10 Ways To Enhance Your Social Media Marketing Strategies

Social Media Marketing Strategies provide your brand with an incredible opportunity to connect with and build relationships with your ideal clients. There are not really any other marketing venues that can offer this same depth of connection, because everyone knows exactly what the exchange for an ad is – your brand pays for a spot and attempts to entertain, captivate, and encourage someone to make a purchase.

Traditional ads are necessary, but also engage with people who are already disposed to saying no. The right social media marketing strategy can end up not being an ad at all, but a genuine point of connection between customers and their needs. Below, you can not only learn about the benefits of social media marketing, but also how to effectively and thoughtfully use social media for marketing.

#1 Leveraging User-Generated Content

In the world of content creation, one of your brand’s best friends will be the end-point users who include your products and/or branding in various social media posts. This type of marketing for social media may include pictures, videos, and some kind of text (depending on the medium).

A great example of what a successful strategy looked like was the Share a Coke Campaign, which included personalized Coke cans and led to lots of social media posts from Coke drinkers and Coke gifters. There are multiple social media marketing strategies that leverage user-generated content, here are a few ideas to get the ball rolling:

User Experience

Tweets, blogs, Facebook and Instagram reviews can all generate positive results, if properly engaged with. Even a negative review can be turned into a positive if you are responsive and demonstrate solid customer service – and a select few brands can create a lovingly abrasive online persona to engage with (think Wendy’s and Deadpool). Avoid crossing signals, though – find your social media sweet-spot and stick to it.

Social Gatherings

Encouraging people already engaged with your brand to share their best posts with a group of friends enjoying your product is a great way to boost natural engagement. Focus on times when people will already be gathering, like the holidays, or a traditional Girls Night Out. Resharing and reposting will boost engagement…and don’t forget to have fun with it – make your brand the unofficial sponsor of Girls Nights Out everywhere.

Sharing Moments

Similar to capturing social gatherings, capturing moments is a social media marketing strategy that focuses on how people use your brand and/or product in day-to-day life. Encouraging people to share candid videos or pictures with your product is a great way to capture your brand “in the wild.”

When putting together social media marketing strategies, you will want to utilize hashtags to help you easily find and curate online content. Some people will tag your social media account directly, but that is not always reliable. Also, curating a list of hashtags that might broaden user-generated reach is a great way to create organic touches.

As you come across content, don’t forget to have your official brand page share the posts, and have your social media manager add your brand’s own captions to your repost.

#2 Creating Brand Advocates

The power of social media marketing strategies should be placed on the word “social.” Done right, your brand will create genuine connections with people who value what you do and make. This leads to one of your most important customers when it comes to building brand loyalty and awareness – the brand advocate. A brand advocate is a person who not only purchases your products, but who believes in your brand – what you do, what you produce, and what you represent.

Brand advocates can act as cheerleaders, introducing their networks to your brand, and can be encouraged to actively participate in supporting you on their social media platform. Not all brand advocates will be found on social media, but most (if not all) will be on at least one platform and can be cultivated to provide organic participation within your social media strategy.

Creating social media marketing strategies that include thanking your advocates, reposting your advocates’ comments, and engaging with your advocates are great ways to build deeper relationships between you and the people who love your brand.

#3 Starting a Contest

A simple way to engage social media users is to invite them to join a contest for your product, a sponsored event, or another giveaway. This is a great way to collect simple data as well – make sure to at least include the basics: name and email. Not only will you engage with your current customer base, but this is a great opportunity to draw in new consumers and markets as well. Using your current CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform to generate a quick link to share on social media is the best way to capture data effectively.

#4 Hosting an AMA

A popular way to engage with people online is an AMA (Ask Me Anything). People prefer these to FAQs for two reasons: 1) It lets consumers know your brand cares and wants to help answer questions; and 2) It takes the extra work of trying to find an answer to a specific question off their plate. This is a great way to actively engage a wide variety of people and probably works best on platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, or YouTube.

#5 Running a Social Media Takeover

Part of your social media marketing strategy should involve influencer marketing services. A fun way for you and your customers to partner with an influencer is to let them do a social media takeover. This is where you give them a set period (often a single day) to post content from your brand’s social media accounts. Choose who you partner with on this carefully – different influencers push or stay within different boundaries.

#6 Sharing a Reading List or Playlist

Remember this – social media marketing strategies work best when you create genuine and human interactions. Something almost everyone does is read, watch movies, or listen to music, so sharing a library of content is a simple and readily available way to connect in a real way with your brand’s customer base. Develop a rotation for different employees to share their list of favorites as a way to build a stronger narrative around your brand’s culture.

Don’t be afraid to narrow the list of favorites to a certain situation – maybe your brand is in the food and beverage industry – ask one of your managers to share their favorite dinnertime playlist, or the best movies about food.

#7 Placing Your Product in a Unique Scenario

User-generated content isn’t the only place to find unique product placements to share on social media. Remember those Travelocity commercials with the roaming gnome? You can find similar ways to have your brand travel and/or show up at unique events and locations. You don’t have to go global either. Finding local venues can really pique consumer interest from your region.

#8 Spotlighting Customer Achievements

Don’t focus all of your social media marketing engagement on your advocates. Asking for, finding, and highlighting your customers’ stories is a great way to showcase why your brand matters and makes a difference. This could be a simple and short story, or a video campaign. This is a great way to highlight the human element of your brand and make its real presence in people’s lives hit home.

#9 Utilizing Guerrilla Marketing

Guerrilla Marketing can be an effective way to generate brand buzz on a budget, but don’t neglect using social media to create an even bigger buzz with the potential to go viral. Just keep in mind some of the challenges of Guerrilla Marketing.

For example, Heineken’s elaborate prank generated a lot of buzz after the recording hit commercial air, but Guerrilla Marketing in today’s social media driven world can be live-streamed or posted and can quickly become viral without the need to put together an elaborate TV ad campaign.

#10 Providing a Look Behind the Scenes

A BTS (Behind The Scenes) post is a great way of breaking down the barrier between your brand and your consumer. Maybe it’s a BTS on the production end, or a brief look into a strategic meeting – this helps your consumers feel like they are part of what you are doing and helps build brand loyalty.