The Ultimate Guide: 15+ Easy
Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2024

You will agree when we say that LinkedIn is the best professional networking website on the internet.

While it is mainly used for creating a professional profile for oneself, you can also use it to create a profile page, especially for your company.

This not only proves your company's credibility, but also creates a perfect base for publishing news and content related to your services or products. Here is how the company page on LinkedIn looks like:

Set Up Your Brand on Social Profiles

If you are a start-up, then Branding agency in Mumbai should be among the top priorities in your agenda.

And you will be pleased to know that social media sites can be the perfect platforms for that!

They give you the option of creating a complete profile with a name and logo, such that you can establish a credible online presence for your new brand.

Setting up social profiles for your brand immediately after you launch it, gives it a good boost in terms of visibility and credibility. This way people will remember your company from its name and logo, right from the beginning.

Build Communities/Groups & Conduct Events

One marketing strategy which is tried-and-tested and has worked wonders for many people, is that of creating (closed) groups on platforms like Facebook.

Why does it work?

It's simple. Because a closed group cannot be accessed by non-members, it creates a sense of curiosity among people to join the group and find out what's on offer.

And when you are regular in posting fresh, engaging content/offers on your group, your members will stick around and gradually convert into customers.

Then, once you have enough members in the group, you can also conduct events on a regular basis to ensure maximum participation from your followers.

Integrate Offline Marketing Campaigns with Online Ones

The first manner of marketing for many companies starts with offline campaigning, through radio, television or newspapers.

And why not? It is quite an effective way of creating awareness about your brand.

According to a study published in the International Journal of Social Science & Interdisciplinary Research, this strategy can be extremely beneficial for companies investing in social media marketing.

Moreover, it also opens up the possibility of merging these offline marketing strategies with the online ones. This can be done by including the link to your social media profiles into the print or television ads.

This will help people in remembering your brand and drive them to check your online presence, thereby increasing their trust in you.

Integrating both offline and online marketing strategies can also help in building communities.

Make Use of Facebook Offers

Love Facebook?

Then you will love the Facebook Offers feature!

With the help of this feature, you can create an ad for any kind (both offline and online) of business and set it up from your Facebook page itself. This method works best for companies who wish to generate leads through attractive offers.

The impressive thing about Facebook offers is that they appear in the news feed, rather than the ad section on the right-hand side, which increases the chances of them getting noticed by the target audience.

Also, when someone clicks on such offers, they are sent an email with your website link, to their registered email address outside of Facebook, again improving the chances of your brand getting noticed by the right people, both on and off Facebook.

In simple words, it's like killing two birds with one stone!

Make Use of Some Social Media Tricks

Social media marketing is an extensive advertising strategy.

Which is why different social media platforms come with certain tricks, which when used correctly, can help in improving the visibility and popularity of your business.

You can use any or all of these social media tips pertaining to different platforms and give your overall social media marketing strategy a boost.

• FacebookIf you have an advertising account on Facebook, you can use Power Editor to add a call-to-action button directly in your post, in a way that complements the content and nature of your post.
• TwitterWhile marketing through Twitter, you can Pin your most crucial tweet, which has a link to your website and some other vital brand information to the top of your profile.
  This will highlight and draw the visitor's attention immediately as they land on your twitter profile and drive them to visit your website.
• Google+Google+ gives its user, options to highlight the important bits in their posts by means of strike-through, or by making them bold, or changing them to italics. This can help in bringing attention to the crucial parts of your posts.

Respond to Comments & Queries Promptly

If you have ever been active on any social media channels, then you know how nice it feels if your comment gets a reply from the concerned person.

That same rule applies to your company's social media profiles.
If someone leaves a comment or query on your profile, it is your responsibility as the owner to respond to the comment as soon as possible asking your followers for their opinions.

Even if the comment is a grievance, you must apologize and assure them you are working on the solution.

This will prove your sincerity to your customers and convince them that you take their complaints seriously, potentially converting them into loyal brand advocates.

Conduct Online Polls & Surveys

Need some opinion from the common folks regarding something new you are planning?

Then help is on the way, through Social Media!

One of the best means of connecting with your target audience and getting their views is by conducting polls or surveys online and literally asking your followers for their opinions.

