Three tips for a simpler social media campaign

It?s been proven that social media can generate leads, but in order to have an impact, social marketing outreach has to make sense to your prospects. Recently, Contentlead reported on new data from The Search Agency and Harris Interactive, showing that American internet users don?t always understand a lot about social media and how brands benefit from their services. For example, 48 percent of women know what it means to ?pin? something online, compared to only 42 percent of male internet users. Would your audiences know what to do if you asked them to Pin your products? This statistic, in particular, raises eyebrows, because the digital pinboard site has a unique audience made up of 70 percent women and 30 percent men, but nearly equal parts understand Pinterest?s main function.

Social media platforms offer unique opportunities to build brand awareness, drive referral traffic back to websites and increase companies? bottom lines, but only if published content clearly communicates with audiences. Therefore, businesses must simplify their social media marketing efforts, and Contentlead offers three tips to help get them started.

1. Tell users exactly how to engage

When businesses build a social following, they need to leverage those relationships to improve loyalty. To foster rapport with social connections, brands should publish engaging status updates regularly ? and this often happens in the form of questions. However, posing a basic question to fans and followers doesn?t necessarily generate feedback ? users may view the query, but if they don?t know the answer, they may not offer their personal input.

Businesses can increase interactivity on their social accounts by phrasing questions like commands ? tell users how to respond appropriately, and watch engagement flourish. For example, ?We can?t decide which product we like more, tell us what you think. Item A or B?? This phrase removes any doubt of an answer being right or wrong, and users will feel confident adding their own opinions online. More, HubSpot noted in a recent blog post that specific questions elicit more responses. For example, ?should? and ?would? encourage social users to offer up their opinions over terms like ?why? and ?how.?

2. Communicate social contests clearly

Social contests drive brand engagement and win meaningful leads. Approximately, 56 percent of social users follow brands for promotions. More, sites that run social sweepstakes see an average increase of traffic by 24 percent. These figures show the power of social contests, but brands won?t experience any success from their own efforts if they don?t use straightforward language. For example, telling users on Facebook to pin pictures to Pinterest in order to enter the sweepstakes may not resonate with the right audience, especially if those users don?t know what it means to pin or use the pinboard site at all.

Providing additional instruction could encourage a wider percentage of fans and followers to take advantage of social sweepstakes, even when they take place on another platform. Here?s an example of Beauty Bridge?s Pinterest contest, with clear and easy-to-follow instructions that can be followed by any social user:?

If the Pinterest deal piques consumers? interests, they may create a new account and connect with the brand on another platform.

3. Offer transparency ? how open can your brand be?

Transparent brands show their human characteristics by engaging via social media and web marketing efforts in an honest way. Marketers who present data and information upfront earn the respect of prospects, so when it comes time to make a purchase, consumers turn to organizations that spent time building trust with their fans. More, a transparent brand takes engagement a step further by continuing conversions post-transaction, telling its customers how they can help the organization profit via social media channels. This gives buyers ownership over the brand ? when they tell their friends about a cool new product they?ve purchased, they seem ahead of the curve and the brand also benefits from word-of-mouth marketing.

To be honest, I?m a big fan of this tip, because I recently purchased a product from a brand that?s honesty blew me away. When shopping for a case for my iPad mini, I discovered the company DODOcase, which crafts custom tech covers using traditional bookbinding practices. I bought a product, and the company followed up with the standard confirmation email, expect DODOcase put me in charge of bringing new business to the brand. The email read:

?As a small company, we rely heavily on social media as a way to communicate with our existing customers and reach brand new ones. It would be great if you follow/like DODOcase on your favorite social network and let all your friends know if you love your new DODOcase!

Twitter: http://twitter.com/DODOsays
Facebook: http://facebook.com/DODOcase?

The message struck me ? this company understood that social media leads to word-of-mouth marketing ? so what did I do? I added them on Twitter, told all of my friends about the company and, once I received the item in the mail, I tweeted about the case and gave them a little social love. This practice, as simple and open as it looks, works really well. Brands should feel comfortable asking their new and existing customers to support their causes. After all, brands are investing in products and services for their audiences ? so it?s appropriate to be straight in asking buyers to invest a little back in their favorite companies.

Want to receive ContentLEAD news automatically?

Join our daily or weekly email list!

Source: http://contentlead.com/blog/three-tips-for-a-simpler-social-media-campaign

Missy Franklin Hunter Pence NBCOlympics Danell Leyva Ye Shiwen OJ Murdock Olympics Live