4 Ways to Enhance Your Social Media Marketing

With over 200 million active users, the social media landscape continues to evolve at a swift pace. In just the last year, we’ve all watched how video marketing has boomed and how everyone felt the urge to get on board with it. According to Bloomberg Technology, Snapchat users watch over 10 billion videos in a day. While social media is in full on “change mode” marketers who don’t respond to these changes risk lagging far behind. To keep you staying one step ahead of your customers, here are 4 ways that can enhance your social media marketing, not only in 2016 but well into the future as well.

Customer service

Running a successful business is more than increasing the monthly sales turnover. You have to retain your loyal customers through impeccable customer support. Using social media to solve the problems of your customers is always a great idea.

While most marketers use social media to attract new customers, smart business owners use it to bond with their existing customers.

In the traditional form of customer service, shoppers's face common problems such as: • The average waiting period for resolving an issue is a minimum of 24 hours via email • Not being able to reach a customer service rep via phone or being put on hold for hours only to have the problem not resolved However, social media oftentimes allows companies to answer and resolve issues in real time.

Here’s how Jetblue handled a customer query on Twitter.

One of the main reasons it will spark a new life to your online marketing is the conversation you have with your customers is transparent. It gives customers and potential customers an idea on how you handle customer queries.

In a time where customer service is sorely lacking, if you can answer a customer query instantly, it will leave a lasting good impression.

Visual Elements

If you want to get the attention of users, you must show them instead of telling them. Posts and articles that have pictures are getting more attention and engagement than the ones without it. According to Inc, posts that include images, such as Facebook or Twitter, produce 650% higher engagement than text-only posts.

Brands such as Urban Outfitters do a great job of breaking up posts with a bit of high quality imagery. In regards to Twitter, it makes their feed much easier to read and visually appealing.

It’s been psychologically proven that humans respond favourably to visual content which is why the opportunity it provides for businesses is massive. The rise of Pinterest and Instagram is proof that images play a pivotal role in communicating online.

Brands that manage to excel in visual media will find themselves on the top of their market. Again, Urban Outfitters does an amazing job of producing amazing images that their audience really connect with.

Moreover, search engines are ranking content based on at least some social conversations and shares. So use visual content on social media to get a good ranking for your website and to encourage customer interaction and engagement.

Utilizing Influencers

You must know that in this day and age consumers are done looking for answers about a product from companies; the trust just isn’t there.

Consumers on social media spend more time looking for how-to's, comments and reviews from other users. There are endless options for blocking ads that it’s no wonder pop-ups aren’t working as often anymore.

However, no one blocks influencers because trust has already been established. According to ION, 81% of marketers who have used influencer marketing judged it to be very effective.

With influencer marketing, you’re not paying to get increased visibility for your brand via various mediums. Through influencers, potential customers come to trust you because the people they know, follow, and love are endorsing your brand.

Getting Mobile Friendly

“Billions of times per day, consumers turn to Google for I want-to-know, I want-to-go, I want-to-do, and I want-to-buy moments. And at these times, consumers are increasingly picking up their smartphones for answers. In fact, more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan.” – Google According to Hosting facts • The U.S. e-commerce economy is worth $349 billion while China’s e-commerce economy is worth $562.66 billion • Worldwide B2C e-commerce sales reached $1.7 trillion in 2015, and it is estimated to reach $2.35 trillion by 2018. • E-commerce sales from social media grew by 202% in 2014 and is expected to increase further • B2C mobile commerce sales in the U.S. is valued at an estimated $83.93 billion • Slow loading websites cost the U.S. e-commerce market more than $500 billion annually The amount of buyers making a purchase on their smartphones and tablets is not slowing down. More than 70% of the shoppers visit a website and access social media sites via their smartphone. So marketers must optimize their social media for mobile.

Marketers must customize their posts in such a way that it would be suitable for smartphone users to interact, instead of just scrolling down their news feed. The content you post must be appealing even on mobile feeds.

It’s become quite common to see social media integrated onto eCommerce sites. Take for example the way Aritzia scatters Instagram photos from their customers on their homepage. They do an excellent job of making sure these images look great on their customers mobile devices.

Wrapping up

Social media plays a crucial role in your customers path to purchase. In order to stay relevant you need to make social media a big part of your marketing strategy.

Author Bio: Susan Smith is a writer at iDigic who mostly handles content related to social media marketing and using the social media platform to leverage brand awareness.