Social media has become our modern public square. We routinely participate, share and create within the digital confines of our favorite platform, either as businesses or regular users. But what makes for a successful social media profile? What are the principles behind the success of social media’s largest influencers? As a business, learning these principles and putting them into action can mean an influx of leads and customers. Here are some of the principles behind effective social media management:

1. Reconnaissance

The wrong way to approach social media management is to look at it as a megaphone or billboard. You will end up losing most of the value this way. Social media offers a unique opportunity, and something for which most business used to pay good money in the a past – you are able to interact directly with your users, and build user profiles just by checking out their social media accounts. This not only helps you better target your customer base, it also allows you to craft a more effective social media strategy, and it can even have an effect on product development.

2. Focus

It’s important to know your objectives for your social media campaigns. For example, it would be a waste of resources to simply accrue a huge following if they do not translate into conversions/sales. As such, you have to take focus into account. You will have much more positive results if you focus on one key goal or area, and then measure your progress towards that goal, rather than using a scattered approach.

3. Quality

Quality is a lot more important than quantity on social media, both in terms of your followers and of your efforts. You want to have a small captive audience, rather than a large number of followers who will never buy anything from you. In terms of content, you want to focus on quality – provide something of use to your followers. This helps improve engagement, exposure and reach.

4. Compounding

Quality content is more likely to be shared by your audience. This means that you will reach beyond your network, and receive a sort of compounded benefit for everything that you publish. The previous principles will help you achieve this effect, ensuring that over time, your marketing dollars deliver more and more value each time you invest. It is a very powerful principle once you put it into play.

5. Reciprocity

It’s important to start thinking about social media marketing as building relationships with your users. This can consist of replying and sharing your prospects’ comments and posts, liking content from other influencers and brands, and entering conversations with your userbase. Of course, you want to keep track of your results so that you can get the highest ROI per campaign, but it’s important to invest more time in actual reciprocity and interaction, rather than in analysis and abstract planning.

6. Consistency

Finally, you need consistency in order to tie it all together. You will need a lot of patience and consistent effort in order to build the relationships you need with your users. The more you engage on social media, the more content you post, and the more regularly you do so, the better the results at the end of the day.

Want to find out more?

If you are interested in social media management in Arlington Heights, contact us today. We are able to provide insights into your current marketing efforts, and build strategies for your investments into social media going forward.