Making Sense of Social Media: Your Goals Can Make or Break Your Social Media Marketing Efforts
In this week’s episode of the ‘Making Sense of Social Media’ podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dana Herra, a content marketing strategist and brand voice expert. She spoke in great detail about how having goals for creating and distributing content on your social media platforms is your highest priority.
Set goals before creating content.
Dana emphasizes not to try and do everything at once. Instead, pick the goals that are most important for your business at this time. Some common goals include brand building, lead generation, and increasing sales. What are your greatest goals for your social media marketing? Are you just starting out? Then brand awareness/building will be important for you. Do you feel like you have plateaued in your digital marketing efforts? Then perhaps a shift to lead generation is a good idea for you. Knowing not only what your ideal customers or clients need, but what YOU need to help move the needle of your business forward is imperative at all times.
Tailor your content to your target audience.
What are their main interests and greatest needs? Do you actually know? Have you asked? What kind of content will resonate with them? These are questions that require research. It’s never too late to start the process of content marketing with purpose and strategy.
The Three E’s:
Good content … GREAT content needs to be preferably two of these three things: entertaining, educational, and enlightening. Listen to how Dana explains this in the episode, it’s REALLY great!
Be Authentic and Personable.
We all have a story. Do we like sharing them, or find it easy to share? Not always. But, I challenge you to turn your thinking around and think of how YOU interact and engage with others. Do you like buying things from or putting your trust in others without knowing who they really are? My guess would be no, you wouldn’t. The same goes for digital marketing. If you want someone to learn from you, find you to be of use to their needs or their situation, and hopefully, eventually, purchase something from you, you need to get used to sharing yourself. So. share your stories and experiences to connect with your audience on a deeper level. and watch that needle begin to move.
Measure Your Results.
How do you know if you’ve arrived, if you don’t know where you are going? A successful and detailed plan does not get executed without tracking along the way. Follow your progress so you can see what’s working and what’s not. This is a step not to be missed, but most do. Make it easy on yourself by starting a new spreadsheet with columns for each social platform that you use, and track your numbers each month through the back-end analytics provided on each channel. It doesn’t have to be complicated.
Beyond the Basics.
In addition to the tips outlined above, here are some more advanced strategies for using social media content to achieve your business goals.
- Create a content calendar: This will help you plan and schedule your content in advance, ensuring that you are consistently posting high-quality content.
- Use a mix of content formats: Don’t just stick to text posts. Experiment with images, videos, infographics, and other formats to keep your audience engaged.
- Run social media ads: Paid advertising can be a great way to reach a wider audience and target specific demographics.
- Collaborate with influencers: Partnering with influencers can help you reach a new audience and build trust with potential customers.
- Engage with your audience: Don’t just “post and ghost”. Respond to comments, answer questions, and participate in conversations to build relationships with your followers.
Dana’s advice is valuable for businesses of all sizes. By following her tips, you can create social media content that is effective in achieving your business goals. You can get Dana’s marketing thoughts in your inbox by signing up at danaherra.substack.com or, connect with her on LinkedIn.
Please enjoy this week’s episode of Making Sense of Social Media on Spotify (or ANY of the podcast platforms) 🎧
… or, watch it on YouTube! 👇
When you need hands-on learning and deeper connections with other small business owners just like you, join the waitlist for my 6-week digital marketing group coaching program: Marketing Mentor. This is where you transform from a social media “wallflower” into the digital “life of the party” using digital and social media strategies and tactics! 👉 yourmarketingmentor.online.
