Social Media Marketing Basics: Agency Strategies and Insider!

Social Media Marketing – Strong social media concepts rarely contain a single network or social media strategy. What makes them special is a perfect mix of different operational and strategic considerations for optimization.

Here is our guide for your company.

Social media strategy through prices, feelings, identity and emotions

The first steps in social media marketing always deal with the brand and its identity. In this context, particular emphasis is placed on which statements, moods or emotions, but also messages from the company’s own social media channel, should be transported. There is no secret recipe, every project in social networks, has its own requirements. Garden furniture sells differently than fashion. While the one channel puts a lot on “Do it yourself” -content, with a lot of explanation, offers and less effort in the production, fashion companies mainly put on clean, fast-consumable material, like photos. Both will, however, always insist on exposing the value of their own products. With the “Do it yourself” concept, people can make their own home, inexpensive with the products of the supplier, on pretty. The added value is in price, individuality and the feeling of having “done it by yourself”. The fashion company also focuses on individuality, price and the feeling of being “part of it”. The emotion to be mediated, the feeling, makes the channel ultimately. This is followed by the addressing of the target group, the required content and the strategic goal.

Individuality and community are two very important points in social media management. Everyone wants to be part of a group or community, at the same time everyone wants to show and present his individuality. The feeling of belonging to the group always comes first. Individuality always takes place within the framework of standards accepted by the group. Only a few leave these invisible borders of their own group.

The first thousand followers and fans

Step Two is always the range. Only fanpages or channels, communities or even online projects with a certain number of fans can really benefit. How many fans are they? Once you have convinced a thousand people of your project, you are already on a good path.

For affiliate projects or promotion networks it should then already be ten thousand. Because here too the rule applies, every project has its own individual requirements. Especially network and affiliate projects require a consistently high amount of users. No matter whether a real-estate portal or a modelabel, group dynamics in social media platforms is always created by a critical amount of supporters (fans). Therefore the increase of the range as a second step is essential important, organic or by advertisements.

Long Term: Social Media Optimization and Multichannel

Regardless of the platform (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, etc.). Once the range is set up, it is already about optimization. Optimization is for social media managers a mix of feeling and ideas on one side as well as facts and figures on the other. As a means of communication, human feeling is always the focus. At the same time, as a manager, we monitor the implemented measures and their effectiveness by means of figures and facts by means of reporting and monitoring. We also calculate strategic points of attack, for example, through content and postings that have worked well, through new trends or classic, but re-packed promotional and marketing campaigns.

The most important questions in social media marketing:

  • How did the fans react to the postings?
  • When did communication (comments) and why?
  • Can we reproduce the effects?
  • What media (photos, gifs, videos) are popular?
  • How is the conversion (sales relative to clicks)?
  • What is the best advertising performance in the A / B test?
  • How much is the CPC after the first term / tests compared to other marketing measures?

Before we ask all these questions, we stay with the Basics. First of all, it is important to be aware of oneself, their own brand and their impact on other people. Projects differ, as do their target groups. You will gradually expand your networks. Here, too, decisions are to be made as to which human resources are invested in which platforms. If you have a young target group with your brand, product or service, then choose a different mix of social media platforms than with older target groups. In general the rule of thumb applies, the younger the network, the younger the users. Let’s take a quick look at the different networks.

Content Marketing: network mix based on target groups

Times are changing. Digital even much faster, almost time-lapse. Networks with millions of members emerge and burn. After a few years, she does not know any more. MySpace and StudiVZ. XING has no real relevance and who still needs Tumblr? The web is fast-paced. A constant renewal process. Every year, new networks conquer, with new concepts the market. Particularly on the mobile end devices is set. The trend is for communication, always and everywhere, for everyone.

A second trend in digital companies, rather than large systems, small systems are created. Applications such as Snapchat, Instagram or Tinder. They usually have a function. Snapchat allows the playback of small content (photo, video) to a selected circle. The contents are then only available for a specific, short period of time. In addition, there is no added value, no music, no fan pages, no shopping function or a detailed communication system. Instagram allows you to post photos and videos. Tinder helps with learning. Twitter should distribute short text messages all over the world, politicians and journalists love it. Each network now fulfills its own individual function. Therefore, the mix of social networks is becoming more complex and diverse for companies and managers. Therefore, in the selection process, you must carefully evaluate the network in which you can successfully acquire or reach your target group.

New social networks bring even more powerful ideas. Snapchat, for example, does not hold information permanently. Postings can only be viewed once for users, never again. A new incentive that attracts particularly young target groups. The longer social networks thus exist, the more younger users migrate to alternative social networks. This can also be seen in the sector gossip, while older users (primarily for social networks) are active here. Facebook has become a synonym for social platforms on the web – that is why older, few internetaffine users are now also here. At the same time Facebook has the probably most powerful target group of all social networks. In addition, Facebook is one of the most advanced platforms for social media marketing in terms of targeting and retargeting. With Facebook, you can manage all Instagram advertising activities at the same time.

Regular postings increase the relevance of your social media channels

No matter if you can write a new post 3 times daily or only 3x a week, it is important to regularly deliver new content. In this way, you can strengthen your presence by means of a steady, equally distributed flow of information.