Online polls on Facebook, Twitter or any other platform, would show your customers that you value their opinions, while also solving the purpose of getting their point of view regarding your brand.

Follow a Systematic Posting Schedule

Just like doing everything else in life, there should be a best time for posting content as well.

If you post your content haphazardly at any time in the day, it may not get noticed by the right people. Which means, it will not get the desired attention right away and therefore, will not be favorably noticed by Google.

Moral of the story– Publish your content or update your profile at a specific time, at regular intervals.

Based on the amount of activity observed during a certain time period, there are specific time intervals in the day which are ideal for posting blogs or uploading/tweeting any news.

Once you start following a systematic schedule for posting on your social profiles pay attention to certain metrics, your followers will know when they can expect an update from you, and hence, will see/read your updates more diligently.

Here are some ideal posting times for some popular social media sites;

• Facebook- (Thursday & Friday) 1 PM – 4 PM
• Twitter- (Monday- Friday) 1 PM – 6 PM
• YouTube- 1 PM – 3 PM
• Blog Posting- 11 AM
• Instagram- 3 PM -4 PM
• Google+ – (Monday- Friday) 9 AM – 11 AM
• LinkedIn- (Tuesday- Thursday) 7 AM – 11 AM & 5 PM – 6 PM
• Pinterest- (Saturday) 2 AM – 4 AM & 8 PM – 11 PM
• Tumblr- 10 PM

Pay Attention to Online Marketing Metrics

Planning your marketing strategies is definitely important.

However, it is also equally important to pay attention to certain metrics which can help you in understanding which of your strategies are working and which are not.

You can use several social media marketing tools to measure these metrics or sign up on HootSuite, where all your social media profiles can be handled from one convenient place.

Some of these metrics include;

• The referring links from where the visitor was directed to your website.
• The page which majority of the people visited last, before leaving your website. This will give you an idea about which page needs immediate attention.
• The average number of pages visitors are exploring on your website. This will tell you whether your website as a whole is offering anything which is engaging enough for the visitors or not.
• Finally, the most important bit, the amount of time spent on the website as well as on the individual pages. Any page which compels visitors to spend more time on them, are clearly the winners. The more the amount of time, better is your user-engagement.

Track & Share Results

Finally, if you want to attract more followers/fans and keep the existing ones interested in your brand, you must share your progress with them in some form.

For that, you will first need to track your progress and gather some quantitative results from metrics, like the ones mentioned above, and then represent them in the form of a blog (with pictures and graphs) or a nice infographic.

Measuring such metrics also gives you a clear picture of how well your company is doing.

When you share such data or results with your followers and customers, it helps in creating a bond of trust between the two parties, while also showing them how well you are doing as a brand.

In other words, it’s win-win for you both!

Phew! So these were some strategies which you could try if you are planning to start social media marketing for your company, or are looking to modify the existing approach. If you need further help, you could hire a social media agency in Mumbai.

Now, lets move on to the current situation of the social media marketing scene in our country.

Social Media Marketing in India

Now that you know how social media marketing works, lets see how Indian companies use social media marketing to connect with their potential customers.

India is one of the leading countries when it comes to the number of Facebook/Twitter users in the world.

That's why it only makes sense that Indian companies and brands use these social media platforms to market their services and products to their target audiences.

Keeping this idea in mind, more and number of Indian brands are now allocating a substantial amount of budget to social media marketing.

Common objectives of Indian brands for engaging in social media marketing

We all know how social media works.

You create and share quality content, in order to a href=”/viral-infographic/”>make it go viral, so that more people like and share it throughout their respective networks.

But how do big brands and companies use this to their advantage?

According to the report by Ernst & Young, the companies they surveyed had certain set objectives with which they ran their social media campaigns.

These objectives were:

• Creating Brand Awareness
• Updating Latest Brand News
• Building a Dedicated Community
• Interacting with Customers

Apart from these obvious choices, many companies also cited other reasons for investing in social media marketing. These included;

• Reputation Management
• Thought Leadership/Credibility
• Customer Service
• Lead Generation
• Research & Recruitment

From the above objectives, it is clear that majority of the companies in India feel that advertising through social media is one of the best means of creating wide-spread awareness about their brands.

Which is probably why 2014 saw a substantial rise in the percentage of the budget that was allocated by these companies towards social media marketing.

