Effective social media is a must for all brands, so is your clinic making the most out of this advertising channel? Jenna Catalano reveals how to be socially seen.

The power of social networking is stronger than ever with the number of active users expected to reach 3.02 billion by 2021, that’s around a third of Earth’s entire population!

A huge 79 percent of Australians actively use social media daily. And astonishingly, the average person will enjoy almost two hours perusing through social media every day. But despite this, there’s a huge gap in advertisers meaning many businesses are failing to capitalise on a prominent digital opportunity.

So, how can you really ramp-up your business’s social media marketing? The top-line answer is to build a fully formed social media strategy. Many businesses don’t get the results they are after because they take an unsystematic approach to social media marketing. This results in a diminished ROI, unmet goals and a lost opportunity.

Here are some helpful steps to get your businesses social media strategy in tip-top condition.

IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE & ACCOUNTS

Firstly, determine which social media platforms are best for your business, and focus on them daily. Don’t waste your time curating content for platforms that don’t serve your business. In the beauty industry, the most widely used social media platforms are Facebook and Instagram. Secondly, identify your target audience along with their values and interests and curate content based on capturing and serving the interest of this audience. Identify one individual/team responsible for all aspects of your social media marketing.

BUILD YOUR BRAND GUIDELINES & STICK TO IT

There is nothing worse than a social media account that has a mishmash of out-of-brand colours, themes and overall design elements. Your social accounts should abide to a strict look and feel that’s consistent with your overall brand. This includes, colours, design structure, caption tone and voice and content. It is vital your business develops a clear brand identity across all social media channels.

CURATE YOUR CONTENT STRATEGICALLY WITH THESE TIPS:

DEVELOP A CLEAR BRAND VOICE. It is vital your business develop an identified clear brand voice across all social media channels. The first step, is to understand what you want your followers to know about your brand and how you want them to perceive your brand. It will then be clearer for you to write content that fulfils this vision.

TELL A STORY. A strategic way to engage followers is to detail the story behind the content in the Instagram caption. Go that next step and give that little bit more information followers can engage in. For example: instead of simply stating ‘Dr Chris Smith achieves amazing results with his new snoring treatment’ go further and explain the years of training and protocol testing involved enabling the doctor to achieve such a successful treatment.

CRAFT CONTENT THAT RESONATES WITH YOUR AUDIENCE. Some Instagram audiences prefer detailed and lengthy content that tells a story, whereas others are more interested in indulging in visual content and are less likely to spend the time reading a lengthy caption, it’s usually industry dependant. As mentioned above, it is vital you adapt content to suit the taste of your target audience.

LEARN THE ART OF COPYWRITING. Instagram caption copywriting is a similar task to writing content for a website. Read-up and educate yourself on how you can be a strategic copywriter and NEVER let a spelling or grammatical error slip.

UTILISE AN INFLUENCER TO KEEP CONTENT FRESH

Almost 95% of marketers who employ influencer marketing believe that it is effective and beneficial in increasing brand presence and increasing followers. The important step is to ensure the influencer you choose upholds the same notions as your brand identity and is someone who reflects the aspirations and interests of your target audience.

Here’s why influencers are beneficial for your social media:

1. They expand your social media reach and help earn your consumers trust and loyalty.
   Influencers have already acquired the trust and loyalty of their followers. In fact, that is why they have thousands of them. When an influencer endorses your brand, consumers associate the influencer’s trustworthiness with your brand.
2. Influencers boost your authority.
   You can become a thought leader in your industry with the help of influencers. Influencers, in most cases, are experts in certain niches. That is one of the reasons they have amassed sizable followings.

You can look for an influencer who is an expert in your domain. When this expert creates content involving your brand, it is a way for them to vouch for you. By doing so, they help your business gain more authority.

3. Influencer marketing makes you a content-rich brand.
   With influencer marketing, your influencer will ideally create quality content for your brand. The more consistent you are about posting quality content, the more consumers associate your brand with great content, and thus consider your brand as a value add.

USE HASHTAGS WISELY

Posts with at least one hashtag receive around 12% more engagement than posts without a hashtag. Hashtags are a way Instagram users can discover content as many Instagram users use hashtags to search content based on their interests via search. Instagram also presents trending hashtags on the explore page. Posting content that uses a trending hashtag can also have you featured on the explore page increasing your brand exposure.

INCLUDE A CALL TO ACTION

This one is obvious, yet many businesses fail to include a call to action in every post caption. Social media is a powerful marketing channel; however, you need to craft content in a way that works for you. A call to action persuades followers to take action and makes the step easier, thus making the action more likely to occur.

Set Key Performance Indicators (KPI’S)

Set Key Performance Indicators (KPI’S) to measure the success of your social media efforts. KPI’s include the number of follower’s month to month, number of engagement and enquiry as well as steps to improve strategy for the following month. Ensure you are active of your channel daily. Interact and engage with other profiles by commenting and liking posts to help spread your brand and increase followers.

Always take your social media marketing seriously, if you can’t dedicate a good amount of effort to the cause, employ a professional!