Inbound Marketing is a strategy based on content production. However, simply by posting blogs, infographics, and videos on our company website, we won’t have millions of visits in one day. We need diffusion, take advantage of the digital niches where our target audience is located. Shall we tell you a secret? A good Marketing strategy in social networks is the key to reach and attract Buyer Personas. That is why a fundamental pillar of the Inbound method is social media marketing .

It is well known that social networks currently play a decisive role in the purchase decision process. We can explain this phenomenon in 4 essential points:

✔ They allow you to meet consumers, conquer them, talk with them

✔ They reinforce the visibility of the content published on the Blog

✔ It is the best receptacle for complaints and suggestions, which drives us to improve

✔ And finally, but more importantly, they consolidate the reputation of our brand

An interesting fact: Peru is the country with the greatest reach in terms of social networks, it is nine points above the rest of the countries in Latin America, with 93.2%. This was recently reported by a Comscore study.

Do you need more reasons to convince yourself? So let’s move on to the important thing.

How do we create an effective social media marketing strategy?

To create a successful social media strategy, we just need to follow the 12 best social media marketing practices step by step. For the purposes of a better reading, we are going to divide the content into three fundamental pillars.

✔ Monitoring

✔ Publication

✔ Social Media Marketing Report

Monitoring: The First Step in Creating Your Social Media Strategy

Step 1: Determine objectives of the social media marketing strategy

The first step to achieve success in any social media strategy is to set goals. Set SMART goals. Do they sound familiar to you? We are going to refresh our memory a bit:

• S : Specific: What do you want to achieve?
• M : Measurable: What KPI can I study to demonstrate my performance?
• A : Attainable (achievable): Do we have the resources to do it?
• A : Relevant (relevant): Are we interested as a company? Does the customer care?
• T: Timely (on time): In what period should that goal be achieved?

Step 2: Define sources that bring us closer to Buyer Personas

Both to identify trends and to study the competition, our social media strategy needs sources. This is the best way to recognize the information your target audience needs.

Before planning social media marketing, it is necessary that we look for all possible references, as long as they appear under the same search terms as us. For example: if our company is dedicated to selling bicycles, we should focus on the best pages that offer content about bicycles.

Step 3: Segment the audience, focus on the audience that needs our content

The worst mistake we could make when creating a social media marketing strategy is not segmenting our audience. We will never get to Macchu Picchu if we take a plane to Piura. And this is exactly the same. We have to know our audience and classify it according to:

• ✔ Geographic location: Where does your audience live? What language do you use? What is your culture like?
• ✔ Age : Are they young? They are adults? Are they elderly?
• ✔ Useful content: What interests you? What do you like to read? What type of content do you prefer?

From there we can locate groups or discussion lines where our content will be valued to the maximum. So we don’t waste time and resources on uninterested people.

Step 4: Give personalized responses to followers

The secret of social media marketing is talking. Consumers love to feel that they have been taken into account, that their questions are answered directly, that they are called by name. Automatic or generalized responses cause disinterest, apathy, and demotivation.

So the key to connecting with the target audience is meeting their information needs . Going back to the bike shop example: Imagine that a user named Guillermo responds to one of your posts with the following question: How do I adjust the rear derailleur on my bike? And further down another follower named Javier comments: “I need advice to repair my derailleur.” What should we do?

✘ We respond to both of them the same: “Hello! We can help you with your problem. Visit our website bicyclespower.com and we will gladly assist you ”

✔ We answer them separately, helping them solve their problems. “Hi Guillermo. Normally with the lever we select the smallest sprocket, we gently turn the pedals forward so that the chain goes to the selected position. But to make it clearer, visit this article where we describe the whole process step by step. Let us know if it works for you. Good luck”.

Post: Increase your reach by marketing on social media

Step 5: Optimize the profile 

Creating the digital identity of our company is the most important step to generate trust in consumers, a good image and engagement with the brand. To achieve this, it is necessary that the profiles of our social networks have the company logo, a clear and concise description, and a link to our website.

