The Power of Social Media Campaigns
Like many other people, my social media usage has skyrocketed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Social media campaigns are important as they can increase brand awareness, help reach current and future goals, and engage with consumers in a way that facilitates trust between a brand and its’ consumers. Building and facilitating a social media campaign can help tremendously with meeting current goals set by the company, as well as allowing a company to recognize what they’re consumers will interact with.
By utilizing multiple platforms within social media campaigns, companies can reach more consumers than if they were to only use one platform. By utilizing tools like hashtags, companies can target their campaign directly to users that have similar interests, who will be more likely to engage
Utilize Social Media Campaigns Powerfully
Social media campaigns are a form of coordinated marketing that utilizes social media to engage with their target audience to help meet a goal. Social media marketing campaigns utilize one or more platforms, like Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, to help meet that goal, and hopefully maintain current consumers while gaining new consumers. Having a set goal for social media campaigns is crucial for focusing the message of the campaign, while also targeting consumers who are most likely to engage with the campaign. Common goals of a social media marketing campaign include gaining essential feedback from consumers, generating an email list to use for future marketing campaigns, increasing website traffic, achieving an increase in sales, and increasing engagement with consumers through followers and likes
Social media campaigns can only be successful if you understand how to use social media to its maximum potential. Creating content is not enough anymore. Your content must be creative and unique to your brand and its message .
Make sure your content is consistent, while still maintaining quality. Try to post at least once a day to ensure that your consumers stay engaged with your content.
Social media influencers are people who have utilized social media to create an authentic brand and a following that trusts their opinions. By collaborating with influencers who have a similar following to your target audience, your brand can gain important exposure that will allow your social media campaigns to flourish. Reach out to influencers’ that have a message your company would love to support and collaborate with them to help your brand reach its maximum potential.
How to Create an Effective Social Media Campaign
Social media campaigns have to be well-planned to be the most effective. Simply posting about your company is not enough to create significant engagement with consumers. Instead, utilize these steps to create a social media campaign that allows consumers to engage with the content, while also helping the company meet their goal.
1. Research
Before even generating ideas about content for a social media campaign, researching is extremely vital for the success of the campaign. You can start by looking at social media campaigns done by competitors. What did they do that seems to be the most effective? How did they create engagement with their consumers in a meaningful way?
Also, research social media strategies by experts and learn ways to utilize algorithms to the best of your ability. By understanding effective strategies for engagement, a company is better equipped to understand how social media campaigns can have a tremendous impact on their brand and consumers.
2. Brainstorm
Now that you understand effective strategies for engagement, utilize them to create a social media campaign that is unique and creative. Focus on the goal the campaign is trying to meet and create an ad campaign that is unique to your brand’s message. Consumers will see if there is a disconnect between a brand and its campaign, so make sure that the campaign is authentic and innovative.
For example, if a cat food company wants user feedback on how effective their in-store advertisements are, they might utilize social media campaigns to drive traffic to a survey that when finished gives them a coupon to use. This would help the brand engage with its target audience by giving them something they would want in exchange for what the company wants, feedback.
3. Utilize Tools
There are a plethora of tools available to help a company create an effective social media campaign. The tools used for social media campaigns depend on which platforms the company uses, but some are universal.
Hashtags are one of the most important tools that every company must use to create an effective campaign because they allow your post to reach the target audience of the post and allow users to find your posts based on their interests.
Tracking metrics is another essential part of a social media campaign as it allows the company to see exactly what parts of the campaign are the most effective and which need more work.
Some platforms have their metric system that allows the user to see the interactions their posts are obtaining, but there are also some third-party companies, like Hootsuite, Social Bankers, and Whatagraph, that can help companies track and understand their social media metrics.
The final step to creating a successful social media campaign is promoting the content and engaging with consumers. No matter how creative and unique a campaign is, if no consumers see it, the campaign is useless. Use tools like Facebook Ads or Instagram’s promote feature to ensure that users will see your posts. Make sure to engage with those who follow your social media. Liking and replying to comments is a great way to build an authentic relationship with consumers and make sure that they will continue following your brand.
4. Promote and Engage
The final step to creating a successful social media campaign is promoting the content and engaging with consumers. No matter how creative and unique a campaign is, if no consumers see it, the campaign is useless. Use tools like Facebook Ads or Instagram’s promote feature to ensure that users will see your posts. Make sure to engage with those who follow your social media. Liking and replying to comments is a great way to build an authentic relationship with consumers and make sure that they will continue following your brand.
Successful Social Media Campaign Examples
Apple – “Shot on iPhone”
The powerhouse technology brand, Apple, kicked off 2019 with creating the social media campaign “Shot on iPhone” to promote the camera feature of their product, the iPhone, by having users submit their favorite images that they have taken with their iPhones.
Users submitted their images with the hashtag #ShotOniPhone and a panel of judges selected 10 winners to have their images featured on billboards in various cities. The hashtag currently has over 16.8 million posts on Instagram.
Spotify Wrapped
As an annual event, the music streaming platform Spotify allows its users to view their analytics for their most listened to songs, artists, albums, and podcasts from the year. Screenshots of users’ Spotify wrapped are always plastered over various social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter as people share what music they listened to over the past year. By allowing users to view their data once a year, Spotify has created a sense of anticipation all year which then creates a burst of social media posts highlighting the app.
Dove – #ShowUs
Dove is known for its personal care products for men, women, and babies and also its Real Beauty campaign that the brand started in 2004. The campaign aims to build self-confidence in women utilizes a multitude of media platforms and advertisements to achieve this.
The company then brought the campaign to social media with the creating of the #ShowUs campaign in 2019. Aiming to “a collection of 10,000+ images that offer a more inclusive vision of beauty for all media & advertisers to use,” the campaign has received high praise within various communities.
Social media is an extremely powerful tool that when taken advantage of can create great success for any company or brand. By creating unique, authentic, and consistent content of quality and maintaining engagement, any company or brand can use social media to its full potential.
Social media campaigns are a fantastic way to fulfill company goals and gain a meaningful following that can help boost your business.