Businesses have started utilizing social mediums to optimum use. Be it any size business, presence on social media is mandatory. On any given day, we come across brands running social media campaigns in abundance. There is no dearth of both social media campaigns and platforms to run them. On one hand, brands are looking to utilize the ever-growing social mediums and on the other hand, we have social platforms looking to increase their user base. There is so much rush by brands to grab social media engagement that they are looking to promote each and every post, campaign, activities and even announcements. Brands make use of digital marketing and social media marketing strategies to the fullest.
The gap between achieving brand objectives and corresponding strategies implemented is colossal. Majority of times brands are looking for an over-night successful social media campaign that would skyrocket their popularity across the Internet. All the brands present on social mediums are looking to be the next viral sensation. Be it a post, an image, a video or the entire campaign, some brands have been periodically overdoing campaigns. This leads to having low per post engagement ratios. Also, with lack of guidelines, brands end up conducting their social media campaigns deviating from their social strategies. This, in turn, affects the results brands are expecting from their social media campaigns.
In such a scenario, what should a brand do to get maximum ROI on the campaigns they conduct on social mediums? We faced a similar situation for one of our clients. The client, being a pioneer in infrastructure development, was always on the lookout for different channels to promote their brand online. Post numerous undefined and low ROI driven campaigns, we came on board as their social media agency. Once, on board, we helped the client achieve their desired results since the very first campaign. Though not opulently successful, we knew the brand was on the right remnant rather than slither away from the core brand objective. Hence, it is important for businesses to define their strategies before conducting social media campaigns. smm social media marketing plays a vital role to attract overall customers.
Following are certain touchpoints brands must include in their social media campaigns. These might be just guiding factors and not necessarily guarantee a sure shot successful social media campaign.
- Social media campaign
- Defining the Objective
It is very important to have a well-defined objective for any social media campaign. Without a clear objective, a campaign tends to be all over the place. A campaign objective should focus on core brand values. Having a defined objective sets a clear direction for the campaign. It also helps brands to measure results in a more effective way. Defining objectives also helps in identifying the target audience, key platforms to utilize, budgets to be allocated and metrics to measure. To summarize defining objective benefits brands in:
- Identifying target audience.
- Maximizing platform utilization.
- Optimum use of resources.
- Achieving desired results.
Key points to remember while defining the objectives:
- Keep it simple and achievable.
- Don’t procrastinate.
- Identify the purpose of the campaign: it is to gain followers, increase engagement, increase conversion or initiate brand consideration.
- Campaign objectives should be in lieu of core brand mission and vision. Identify platforms: consider a mix of existing and upcoming social media platforms
Choosing the appropriate platform based on the objectives defined plays a crucial role with regards to campaign performance. For e.g.: for targeting youngsters who are looking to buy apparels online, LinkedIn as a platform won’t deliver desired results, as compared to Facebook or Instagram. On the other hand, announcing an important work ethics/culture announcement, it is benefitting for the brand to choose LinkedIn as a platform. There are many popular platforms to choose from. Brands can conduct a single platform campaign or choose, cross-platform promotion, depending on the objective of the campaign. Cross platforms definitely increase reach and impressions for social media campaigns.
Involve your audience
Conducting regular campaigns is an important aspect of building online presence of the brand. However, audience involvement is equally important when it comes to getting results. Just posting updates on social media pages does not help in achieving ROI. The best social media marketing companies will know how to engage the audience perfectly. Brands need to initiate conversation with their followers. Ask them to participate, like, comment and share the content update. Audience involvement increases engagement, participation and brand authority.
Include Gratification
Gratification means to give some kind of reward for audience participation. According to many experts, social media campaigns with gratification have more engagements as compared to campaigns that don’t have gratifications. The best-known mode of audience involvement is to include gratification. Gratification can be in any form like feature on the page, gift vouchers, discounts, vouchers etc. It acts as a trigger for the audience to participate in the ongoing campaigns. Awarding gratification also leads to recurring participation amongst brand followers.
Showcase highlights of the campaign
Highlighting important milestones of the campaign is a good way of keeping your audience engaged. Creating a documented case study is a great way to share highlights of the campaign to the followers. It also helps brands to sustain buzz created during the campaign. Highlights should categorically include reaching from point A to point B with the help of social media platforms. Case studies are also a great way to highlight the campaign’s achievement on social platforms.
Build a Network
A single campaign doesn’t necessarily guarantee engagement on social media pages in the long run. Hence, brands should focus on creating a network of loyal followers. These loyal followers help brands for the upcoming campaigns. Brands should reach out to their network of followers before the start of the campaign. This helps in creating the crucial initial buzz for brands, thereby increasing reach of the campaign. Brands should also focus on creating a network of influencers who have a following of their own social media pages. Influencer marketing is also a very effective way of creating brand buzz for the social media campaigns.
Measuring the results
No campaign is complete without calibrating the results of the campaign. Calculating ROI gives a clear picture of campaign performance. Brands can manually measure the results using an inbuilt platform based analytics or source data from popular social media campaign measurement tools. Measuring results benefit the brands on analysis of their current social media strategy as well as it helps in formulating strategies for future campaigns.
Brands should definitely conduct social media campaigns at regular intervals. To keep an engaging social media handle, brands should make use of both generic brand updates and social media campaign. Brands should use the best social media marketing tools to enhance their presence. Brands should also monitor the audience behavior during pre, during and post campaign buzz on their social handle. This helps brands to concoct the type of content its followers are looking for. Though the science of a successful social media campaign is yet to be formulated, if followed above tips, brands can get maximum engagement on their social media handles.
