
Integrate infographics, video content, and stories into your posts for more variety
Use unique imagery that's not found on stock sites, by creating photo content that's just for your brand and specific with your key visuals to highlight
As you experiment with different content types, it will become easier to identify the content formats that perform best for your marketing goals. Ultimately, you will be able to pinpoint where your resources should be invested,
3. Have specific content strategies for each social network
This may be challenging, but also highly valuable since each social media platform attracts users for different styles of content. TikTok is the platform to experiment with less serious content formats, Instagram is where users meet to find visually aesthetic inspiration and Twitter users express their thoughts and even controversial points of view. When designing your content strategy for each social platform, keep in mind what performs well on each platform so you can tailor your content accordingly.
4. Share more videos on your social media channels
The demand for online video content is growing due to the narrower attention span of audiences across the board. The annual State of Video Marketing survey released by Wyzowl found:
96% of marketers who use video say that it's an important part of their marketing strategy.
92% of video marketers reported that video gives them a positive ROI
90% of video marketers say video has been effective in generating leads. (Wyzowl, 2023)
Since people tend to be more attracted to videos, one efficient tactic to increase your video completion rate is by posting short videos. Keep in mind, your short video may have a more powerful impact if funny or inspirational twists are incorporated.
5. Track performance data
Performing a thorough social media analysis report at least once per year will help optimize your digital marketing efforts. Your social media report is simply a collection of data and stats taken from each social media account your business manages.
The data and metrics included in the social media analysis report will depend on your social media strategies and goals. For instance, these are some of the most common:
Followers
Clicks
Retweets or Reshares
Favorites or Saved
Reach rate
Total engagement
Engagement per post
The report is a key element to understanding your brand's evolution throughout the year on social media and also pointing out the areas you need to focus on to improve.
6. Analyze your hashtags
Hashtags not only allow you to connect with your target audience but also allow your audience to find you.
Implement your hashtag strategy by considering the latest trends in your industry as well as those groups of hashtags your ideal customer is already using. You can conduct hashtag research directly from the social platform your brand currently has a digital presence on, or you can invest in tools or apps, such as Hashtag Expert, that suggest the right hashtags for your brand reach and goals.
Since social media platforms are constantly evolving make sure to use the right hashtags in the content you share. Be mindful of monitoring, evaluating, and tweaking the hashtags you are using as part of your content.
7. Research your influencers
The first thing to do in your influencer research is to come up with a strong list of influencer candidates. This will give you the chance to analyze their competitive value by considering metrics like engagement rate, posting frequency, and also whether their values align with your brand values.
Remember that the influencers you decide to partner up with will become your brand ambassadors, which is why it is particularly essential to be mindful of your influencer choices. In case you are interested in starting an influencer campaign, this article will teach you everything you need to know about paying for brand influencers.
8. Get help from your audience with user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) lets you tap into content already circulating for your brand. By sharing posts that your customers have already shared, you’re showing how much people love your brand, but in a way that is trustworthy. This is a great option when you want something different, or the creative juices are just not flowing.
For instance, a recent data report from Stackla surveyed more than 2,000 consumers and found that 80% said UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions, making it 8.7x more impactful than influencer content, and 59% consider UGC the most authentic type of content. (Businesswire, 2021).
In short, UGC is content you don’t have to spend time creating but builds trust and relatability with your audience while increasing your sales. That’s something we like to call a win-win!
9. Try social media advertising
As organic reach is harder to come by and competition grows in the social space, paid ads are often the best way to ensure that you are reaching your ideal customer. That is why social media advertising is a must if you want to quickly reach new target markets.
Below are a few examples of the most common types of ads used on social media:
Static image ads
Video ads
Stories ads
Messenger ads
Reel ads
Spark ads
10. Ask customers for feedback
After you have converted your prospective customers into actual clients, it’s time to ask for feedback. Based on your customers' s feedback your company will be able to design better products and services.
The main methods of collecting high-quality customer feedback you can apply to your own business are:
Surveys
Product or service reviews
Service calls
Read their comments on social media
Conclusion
If you need help putting together a strategy for your next ad campaign, the experts here at ReelPaws can help you apply trending digital marketing practices, so your pet brand reaches your target audience, build brand awareness and drive sales. We'll create a plan that reaches your goals and grows your company. Contact us today to get started!