At Hit Creative, we consider ourselves one of the leading social media marketing agencies in London. However, some would question why they would you need a social media media marketing agency at all. Anyone can post an update on Facebook, Instagram or Tik Tok, but in terms of marketing yourself effectively, there’s a lot more to it than that.
Read on as we explain why every business should engage the services of a social media marketing agency in London, just like Hit Creative.
Social Media Marketing for London Businesses
Social media marketing is the most powerful, cost-efficient way for any business of any size to reach its existing audience, to develop a new audience and to drive sales and enquiries. Customers interact with brands on social media everyday in their thousands, and great marketing on social media has been proven to bring with it remarkable success and opportunities to businesses, driving leads and sales.
Social media marketing involves setting goals, and then creating and sharing content on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter, so as to meet those goals. We’re talking videos, blog posts and images, all created with the purpose of driving engagement. There is then the option to create a budget in order to pay to increase the number of people who see your post.
In this blog, we lay out the basics for the approach and methodology that we, as a social media marketing agency in London, work on each day. With these handy tips, you can start to develop your own social media marketing plan – or at least improve your own social presence.
The Working Practices of a Social Media Marketing Agency in London
1. The Plan
First thing’s first, we must think about your business’s goals and then create a social media strategy that meets these goals. Without a plan or a target, your social media activities will be without any real purpose and you won’t be able to measure the level of success against any barometer. Think about the following questions:
What do you want from social media? (Followers, increased website traffic, sales, brand awareness)
Who is your target audience?
What is your message, how do you want to be portrayed?
2. Content
Once you have a clear set of achievable targets, you’re ready to start getting your message out there. Creating great content that has measurable results is challenging, but can be achieved
with the right approach. Spend time researching what similar or more successful brands in the same industry are doing. Make sure everything you post adds value to someone’s day in some way. It could be from anything as simple as raising a smile to imparting some valuable knowledge. Never post something you consider could be perceived as boring or pointless. The worst thing you can do. It’s better not to post at all than to post something of no value. People like videos, images, sometimes infographics and links to blogs (hopefully on your own website). These will always remain the top posts. There is now live videos too, but these only really serve a purpose if what you’re steaming is exciting or interesting, and also once you’ve built up a decent following.
3. Consistency
Make certain that your brand message is consistent, and that the quality and tone of voice is similarly so. Your social media platforms will quickly become your brand identity, so the output needs to be of the highest quality at all times. There’s no room for errors, for poor spelling or for a dramatic shift in tone of voice. It just doesn’t work.
4. Analytics
The great thing about social media is that it offers simple to understand analytics detailing every aspect of your social media activity. You can understand what’s working and what to address. Learn about your engagement levels and compare those with the averages across your industry (if you can find them, if not then you’ll be needing a social media marketing agency in London). You can also keep track on your followers and where they are coming from. Make sure they’re from locations that actually mean something for your business.
5. Communication
One of the core appeals of brands on social media from a customer perspective is the opportunity they have to actually communicate directly with the brand. How you deal with these communications dictates your success and your brand’s reputation. Depending on how big you are, it may not always be possible to directly respond to each and every comment or message, but you should certainly aim to achieve that. If you’re not engaging with your customers or followers, there’s not much point in them following you. In addition, if your responses are lacking in sincerity or copy and pasted from one comment to the other, it doesn’t go unnoticed. There are examples of great social media management – management with personality, unique professionalism, humour and, dare we say it – banter, and there are also examples of top brands or businesses that simply don’t get it. They go completely wrong with robotic responses, or worse – no responses. Don’t be the latter.
6. Paid Ads
Facebook, despite continual changes to their algorithms, is the place to advertise. But only if you’ve got content worth advertising. For example, if you have a competition or a video you’re particularly proud of, why not pay a nominal amount to get it seen by thousands rather than hundreds? There’s still no other marketing avenue that offers value on the scale of Facebook. The more you pay, the more audience you get. But it’s cheap, it’s measurable, and if the content is right, it garners incredible results. LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram charge a lot more to promote posts, but this avenue should be explored if the post in question is suited for the audience that uses one of those particular platforms (generally, think: LinkedIn for business knowledge or employment opportunities; Instagram for make-up or dogs; and Twitter for political or news content).
7. Don’t Forget YouTube
Behind Google, YouTube has become the world’s second most powerful search engine. And it IS a search engine. Over 1 billion hours of video is watched everyday on YouTube. It’s well worth the time and effort to get good video content and upload it. Because remember, it’s always going to be there. With good optimisation, your video can maintain a position at the top when people search for specific related terms. And also, the same video you’ve spent hours filming and editing can also be shared on all the other platforms too!
As you can see, there is a lot to think about when it comes to social media strategy. There are those who simply don’t have the time or knowledge to dedicate the required resources into social media. And it’s only worth doing if it’s done properly. A half-hearted attempt will likely do more damage than good. In many cases, the best option is to seek out a top social media marketing agency in London to take care of this crucial component of modern, forward-thinking and relevant brand and businesses. And that’s what we’re here for.