Is it time to stop winging your social media? Time to see some real results? Your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets can serve as a very effective part of your digital marketing strategy. One which saves you time and money and focuses your efforts on a targeted audience 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In a recent survey of digital businesses, 64% of respondents said that the decline in organic reach online was a huge challenge for their business, moving forward. In order to keep up, many of these companies have had to increase their online ad budgets in order to reach the same number of people online.

This method, however, isn’t necessarily the way to go. Paid advertisements on websites can definitely help increase reach and brand awareness as the number of posts and content increase on the web, but it’s more important to stay up-to-date. To learn current social media algorithms, how to best target your content, and get it in front of your ideal audience. Here are a few best practices to consider when doing social media for business in 2019:

Use Social Media for Real-Time Responses

man looking at social media data analysis

When someone comments on your content, these prospective customers expect quick responses to queries. A Millward Brown study commissioned by Lithium states that 53 percent of Twitter clients expect that a response will arrive in less than 60 minutes. If a client has a complaint, the number goes up to 72 percent!

StratGrow Pro Tip: Have someone monitoring your social media platforms for messages, comments, reviews, and more. With the right help and automation, you can drastically cut down your average response time on social media and create a personal connection.

Get Complete Buy-in From Your Organization

In order to really create a viable social media presence and digital marketing plan, it’s important to have buy-in from all of your decision-makers in the business. If your CFO believes in paid ads, but your CEO believes in organic traffic and real-time responses, much of your team won’t have the patience for an organic marketing strategy if they believe funds will do the trick rather than content and management. Organic marketing strategies tend to take longer but cost less overall.

StratGrow Pro Tip: Ensure that your entire marketing team is on the same page. Share recent articles regarding best practices for social media from entrepreneurial publications such as Forbes Magazine.

Dive Deeper into the Analytics and Data

social media marketing data analysis

Gartner finds that only 1% of companies who use Instagram Stories and similar social media tools do a deep dive into the insights, analytics and data! What a waste of precious marketing results! As it turns out, the further you go into that data, the more you’ll know about what works. This also makes social media marketing more fun overall!

By digging a little deeper, no longer will you have to guess what the next marketing campaign should be – oftentimes you’ll get the best ideas from a Facebook conversation or an Instagram comment thread.

StratGrow Pro Tip: Take the time to look through analytics and data on all social media platforms to recognize trends and discover what works. Use that information to help you plan future campaigns.

Understand Different Social Platforms and How they Work

Facebook is meant for a different audience than Instagram, which is meant for a different audience than LinkedIn, and so on. If you want to know who is using which platforms, start with Pew Research statistics. Using those stats, you’ll be able to see who visits each website. Instagram, for example, attracts a much younger audience than Facebook. LinkedIn attracts business to business specialists, as well as small business owners looking to network and make a name for themselves.

StratGrow Pro Tip:

Have Fun with Your Social Media Marketing

Try a few of our social media tips and you’ll soon find an entirely new audience at your fingertips. Social media for businesses is relatively new but the key is to be creative, patient, and do lots of planning ahead. If you need help with your social media marketing, website, SEO, or digital marketing campaigns, be sure to get ahold of our expert team here at Strategic Growth Advisors. We’re here when you need us!

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