How to Get the Most for Your Social Media Marketing Dollars?

Social media is one of the most cost-effective platforms for marketing. You can spend dollars per day to develop your brand image and spread brand awareness. If you’re smart about your spending, you can optimize your social media marketing campaign to generate plenty of leads and turn followers into customers. These are a few tips to help you spend your social media budget wisely in order to get the most value for your money.

Don’t Target Everyone

All social networks offer sophisticated advertising tools. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram all offer you the ability to market your posts to certain groups of people. While it may seem more effective to target your ads to as many people as possible, this isn’t always the best option. Be sure to refer to your market research to determine who exactly belongs to your target audience. If you haven’t conducted market research yet, have a look at blogs that are similar to yours and learn more about their readers. This should give you a good idea of how to begin defining your target audience.

Find out how old they are, where they live and the types of social media profiles that they follow. By narrowing down your targeting, your posts will reach the users who are most likely to be interested in your content and will share your posts with their contacts. Some of the criteria you can use to effectively target your ads include:

• Age
• Location
• Magazines and blogs they read
• Celebrities they follow
• Interests and hobbies

Don’t Spread Yourself too Thin

This is another tip that stresses the point that more isn’t necessarily better. While it is important to have a social media presence across a wide range of networks, you should decide which one’s are the most valuable to your brand before spending money on ads.

Pay attention to the key demographics of different social networks. For example, Pinterest is most popular among women while Snapchat is the preferred social network among people under the age of 25. Facebook and Twitter are most popular among 18 to 29-year-olds while LinkedIn appeals to the same demographic but is populated by professionals and the majority of users have an income of over $50,000.

Schedule Your Posts to Reach Your Audience at Optimal Times

You can ensure that your posts reach a wider audience by scheduling them to go live at optimal times. You can even time your page boosts to coincide with these time frames:

• Facebook: The best times of day to post are in the morning and late afternoon, and you’ll see higher engagement on Thursday through Sunday.
• Twitter: Aim to post your updates during common break times, such as noon and mid-afternoon and early evening. Midweek is the best time for engagement.
• Pinterest: Pinterest is most active during weekends, and the best time for engagement is late at night.
• LinkedIn: Pay attention to the average office worker’s schedule when posting to LinkedIn, as engagement is highest before 9 a.m., around noon and after 5 p.m.
• Instagram: Users are most likely to engage in the mid-morning and in the mid-afternoon. It is also popular among users after midnight.

More: How to Find the Time for Social Media Marketing

Remember use to social media management tools like Hootsuite to schedule your posts to go live at these times. You can expect to see a spike in engagement if you stick to these timelines, as social media users are proven to be most active on certain days and at specific times.

Post Good Contents on Blog and Website

There’s no point in spending time and money on social media marketing if you don’t have great content available on your website. You can have a wide-reaching social media presence, but you won’t experience conversions unless you provide visitors with valuable information. Therefore, it is important that your blog and your website feature content that not only spreads the word about your brand but also establishes you as an authority and useful resource.

You can do this by offering up a wide range of content that serves to educate your audience rather than selling to them. These are just a few of the kinds of content that you can post on your blog and social media profiles that will engage visitors. This type of valuable content is also more likely to be shared by your followers, further spread the word about your brand.

• Posting news updates shows that you are staying current with the latest developments industry, and it can help to establish your brand as an authority.
• Infographics educate your audience with vibrant visuals, and they are highly shareable. Even if you’re not a graphic designer, you can still create engaging infographics. There are plenty of online tools that can help you put your content into an interesting visual format.
• Lists are almost as popular as infographics, as readers can consume them quickly. Be detailed when compiling your lists so that visitors will want to read on.
• Posting reviews of products, books, and services that have helped your brand thrive is a great way to share useful information with your social media followers and blog readers. It shows that you have done your research to get you where you are and what you really know your stuff.
• When you put together an in-depth guide, you’re not only providing your followers with useful advice; you’re also creating a piece of content you can continue to refer to in the future.
• Guest posts allow you to populate your website and keep an active social media presence even when you don’t have the time. Another benefit of guest posting is that the blogger will also promote their work on the blog, so you’ll be able to reach out to a whole new audience on social media.

More: 5 Content Marketing Tips to Boost Your Business Reach

Ensure that you include various types of content so as to appeal to different readers. There are many online tools available to help you create infographics and other forms of visual content that are highly shareable, so don’t be afraid to experiment and step outside of your comfort zone!

When you’re smart about targeting and create top-quality content, you can expect your social media marketing campaign to generate plenty of leads. Your budget can go a long way on social networking sites, and help attract some very valuable customers.

How do you allocate your social media marketing budget? Share your tips and leave us a comment below!