It is nearly impossible to not have a social media campaign in this day and age. In fact, it is almost a necessity today. According to Review 42, 90% of marketers have said that social media marketing has increased exposure for their business while 75% said that it has increased traffic.
According to Oberlo, users spend an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes on social media on a daily basis. That’s more than enough time for your brand to go out there and market yourself.
Let’s take a look at the why and how of creating social media campaigns.
What is a social media campaign?
A social media campaign is a strategically focused marketing effort that is executed by a team with specific goals and desired outcomes that can be measured over a period of time.
Usually, a campaign is aimed at reinforcing information about the brand, its product/products, and services through at least one social media platform.
Why should you create a social media campaign?
There are many reasons why you should create a social media campaign, including to:
- Improve brand awareness
Unless you’re a big MNC like Adidas or Puma, you likely have a relatively small budget within which your marketing, advertising, and everything else are included. Having a small budget should push you to get creative and make the most out of what you have. Social media networks allow brands the space to carve out their unique voice and style in order that customers – both existing and potential – can benefit from it while benefiting your brand at the same time.
Improving brand awareness has been seen to bring in great returns. For instance, it has been noted that 91% of marketers say they noticed an increase in brand visibility by spending a few hours on social media every week. This could be through social media videos, posts, or ads.
- Boost web traffic
Social media is one of the most effective platforms to boost website traffic. Linking your website in your posts, videos, and profile will help to guide users to it where they can see for themselves what your brand is about. Potential customers will find it very convenient to access your website from your social media handles quickly as compared to having to look for it themselves.
You could also add particular landing pages or URLs to your stories on various social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and so on.
- Drive sales
One of the main reasons for brands to create and execute social media campaigns is for the reason of conversions and sales. In order to be able to see an increase in sales, you need to be focused on getting your existing and potential customers excited about your products and services. When you can do this, you will likely see a boost in your sales and new customers. Marketing videos are among the many types of content that you can create to drive sales.
- Connect with your audience
Building your brand will always involve engaging with your audience and customers at some point, and if it doesn’t, are you even building a customer-centric brand? Engaging and connecting with your audience is extremely important when it comes to brand growth. It is only when your audience knows and trusts you that it can actually be a part of your greater goals. Social media campaigns are an excellent way to portray your brand as well as to connect with your audience.
How to create a social media campaign?
Your social media campaigns should always be strategy oriented. Remember to create content that is focused on your target audience and supports your campaign goals. Using mixed formats is always recommended, i.e. images, videos, text, live streams, and so on.
Now that you know the importance of social media campaigns, here are the steps you can follow to create and execute a social media campaign with efficiency:
- Know your goals
This is probably one of the most important steps before going any further. Deciding your goals and your campaign goals along with your team will help you to get a better understanding of the campaign and guide you with your next steps. Your goals could vary on a large spectrum, from promoting an event to increasing brand awareness. The question is what your team aims to achieve with a particular campaign – both short-term and long-term.
Defining your campaign goals earlier on will bring clarity to everyone in the team and help you to work towards a target together for more effective results.
- Identify your target audience
The small secret to a successful campaign is to have it resonate with the right audience. This is why it is important to know your target audience from the get-go. Identifying your audience, their likes and dislikes, and their interests and needs, will help you to serve them better as well as structure your campaign more effectively. Ultimately, your social media campaign should encourage engagement and a better connection with your target audience.
- Decide on your social media platforms
Every social media has one or more unique features that set it apart from the others. Creating a good social media campaign involves planning your content for one or more specific social media platforms. Once you have identified your target audience, you should look at the social media platforms that this target audience specifically uses on a regular basis. Focusing your efforts on particular socials will help you to create and direct content that is especially relevant to them. A short video on Instagram will require something different from a post on Twitter. Understand the purpose of each social media platform as well as your target audience’s preferences.
- Create a content calendar
Creating a weekly or monthly content calendar is always a good idea. Planning ahead of time when and how you will post your content in the upcoming week and month is helpful in organizing and spacing content, while also being on top of things well in advance. Decide on what days and what times of the day you wish to post content on various social media platforms. Additionally, the outline or script of your content, creating custom templates, deciding on what creative copies your brand will utilize, and so on should be put into your content calendar.
- Schedule your content
Once you have a content calendar, it will make it easier for you to schedule content and posts. Planning is always important if you wish to work in an organized manner. Scheduling your content is one of the last steps in your social media campaign, wherein you take your content and your content calendar and bring everything together with an efficient scheduling tool.
Check out our other blog – Video Ads and Their Role in Marketing Campaigns
- Manage and monitor your campaign
Most people forget that social media is not something that you work on once and then leave to do its thing. If you leave your social media unattended to do its things, you will never actually make any progress or reach your goals. In order for your social media campaign to run smoothly and bring you results, you need to be the one steering the ship. Regularly monitoring and managing your social media profiles is important, irrespective of whether you’re doing it yourself or using social media management tools to help you.
- Track your results
Social media is one of the ever-changing things today, and it only makes sense for you to keep changing along with it. Understand how platforms work, plan your content, and launch your strategy. But it doesn’t end there; constantly keeping track of your campaigns is essential to figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Maybe something that you thought might work has actually been a fail once executed. Or something that has been working so far suddenly doesn’t. Track and analyze your performance and adapt accordingly. For instance, if you’re using Facebook video ads as a part of your social media campaign, it is possible to track and analyze data and feedback received.
Some tips to keep in mind to enhance your social media campaigns include using social media management tools, scheduling tools, leveraging influencers, and using paid advertising. Creating and posting content on a vast spectrum, from Instagram videos to Facebook ads is something that will keep things interesting too. These are some of the m
