Digital marketing is the most common way for businesses to spread the word about their brand. It has taken over the traditional format of TV and radio advertisements, billboards, and newspaper ads. Now, businesses are investing most of their time and money on digital marketing.
We can see the effect of online marketing. It’s a beneficial strategy for businesses, as long as they know how to use it well. Even small businesses or startups were able to spread words about their business because of the online world.
Each of these types of marketing strategies has rules on what you should do to create an effective campaign. But when it comes to online marketing, social media marketing is the most effective and cheapest way to market your brand.
Before we go in-depth on social media and its etiquette when marketing a brand, here are the different types of digital marketing techniques.
TYPES OF DIGITAL MARKETING
Content Marketing: It’s a way of spreading valuable and highly-informative content to your audience.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): A marketing strategy that involves getting traffic (organic, free) to your online shop or website. Part of SEO marketing is the use of keywords appropriate for your niche, website, and content.
- Social Media Marketing: It’s a way to spread a business’s products or services by using social media accounts such as Facebook, Instagram, and more.
- Pay-per-Click: Businesses who used pay-per-click pays the publisher of their ad every time it has been clicked. It’s a paid way to gain traffic or customers.
- Affiliate Marketing: A business partner up with another business or person. When you make a sale, you pay the person you partner with.
- Email Marketing: The oldest form of digital marketing, yet it is effective than others. It involves sending out an email to your target audience.
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM): It’s a marketing technique that combines SEO and Pay-per-click method. It also includes the use of keywords to drive traffic to your website. Every time some clicks on your ad, you have to pay Google.
Now that you have an idea what are the different types of digital marketing, it won’t sound confusing as it used to. You can choose to apply all of these techniques to promote your brand, or you can choose which one is effective for your business’s campaign.
Among all of these, Social Media Marketing is the most common of it. But, despite its popularity, it’s not easy to spread a business’s name in here. The competition is extremely tough, and it requires patience to make a sale out of it. But, when you work hard and follow the rules in social media marketing, it will pay off.
5. Social Media Etiquettes
Here are etiquettes or rules you have to remember when using social media as your marketing strategy.
POST REGULARLY
You don’t want to start a social media account and post once a month. Doing so will keep your followers wondering, and they might unfollow you. It is important to be consistent. You must post regularly.
The number of times you post on your social media accounts depends on your brand and the platform you are using.
How many times should you post?
- Instagram: 1-2 per day
- Pinterest: 11 pins a day
- LinkedIn: Once a day
- Facebook: Once a day
- Twitter: 15 tweets a day
These posting tips came from CoSchedule.
When you limit your posts in a day, you don’t have to worry about annoying your followers.
USE HASHTAGS
Hashtags are important to increase your visibility and get more followers. But, abusing the use of hashtags will only make your brand sound desperate and look spammy. It’s best to limit the use of hashtags and avoid making a phrase or sentence hashtags.
If you want to use more hashtags, you can opt to put them in the comment section of your post.
The number of hashtags you use often depends on the social media platform you promote your brand. For some, 30 hashtags are allowed for an Instagram post. However, 30 seems to look spammy. Probably it’s best to limit it to 10.
ENGAGE WITH COMMENTS
Even though we become so attached to our devices, humans still want to feel a connection online. That is why if you run a business, you have to make your followers know that you are human too. Respond or interact with them.
It is always advisable to engage with your audience by liking or replying to their comments or posts.
You don’t necessarily need to respond to all of your comments, especially if it involves hundreds or thousands.
No matter how great your content may be, your business will always receive a negative comment. Ignoring these types of comments are tempting, but it is not the right way to deal with it.
Even though it may make you feel uncomfortable, responding to negative comments gracefully, will bring more positive results. People will see that you care for your customers by addressing their problems instead of ignoring them. Also, you might gain a loyal customer if you help people with their concerns.
SEPARATE BUSINESS FROM PERSONAL ACCOUNT
It may be tempting to share with your followers what you are up to, but it’s not appropriate to mix your personal life with your business. You have to stay professional when it comes to running your business online.
You can create a personal account to share your life and what you are doing, but keep your business accounts separate from it.
Similar to not sharing personal content to your business account, avoid teasing people on your personal account about what’s new in your business.
RESPOND QUICKLY
Most social media users or people who comment expect that a business will respond to them in an hour.
You can respond quickly to your customers’ needs if you assign tasks to other of your teammates. You can also take advantage of technology to help you when someone sends you a message.
Chatbots are an excellent tool to incorporate in your social media accounts. They can temporarily handle the questions of your customers while you are away. Furthermore, they even pitch or suggest sales to customers.
Don’t leave your customers hanging for days. Respond as fast as you can to maintain a good reputation.
OTHER THAN THAT
Aside from the five vital rules mentioned above, here are some do’s and don’ts you have to consider when running a business account online.
- Always check spelling and grammar.
- Fill out every detail of your social media profile.
- Don’t rant or complain on your business accounts.
- Post informative and helpful content, do not sell.
- Always ask permission and credit the person.
CONCLUSION
With millions of active users daily, you can easily reach out to people and connect with them. If used properly, social media can be an effective tool to raise awareness about your brand. Now, you don’t have to feel overwhelmed with this marketing strategy anymore.
