{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-post-js","path":"/news/11-principles-of-social-media-marketing/","result":{"pageContext":{"wordpress_id":174,"link":"https://apiold.meritmile.com/post/11-principles-of-social-media-marketing/","title":"11 Principles of Social Media Marketing","slug":"11-principles-of-social-media-marketing","status":"publish","format":"standard","date":"Thu Apr 7th 2016","modified":"Tue Jul 9th 2019","excerpt":"<p><a href=\"https://www.meritmile.com/news/value-of-social-media-marketing-in-b2b-environmemts\">Social media marketing</a> is now an integral part of marketing for a majority of companies.</p>\n","author":{"name":"Amanda Molitor"},"yoast":{"title":"11 Principles of Social Media Marketing","metadesc":"Social media marketing is now an integral part of marketing for a majority of companies. Digital marketers have realized the importance of social media and recommend its inclusion in main stream marketing strategies.","focuskw":"","linkdex":"","metakeywords":"","canonical":"","redirect":"","meta_robots_adv":"","meta_robots_nofollow":"","meta_robots_noindex":"","opengraph_title":"","opengraph_description":"","opengraph_image":{"source_url":"https://apiold.meritmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/3.jpg"},"twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":{"source_url":"https://apiold.meritmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/3.jpg"}},"content":"<p><a href=\"https://www.meritmile.com/news/value-of-social-media-marketing-in-b2b-environmemts\">Social media marketing</a> is now an integral part of marketing for a majority of companies. <a href=\"https://www.meritmile.com/news/mobile-marketing\">Digital marketers</a> have realized the importance of social media and recommend its inclusion in main stream marketing strategies. Managing <a href=\"http://www.business2community.com/social-media/basics-b2b-social-media-marketing-strategy-01497860\">social media</a>, however, is not an easy task. A well thought out tweet can make your content go viral, while a careless post can cost you significant sales.&nbsp;Presented in this article are 11 principles&nbsp;of social media marketing that must be followed to ensure success. &nbsp;</p>\n<p><strong>Aim for high quality content</strong></p>\n<p>The old adage q<em>uality trumps quantity</em>&nbsp;still holds true. A single good quality post is much, much better than a dozen low quality articles. An important factor in SERP, according to Google&#39;s algorithm, is backlinks from authority sites such as <a href=\"https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/270379\">Facebook</a> and Twitter. If you want to reach the top of the search results&nbsp;<em>organically</em>, you need to make your content&nbsp;share-worthy. People will only share the content they like, so it is important to cater to your audience. Also, quality content helps create a brand image for your business.&nbsp;</p>\n<p><strong>Engage with your audience</strong></p>\n<p>Take an active part in community discussions, as it helps create trust among your customers and builds a strong reputation. Your audience will find&nbsp;you more&nbsp;accountable, and a healthy engagement of your brand with the community reflects positively on your image.</p>\n<p>Try following other successful people , or&nbsp;influencers,&nbsp;in your niche on&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.meritmile.com/news/using-linkedin-to-promote-a-webinar\">social platforms</a>. Retweet, like and share others&#39; posts, and they&#39;ll most probably return the gesture.</p>\n<p><strong>Check your analytics</strong></p>\n<p>Analytics help you pin-point&nbsp;major points of success and failure in your strategies. The amount of likes or retweets on&nbsp;individual posts&nbsp;are an indicator of what your audience wants&nbsp;from you. Analysing traffic from different <a href=\"http://www.autoremarketing.com/featured-contributor/7-habits-highly-effective-social-media-marketers\">social media</a> channels helps you&nbsp;understand where you need more focus.&nbsp;</p>\n<p><strong>The customer is always right</strong></p>\n<p>Do not be negative when dealing with a customer online. Keep your social channels clean and positive. A rant by an angry customer in some comments section&nbsp;can cause&nbsp;potential clients to&nbsp;look for other options. Deal with such instances by providing&nbsp;helpful customer&nbsp;support. &nbsp;</p>\n<p><strong>Give something back to your loyal audience</strong></p>\n<p>You need to appreciate your loyal customer/fan base as it is partly because of them&nbsp;that your business is still running. Give away freebies, coupons, expert courses or tutorials and your customers will love you. Offer something&nbsp;of value to your followers on a regular basis,&nbsp;and watch your business grow.&nbsp;</p>\n<p><strong>Spread the good vibes through your content</strong></p>\n<p>Try to avoid negative content or marketing as much as possible.&nbsp;Do not bash your&nbsp;competitors. It will make your brand look desperate&nbsp;for attention and digital brand wars do not always end well for those who initiate them.&nbsp;</p>\n<p><strong>Create a content schedule&nbsp;</strong></p>\n<p>Plan your content delivery in advance. Use analytics to find out when&nbsp;is the best time to post an update, at what time is most of your audience online, etc. Send out 8-10 tweets throughout the day, post a Facebook&nbsp;update daily. This also helps your audience&nbsp;know when they can expect new post updates.</p>\n<p><strong>Regularly post fresh content</strong></p>\n<p>Churn out new content for&nbsp;your audience on a regular basis. Do not recycle old posts frequently, although it is allowed if you have something new to add on to them. Be consistent with your post timings. Don&#39;t spam your channels so people or people will start unfollowing you. Avoid leaving wide time gaps between posts if your brand&nbsp;isn&#39;t dead.&nbsp;</p>\n<p><strong>Stay up-to-date with the&nbsp;latest social media marketing trends</strong></p>\n<p>Social media is constantly evolving. Every year various platforms, including Google (search) announce changes to their&nbsp;algorithms and how it can affect digital marketers. Be ready to adapt to the latest trends in the industry, and use them to your advantage.</p>\n<p><strong>Channelize your efforts into fewer social media platforms</strong></p>\n<p>Unless you have a&nbsp;large marketing team capable of handling hundreds of social platforms, it is best to focus on 3-4 major channels that you think are the most relevant to your business and target audience. More is not&nbsp;necessarily better, as your investments would be scattered across several platforms, with poor ROI (return on investment).</p>\n<p><strong>Advertise your brand smartly</strong></p>\n<p>Your business cannot thrive only on organic leads. To maximize exposure of your content, or to get direct sales, you have to start spending more&nbsp;on social media advertising. Try experimenting with sponsored ads on Facebook and Twitter, and see how they fare in comparison to Google Ads.</p>\n<p>If you are looking for ways to supplement your current marketing program with some social media posts but are unsure where to start, contact a <a href=\"mailto:jsternal@meritmile.com\">Merit Mile specialist</a>.</p>\n"}},"staticQueryHashes":["63159454"]}