Top 5 Social Media Marketing Tips to Boost Your Campaign

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With the declining reach of Facebook, now is the time to engage your audience and build fan interactions by running a social media marketing campaign. It is a great way to make your audience actively seek out your brand for information and entertainment. Before you create a campaign, take a moment to find out our top five tips for running a social media marketing campaign. Know Your Audience Knowing how your fans interact with your brand is key to running a successful social media marketing campaign. Understand who you are talking with on your social pages. Spend some time in your analytics to see what is resonating with your company’s fans and base your campaign off insight. Jessica Anderson, Social Media Editor for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, warns not to make the threshold to participation too steep for fans. “No one is going to participate in your social campaign if you ask so much that participation is no longer fun, but a chore,” said Anderson. Test everything “My best advice is to test everything,” Anderson said. “Almost every social campaign that we conduct could be considered a case study. We try new things each time, and come away with important lessons that we apply the next time around.” Don't just stick to what works. You could be missing out on great opportunities. Push the envelope a bit. Some things will tank, but even if they do, you'll come away with a clearer picture of what works and what doesn't. Have a plan Don’t forget to include your campaign throughout your whole strategy. Anderson says executing a social campaign works best when promoted across all platforms—all social channels, all brand pages, all email newsletter lists. “Limiting promotion to just one platform really hinders a brand's ability to successfully get their message out, and this works to the great detriment of the campaign,” she said. Incentive Give your audience a reason to participate and engage with your brand. Are you creating a contest where a winner is selected? Will your brand be using a consumer idea to better your business? Or will everyone who participates receive a prize? According to Forbes, 20 Social Media Tops to Rule in 2014, it is important to make social media special. Make participation fun and rewarding by providing a reward. Know your goals and how you define success. Before planning a campaign it is important to know the goals. Did you want to acquire email addresses? Did you want to get user-generated content? Were you trying to encourage loyalty or grow scale? Anderson notes, if you've set detailed goals, it should be easy to define success.