Help & Tips: Content Marketing with added value

One of the most important questions in marketing is important: What do I want to offer? What does my customer expect? With an intelligent mix of the existing (your ideas, concepts, materials, pictures, texts, etc.) and the special needs of your potential customers, you can find and post relevant topics for your editorial plan. How does such content-relevant content look like? For a jeweler you could produce tutorials (explanations) dealing with the cleaning of certain metals or materials. If you already own jewelery, you will be interested in the cleaning and search for it on the Internet. At the same time, already existing fans get good content. For a make-up producer, regular styling tips are much value, for mattress manufacturers sleep tips. It is important to get involved with the fan and user, and with the insights you can then generate appropriate content with added value. The better the choice of topics and the preparation of the postings (emoticons, short links, concise texts, fast-to-receive [perceptible / recordable] graphics etc.), the more frequently and intensively visitors will interact with the contributions, share them and share with friends. Keyword Recommendation Marketing: The friends friend trust the information as it comes from friends. Recommendations from friends arouse the interest rather than advertisements. Therefore, it is worth investing in good, viral content.

Long-term increase in reach and interaction

You see, the social media world is diverse and multifaceted. Started at the networks, the postings, the communities, as well as interesting options such as retargeting for onlineshops, target group-precise campaign control in Facebook, Instagram or Youtube. For reporting and monitoring. How much effort does which area, what action, which idea … and more importantly, what success do the individual concepts for growth and expansion bring? All this can only be ascertained by means of controlled operational work. The constant optimization and improvement of our own social media concept should therefore always be at the top of the agenda. Whoever manages to understand his visitors and fans knows how to promote and persuade him – whether he is product, brand or service. Social networks demand flair, just like any job at the customer. Optimization is therefore always part of the success. First of all, with a deeper social media strategy, success in terms of reach and interaction can be increased in the long term and sustainably.

8 Tips for Your Social Media Marketing

The 1×1 for your fanpages and channels: Bring users to interact with their content.

  1. Regular postings
  2. Selection of days and days
  3. Linking other users
  4. Your topic is your topic, stay with it and create relevance and expert status
  5. Exclusive insights that not everyone has
  6. External content, that is, share content from others
  7. Use questions and approach people
  8. Invite fans to comment

Trend-conscious. Fashion companies are often pioneers

Pioneers show how interesting the active use of social networks can be for companies. Often fashion companies are close to the pulse of the times, as new collections have to be marketed. This is why constant innovation in marketing is an absolute must for this industry.

One of the world’s largest fashion houses, Asos, currently has more than one million fans on Facebook in Germany and uses the platform every day to post new content. Asos sets as many on multi-channel management, between the different networks. In addition to Facebook, Asos is actively involved in seven other platforms: Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+, Youtube and Instagram. Asos differentiates itself even within its social networks. There are two channels in Tumblr’s blogging network. The one blog specially tailored to men, the other is specifically addressed to women. Both blogs are constantly supervised by employees and are also equipped with high-quality content. Through the differentiated content strategy, Asos is able to address target groups individually. From the big crowd to Facebook to the Tumblr blog for those who want to read more. Sounds like a lot of effort? It is. High-quality, differentiated content for special niche themes is elaborate in the editorial planning, the overall planning in the marketing mix and, of course, in its implementation, as well as the active support, for example of comments. Companies are used to traditional marketing, TV campaigns may be complex, but social media is produced “in house” for convenience. With the current key figures, incomprehensible.

Social Media CPT (Thousand Contact Price)

CPT are extremely undercut. Compared to print advertisements, TV advertising, radio advertising, social media marketing tops all key figures when it is done well. Print campaigns cost twenty-four, twenty-five euros in the CPT. The CPT in Influencer campaigns is between two and eight euros.

Even more effective are ads. While posters have absolute scattering losses and do not bring any direct conversion (deals such as sales), Ads leads the offerers directly to the offer. Just a click away from the shopping basket. Good CPC (cost per click) is sometimes 0.03 cents. What makes the success? Good content (content, format, network, text, emoticons, link, etc.), targeting (age, location, interests, etc.) and A / B tests of ads. A single campaign is distributed in seven hundred, eight hundred variations, on Facebook and Instagram alone. That is, nearly one thousand individual ads, with individual content, individual target groups and individual budgets. Depending on the effectiveness, individual groups are then deactivated and the budgets are redistributed to the well-converting ads.

But let’s return to the subject: Best practice of fashion companies

How such high-quality content can look, can also be seen very well at Zara. Like Asos, they selectively display content on the various channels. Zara brings together over twenty million fans worldwide, on Facebook alone. Besides current information, discussions about products and the world around the fashion retailer, there are numerous links to other channels of the fashion company. Zara also operates active multi-channel management. Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and back. The content is exclusive and can not be found elsewhere. Just as photo albums show the exclusive features, even before they enter the trade! This creates relevance and thus recurring visitors. Clicking on the Youtube button leads directly to other exclusive content, often “Behind the Scenes” videos but also campaigns. In addition to image and video content, the fashion company distributes text messages via Twitter. Here, the users find livestreams and feeds, so for example Live from all Fashion Weeks.

Constant content, various channels, constant interaction

These first, small best practice examples show how useful the linking of individual channels is. For the user, the next “new world” is always just a mouse click away. Users migrate between the channels and activate new fans for you. Likewise, brand retention increases as a result of the increased interaction with the user. In addition, you can strengthen your own campaign through the cross-channel postings. The more often it is mentioned, the more frequently it is “spoken” about it, the more frequently it is shared, the more relevance it receives. If an advertising message on the Internet is not sufficiently substantiated by feedback from the users, it quickly loses its effect.

Constant content, various channels, constant interaction are the secret. This is our conclusion for your social media marketing.