Who doesn’t want to sell more? Neither you nor I, I guess. One simple way to sell more is simply to sell to more people, and where else can you find more people in one place than on social media? And how do you hope to sell to so many social media users in 2019 without a solid social media marketing strategy?

Reports say there are currently over 3 billion active social media users and counting, 80 million Facebook Business Pages and 6 million businesses actively advertising on Facebook alone, among other noteworthy social media marketing stats.

With Instagram’s newly added checkout feature, even more businesses are likely to open Instagram Business accounts so users can more easily click and “buy” onsite without leaving Instagram.

Social networks are competing hard among themselves to attract more users; businesses and people, many of whom can’t wait to turn 18 so they can also legally join social networks.

Even most people with relationship goals have some form of social media strategy that helps them attract the kind of mates or dates they desire using social media. So, how about you, have you any social media marketing strategy in place for your small business?

Perhaps you don’t. Don’t be rushed into trying random, uncoordinated social media marketing moves. In this post I’ll be sharing 5 core components of an effective social media marketing strategy. This will help you design and develop the right social marketing strategy for your business, but first

What is Social Media Marketing?

Broadly speaking, social media marketing involves every activity businesses carry out on social networks with the ultimate aim of making profit, one way or another.

The following chart shows us how social media marketing has trended in US in the last 12 months.

Google Trends of Social Media Marketing in US (Last 12 Months)

​From the chart, we notice there’s been a resurgence in interest in social media marketing in US within the past one year. This means now is a good time to start developing one.

But just before that, let’s see the relationship between

The Trade by Barter Principle and Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

The barter system involves direct exchange of goods or services between Party A and Party B without the actual use of cash or money. At the heart of barter is exchange of equivalent value.

In this scenario, assuming your business is Party A and your target market is Party B, what value can you offer B to cause B to give you their time, attention and money?

Bear this in mind as we proceed to see the

5 Core Components of an Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy

1. Your Customers Connections

Each person on social media is connected to at least one person who might turn out to be not just a friend, but also their primary or micro influencer. That person whose word of mouth testimony about you or your brand can sway their friend(s) your way.

So while you focus on knowing your customer and developing your typical buyer persona (like every other marketer), also device ways of knowing your customer’s connections, and extending your marketing dragnet to them. This method can work wonders for your small business, freelance business, etc.

Some social media users may be away from social media occasionally and may miss important ads or updates from your business, but if their connections see, view or interact with such information, they or Facebook (for instance) may notify them on return.

2. Your Business Profile/Page

Your business profile or page is one of the first places prospects visit to learn more about you and what you do on social media. They also go there to verify if you’re real or another scam waiting to happen.

By default, people tend to trust businesses with well written content and fully completed profile information on their site or page. Go over your content, borrow eyes if you have to, and ensure that typos are identified and removed. Makes you look more professional.

Similarly, you can also hire the services of expert copywriters to help craft the perfect copy for your social media pages and content. This way, you have all loose ends covered plus the right calls to actions at the right places.

3. Your Competitor’s Competitors

Yes, you read that right; your competitor’s competitor. Not only should you keep an eye on the social media marketing strategy of the business next door (online), you should also keep an eye on the business next door to the business next to your door.

If you learn from whom your biggest competitor is learning from you might get two steps ahead of your immediate competitors. The goal is not to copy-paste; a lot can go wrong with that, the aim is to learn what works so you can modify and apply as per your unique needs and circumstances.

Some say your enemy’s enemy is your friend. Here your competitor’s competitor can be your instructor and friend too.

4. Platform

This is also very important. An effective social media strategy should vary from platform to platform because no two platforms are exactly the same, so using the same strategy for all your social networks may not cut it.

You don’t want to be marketing on Facebook and your followers are like “…man, that shouda been on LinkedIn!” Taking the extra time and effort to customize your approach per platform will eventually reflect in the quality and quantity of followership you get.

To excel here, you have to understand the inner workings, core similarities and differences among major social networks where you intend to market on, also user behavior, terms and violations, etc.

5. Technology (Tools)

Using the right tools will make you more effective at social media marketing. This will reduce errors plus make you more time efficient. With a few tweaks and customizations, you can schedule and simultaneously publish to all your social networks with one click.

Social media marketing automation tools make this possible and achievable, so you can have more time to focus on other more core areas of your business.

There are free tools and paid tools with varying levels of sophistication and simplification. Choose which ones to use. Some good examples are:

• Hootsuite
• Buffer
• Brand24
• Social Oomph
• Socedo
• Agora Pulse
• Social Flow
• BuzzSumo
• Mention
• Social Pilot, etc