Step 6: Create a Style Guide for social media marketing

For us, having a Style Guide solves many problems. Just to mention a few:

• ✔ Uniqueness of voices: No matter who publishes, the brand voice is maintained
• ✔ It is the cornerstone of all social media strategy
• ✔ Help new workers adapt quickly to the brand identity

The points that every Style Guide should have are the following:

• ✔ Active accounts
• ✔ Objectives of the social media strategy
• ✔ Target audience
• ✔ Brand voice
• ✔ Hashtags: How many should each post include?
• ✔ Emojis that can be used (if applicable)
• ✔ Rules for the use of links
• ✔ Frequency
• ✔ Hours
• ✔ Types of content by social network

Step 7: Customize publications according to each social network

Another fairly common mistake made by brands is publishing the same type of content and information on all of their social networks. That is the road to outright failure. Let’s remember this: each social network has its personality. We have to adapt to this or we will not arouse interest from consumers.

In fact, it’s a good time to consider what networks your audience is really on. We should not invest time or effort in those channels that are not regularly visited by our Buyer people.

Once we have in mind which social networks deserve to be included in the strategy, we must consider the following points:

Facebook : The number one network in Peru. It is frequented by the public of adult age, but there are also a significant number of young people. It has a newspaper format (first text, then image). It is designed to upload videos, photos, links. Its main objective is to entertain.

Instagram : A network that has gained a lot of popularity in the last year. It is visited mostly by young people. Its format greatly favors photographic aestheticism. So it is ideal to display and convey feelings, ideas or opinions through images, leaving the text in the background. Its main objective is to exhibit.

Linkedin: It is frequented by young people and professional adults. Its format favors long content and users are constantly searching for information. It is the perfect space for networking, because it is focused on labor merits and promoting union debates. Its main objective is to inform.

Twitter: The mass consumption network. Insatiable, immediate and precise. On Twitter everything is published instantly, with few words but powerful message. It is a niche that gathers a volatile audience and that always exposes the novelty. It differs from all the previous ones because the daily content production is five or even ten times higher. Its primary objective is to promote debate.

Knowing these characteristics, we can assess where our audience is. What kind of social network would suit the bike shop? Probably Facebook and Instagram. So, if we want to exhibit a bicycle model, on Facebook we upload a funny image that allows us to develop the novelty with some content and redirect to the blog. While on Instagram we focus on capturing a photograph that awakens the desire to travel on two wheels.

Step 8: Share Industry Relevant Content

This point is very, very important. Every year more companies invest efforts in strengthening their social media strategy . So there is fierce competition to lead the digital market. Almost everything has already been said, which sometimes makes it difficult to produce original content.

For this reason, a priority for the marketing area is to publish fresh, useful and first-hand information. Not only to attract users, but to interest other industry leaders and be considered experts in the area.

Step 9: Post consistently

No more no less. Lots of social media strategies die from lack of consistency. The best cure for this disease is to create a posting schedule each month. This is the key to constantly gaining followers.

Let’s imagine social networks as the showcases of our company: if we let them fill with dust and we do not renew the sample book, customers will stop being interested in our products.

Social Media Marketing Report

Step 10: Establish Benchmark

Social media marketing is a measurable and verifiable performance technique. In the first step of our social media strategy, we define SMART goals. Among them were the indicators or KPIs that should be considered.

On that basis we will work, generating weekly, monthly and annual reports that must be constantly compared with previous periods to analyze the progress of the area. This is the most effective method to detect deficiencies and optimize content.

Step 11: Calculate ROI

Although it is near the bottom of the list, it is probably the most important step. Calculating Return on Investment will determine if our social media marketing strategy was effective or a failure.

In addition to this, there are other important indicators that we must take into account:

✔ If we want to attract more visitors, let’s ask: How many people see my content?

✔ To increase visits, let’s ask: How many times is my content shared?

✔ If we are interested in increasing the conversion rate, let’s ask: How much does social networks contribute to the generation of sales opportunities?

Step 12: Check back frequently

And finally, we have to constantly review our performance. A good start is to measure results week by week, so that we can define in detail what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong.

Summarizing…

In Inbound Marketing, any social media strategy must be aimed at spreading useful content for Buyer Personas. And success will depend on setting clear goals, identifying your target audience, knowing where to find it, and publishing quality, novel content.

Likewise, social media marketing is the ideal technique to build customer loyalty. To quote Hubspot: “If your buyers become evangelists for your brand, they become a top seller, costing you nothing per month.”