With 4.7 billion active social media users spending an average of 2 hours and 28 minutes on social media each day, the potential reach is incredible. 26% of people use social media primarily to find products they wish to purchase.
So you make a high-value post, write a nice caption, add some hashtags, and hope the algorithm favors you. Most times, the results are not so great. If you want extraordinary results, you have to go beyond the basics.
In this article, we’ll be sharing 12 advanced social media promotion techniques that can boost your brand’s social media prowess.
Advanced social media promotion strategies
1. Create an advanced content strategy
A basic content strategy typically contains the content pillars and a decent content calendar. An advanced content strategy is based on a stellar brand communications plan.
Your brand values must shine through your content even subliminally. Your word choices, color psychology, content format, and aesthetics should come together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Research shows that 82% of shoppers prefer brands with values that align with their own. So being generic won’t work. You’ll need robust content pillars that go beyond your product to the issues that matter to your audience.
To figure that out, ask, ”Apart from the pain point my product addresses, what other issues does my audience care about?”
2. Invest heavily in video creation
In 2022, there was an outcry spearheaded by social media giant Kylie Jenner against Instagram’s algorithm becoming more video-centric. Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri responded that the changes had come to stay.
And for good reason. About 92% of internet users watch video content every week. Music videos were the most watched at 49.9% followed by comedy/viral videos at 35.6%. How-to’s have a 29% viewership and product review videos are doing great at 27%.
A business misses out on a large percentage of potential engagement if it’s not actively making video content. Vlogs, animations, recordings, or AI-generated videos are some video formats you can try today.
3. Adopt a unique approach to each platform
Social media platforms are different in their functionalities, cultures, and audiences. Although those overlap to an extent, they serve distinct needs.
Twitter for example is ideal for short messages, while Snapchat and Instagram are the go-to places for lifestyle content. Facebook is great for storytelling and Pinterest is best for image-heavy marketing. About 78% of TikTok users are there for the comedy.
It would be wise to learn the intricacies of each platform and adjust your content to match.
You don’t have to create brand new content for each platform, just repurpose content. For example, sharing a link to an Instagram vlog with a witty 140-character tweet.
4. Use keywords
Keywords are a big deal in blogging, they are the starting point of all SEO efforts. However, you borrow the idea to boost your social media content performance.
Take this instance, if you were trying to find someone to plan your event on IG, you would type in “event planner” + location/event type. Those are the keywords that would help you sort through the millions of event planner accounts on Instagram and bring you the best results.
Get familiar with the keywords users use to conduct searches for your niche or topics.
Include those keywords in your caption, your hashtags, text, or headlines.
5. Experiment with content style
Purposefully switch up content style from time to time to test audience response. This allows you to test strategies and even make discoveries you can share with competitors. But most importantly it helps you learn more about your audience and improve your content.
Testing content should be done strategically so it doesn’t throw your audience off balance. For example, if your content style is formal, you can introduce humorous content in your stories.
An alternative is to carry out A/B testing. Post the same content or link with different headlines, captions, or hashtags to see which attracts more interest.
6. Engage in two-way communication
Many brands forget about the “social” in social media. They just put content and wait for comments and likes to come pouring in. They usually get ignored. Your business can do things differently by actually communicating with its audience.
Actively seek opportunities to engage your audience. For example, you can comment on a heartwarming or inspiring post made by a follower.
You can answer questions people post online like “Where can I vacation cheaply” or add a witty tweet to a trending topic. It helps if you respond to mentions, questions, and requests.
Just be sure to stay true to your brand values and follow ethical engagement rules.
7. Leverage user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) provides your audience with an authentic opinion about your brand. UGC are generally positive but if you get a bad PR, it’s really just a matter of a creative spin.
About 90% of consumers agree that UGC sways their purchase decisions more than promotional emails and even search engine results. They may even trust it more than influencers.
Reposting UGC attracts engagement, especially from the original poster and their circle–one of their own has created content that is worthy of notice. It also encourages users to create content around your brand in hopes of being recognized.
The bigger your brand, the more value you can get out of UGC. As long as you give due attributions to the original creators, UGC is free content.
8. Collaborate with micro-influencers
Influencers are so powerful and a lot of their power comes from being relatable and looked up to. People will follow influencers of a product before they follow the company’s page. Especially people aged between 16 to 44.
An influencer following and liking your posts is enough to Garner some attention. Talk more if they recommend your product to their devoted audience.
Influencer marketing can be very expensive. But you don’t have to work with the priciest name on the market to get great results. You can work with micro-influencers. They are affordable, and give you more value for your money as they get 6% more engagement than key influencers.
9. Use social pixels to optimize campaigns
If you have ever visited a website or clicked on an ad, only to have the ad follow you all over the internet, then you have seen social pixels at work. Social pixels are codes that you attach to your website that allow social media platforms to track web visitors.
Social pixels help social media platforms to target people who have recently visited your website and show them your ads. It also allows you to see how many users saw your social media ad at one time or another before converting.
About 11% of all websites including those of top brands like Microsoft, Zoom, SoundCloud, and Reuters use Facebook pixels.
10. Use a social media assistant tool
Managing brand accounts across so many different social media platforms can be challenging. You’ll spend much time and effort dealing with each platform separately without any help.
Many different types of tools are designed to help you optimize your social media marketing efforts. These apps can help you schedule multiple posts at once, reply to comments and messages from one inbox and view cross-platform analytics.
Some other apps allow you to track brand mentions, trends, keywords, and emerging industry topics across the internet. Hootsuite, Buzzsumo, Keyhole, Buffer, and Sprout Social are examples of social media management tools.
11. Track your social media data
Likes, shares, and comments are a nice indicator that your social media content is doing well. However, if your ultimate goal is to sell products rather than just be liked, then you should look for advanced indicators of content success.
When you have a content piece that links to your website, you can track its performance using custom Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) codes. UTM codes allow you to track how much traffic and sales each piece of content triggers.
12. Deploy experiential marketing
Even if your business is entirely online, it’s real people that make up your customer base. And you can boost your social media likeability by connecting with people in real life through immersive experience marketing.
Experiential marketing allows members of your audience to become a part of your campaign as it unfolds in real time. Such campaigns humanize your brand and establish genuine connections with your audience.
Look at Misereor’s social swipe and Volvo’s recruiting car campaigns. Those campaigns included real people which resulted in organic social media promotion.
Experiential marketing is possible for all kinds of businesses. With creative thinking, a local campaign can go viral.
Conclusion
Advanced social media promotion techniques include leveraging influencer collaborations, UTM codes, social pixels, targeted advertising, and interactive content. They also point you towards continuous experimentation and data-backed content strategy reviews.
With these techniques, your brand can navigate the fast-paced social media sphere better and achieve promotional goals.