• As compared to 78% of the companies that allocated up to 15% of their annual budgets exclusively on social media marketing in 2013, around 90% companies allocated up to 15% of their annual budgets on social media marketing in 2014.
• Also, majority of the brands spent around a whopping 12.17 billion INR on social media marketing in 2014!

And this number is only expected to rise in the current year, which proves just how effective marketing through social media channels has become in India, especially in the past few years, such that companies are willing to set aside a good chunk of their budget for this alone.

Now that we have covered the objectives and budget allocations towards social media marketing, the next question which we would like to address is:

Popular social media platforms in India

Did you know?

India offers one of the largest markets to social media giants in the world, with approximately 302 million active internet users!

This itself is enough to compel Indian brands to invest in social media marketing more rigorously.

And when it comes to the best social networking experience, we can all agree that Facebook takes the cake.

This is why the majority of Indian companies consider Facebook to be the most important platform out of all when it comes to marketing through social media.

This may also be because India has one of the highest percentages of Facebook users in the world.

The order of importance of all the social networking channels with regards to Indian brands, is as follows;

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Instagram
• Blog
• Pinterest
• Foursquare

So if you are planning to begin your social media campaign, you now know which platforms to focus on more.

It is important to note here that, due to the increasing demand and popularity of image and video-driven content, platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube are expected to become the top social media channels for marketing in the future.

Now that we know which are the best social media platforms to start with, the next thing you need to focus on are the challenges that are generally faced by Indian brands when advertising through social media. So our next question is;

Challenges faced by companies

The main reason behind addressing this question is to give you an idea about the kind of hurdles you can expect to face, as a start-up which is looking to invest in social media marketing.

By understanding the key challenges that Indian brands currently face with regards to advertising through social media, you can gain insight into the kinds of challenges you may face with your social media campaign.

To begin with, lets discuss the biggest challenge that majority of the companies face, i.e.

• To successfully measure the effectiveness of social media engagements.As the budget for social media marketing increases, companies face the challenge of coming up with a way of measuring the efficiency of the different kinds of social activities, along with the effectiveness of individual social media platforms.This will help them understand how much more or less capital can be set aside for social media advertising.
• Another tricky bit is increasing and maintaining fruitful engagements with the users.As social media gains more steam as a means of marketing, the initiatives will become more and more advanced.This may make it difficult to acquire number of followers and convert them into active users or subscribers through quality engagement.
• Consistent Generation of Quality Content.This is another key challenge faced by the majority of Indian companies.With the increase in the number of dedicated social media platforms, the need for generating quality content of all kinds, including audio, video, and image-driven content, has become a must.Unless you are able to come up with quality content from time to time, your social media campaign is unlikely to give you productive results.

To summarize all the challenges that are currently faced by majority of Indian brands here is a list in order of significance;

• Measurement of Effectiveness of Social Media Engagement
• Maintenance/Improvement in the Engagement Rates
• Quality Content Generation
• Focusing & Acquiring the Right Target Groups
• Creating Fruitful Campaigns
• Sufficient Lead Generation
• Monitoring Social Media
• Response Management
• Consistent Communication Across all Channels
• Acquiring & Retaining Followers
• Obtaining Sufficient Budgets

Next big changes Indian Brands might introduce in their online marketing campaigns

Social Media Marketing is here to stay.

We know for a fact that it has great potential as a means of advertising a brand to a widespread audience.

Which is why, it is important for companies to come up with new ideas and changes every once in a while, to take their online marketing campaigns to the next level, and ultimately ahead of the competition.

• Social CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
• Social Commerce
• Customized Ads & Campaigns
• Location Specific Marketing Based on Mobile Internet Usage
• Personalized Customer Engagement Methods

Bonus: Download free ‘The Ultimate Guide – Social Media Marketing’ PDF that will show you how to tap into the 15 strategies on social media items listed here.

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Conclusion

There you have it, a comprehensive guide of the latest Social Media Marketing scene!

If you are a startup or an already established enterprise looking to start or invest in a successful online advertising campaign, this guide will help you in understanding the nitty-gritty of social media marketing.

So that, you can be fully prepared to launch your own campaign and take your business to new heights through the most popular advertising platform, i.e. Social media.