We at Mintere look at social media much as one would look at attending to their plants or fruit trees. If you expect to have a huge apple tree overnight you’ll be sorely disappointed, and this same mentality must be present in social media marketing. Your social media pages require constant tending, in how often you post, the quality of your posts, and how much you interact with followers of your pages to be successful.

Managing expectations

Social media marketing can be wonderful in the sense that with a proper schedule providing insightful posts to potential consumers you can grow a substantial following which will provide your company with a solid return on investment over the long term. As mentioned in our other blog post “What We've Learned About PPC advertising” you MUST manage expectations with clients. Social media marketing is a long-term strategy that will not provide huge returns quickly. The age-old adage that “what comes quickly leaves quickly” is exactly the opposite of social media, it takes a long time to grow but will provide reliable growth in the future.

Branding Strategy

Your intended audience should be at the forefront of your mind when creating posts and curating the look that you want to show to your potential customers. Do you want to come off as a friendly figure or maybe a leader, why take aspects of both? It might seem like you should definitely come off as both a leader in the industry as well as a friendly figure who’s approachable, but typically it’s easier to focus on one unified brand identity, while still maintaining other aspects of alternative branding strategies. One such example is even though your brand might focus more on that friendly attitude, it’s still very beneficial to post informative blog posts to promote yourself as a thought leader in the industry. If we liken social media to a company’s voice, then your branding strategy is similar to the accent you speak with.

Quality Posts

Don’t overwhelm your audience with constant “buy now!” posts. While a small percentage of your overall posts can be dedicated to selling, social media is, well, social. It’s important to share things about your company, such as who the people are who help make your business successful, the strategy that makes your company different from the rest, as well as any exciting news that potential customers might find unique, insightful, or engaging. At Mintere, we are almost entirely made up of seniors in high school, and as such we are excited to share news of our evolving college situations such as how one of our team members and Chief Operations Officer, Caiden Trivedi, was recently admitted to Vanderbilt University, one of his top choices. In our experience, this is the type of content that gives us a more personable feel than other competing agencies, and we use our youth and friendliness as an advantage in which to grow our business.

Utilizing the Right Social Media

The last tip we have to offer is that not all social media are created equal. Oftentimes it’s best to specialize your efforts on the social media platforms where the bulk of your customers base is. For instance, a company in the restaurant industry would most likely benefit the most from using a social media platform, such as Instagram, which is very reliant on visuals and emotion-provoking content such as pictures of food etc. A company focused on Business-to-Business products or services might want to consider a more professional social media, such as Linkedin. It’s important to think about the platform that would best suit the marketing of your product or service.

Creating an effective social media campaign is certainly a challenge and a sizable investment of time and resources are needed to make sure it’s successful. However, every company should strive to differentiate itself from the competition, and an established social media presence is one of the best tools in a company’s toolbox to accomplish this goal. Additionally, Social Media serves as a gateway to your company for potential clients or customers, and if done correctly, can be one of your best sales tools.