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Our intake of social media content daily, even hourly, makes it difficult to understand the amount of work behind the barrage of campaigns in our feed. To effectively capture an audience and motivate them through a digital campaign is a small feat businesses face constantly. Launching a viral social media campaign is rare, Brand managers, social media managers, and marketing professionals can follow these steps to implement successful social media campaigns.
1. Formulate a strategy
Once you have a social media branding strategy in place, campaigns can easily be built off of it to match your brand and meet your goals. One of the benefits of successful social media campaigns is they act as a form of communication between the brand and the person (customer) on the other end. It is vital to understand that just because you post it doesn’t mean the right person will see it. As we discuss in subsequent steps, you need to work with celebrities, influencers, and other like-minded brands to attract the right kinds of followers and attention. This stretches to choosing the right platform for the type of audience you want to reach– ie. TikTok or Instagram for Gen Z.
One tactic of a great strategy is to craft content around an event. Plan a timeline of what you can show from the event– the prep, behind-the-scenes, message, actual event, and resulting cascade of feedback from your audiences and the press. A single day event becomes a week-long social media campaign, at least.
2. Understand the platform
Beyond choosing the right platform for successful social media campaigns, you need to understand how to use it and optimize it. Know how to plan your posts to best utilize your time and focus on the reaction instead of the action. There are plenty of resources to help form data-driven campaigns. We are beyond the age of shooting in the dark and hoping for positive responses. There are ways to measure the value received by your campaign, or not, and adapt accordingly.
Manage and track campaigns by knowing how to read the statistics and convert them into your KPIs. Being able to read successful social media campaigns, you can post more of your best performing content types and acknowledge the positive response with simple posts like “Glad you all are liking it!”
3. Interact with your audience
Your participation as a brand, from a human to human approach, is crucial to impacting your audience. Successful social media campaigns are not one-way messaging systems. They are set up to start a conversation. They only way to tell if someone actually read your content is if they act on it. That could be a like, comment or share– drawing on our previous point of knowing your performance metrics and being able to track the campaign’s reach and reaction.
Your social media marketing agency or in-house team should be poised and ready to react and respond to incoming messages, be it criticism or praise. Make both types of consumers feel welcome and it could be the deciding factor for them. Leave a positive impression beyond your campaign by striving to build a relationship on the individual level.
4. Call to action
Ask them to:
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- Follow you
- Visit your site
- Make a purchase
- Share, comment, give feedback
Whatever it is, this goes back to the goal of the campaign. Be explicit. Catch their attention and give it a purpose. Why are you taking up their time? What makes your post worthwhile? If you deliver value, the audience will respond with value as well. But, if it’s unclear what you want from them, it’s unlikely you will get it.
Social media specific discounts, contests, rewards, etc. make it worth their while and they could become loyal customers and followers of your account.
5. Amplify with influencers
This will get your post seen by the right people. Choose influencers who match your industry and brand. As trusted sources in their niche, these individuals will get your content in front of the right audience and with the right voice. Their endorsement can build your credibility and following. A word of caution, you want to create a mutually beneficial relationship with influencers too. Their following is devout and both deserve to be treated with the utmost respect, otherwise, your reputation could be at stake.
6. Follow up
People who joined your mailing list, liked or commented on your campaign posts, or gave you a follow saw something they liked and want more of. Don’t let that go unnoticed. Reach out later with more value for them. Make it tailored and personalized if possible. It shows your dedication beyond the sale and even a small return in this area means big things. Those who react positively are the heart of successful social media campaigns. They are lifetime customers and brand advocates. Those are priceless. These customers can give you insight into your target market and the types of people you attract – whether it is what you expected or not. Use this information to alter future campaigns, forge stronger relationships and dominate your industry.
