How would you rate your social media marketing? Have you acquired more followers in the last year? Are your followers actively engaged with your posts, indicated by how many likes and shares you get? What about comments? Are there many?
Like any of your other marketing activities, whether direct or email marketing, a blog, a newsletter or SMS messages, if you aren’t getting the kind of response you want, it’s time to “reboot” to:
- Generate more appointments and product purchases
- Bring new followers into the fold
- Raise awareness about your value proposition and position in the marketplace
- Drive traffic to your website
Know Your Followers
Your revised social media marketing will start with getting a handle on who is following you and how active they are on your sites. There are a number of sources to use to understand your audience, most notably Google Analytics. You’ll also want to look into your email analytics and your customer service platform if you are using a customer relationship management (CRM) program to provide data on your customers and their preferences regarding treatments and products.
Revisit Your Goals
Determine exactly what your social media marketing goals are. Do you want to raise awareness about your treatment differentiation, create a community around your business, differentiate your spa or massage practice from other local providers? Whatever your goals; activity should be designed to achieve them.
Choose Your Optimal Social Media Channels
Rather than try to be active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social channels determine which ones are most effective in reaching your target audiences. Better to be active on a few, than stretch yourself thin.
Rethink Content
Look over the content you’ve been posting to see what has resonated best with followers. Some trends to keep in mind:
- Be timely: Keep followers up to date with timely information about the latest research or developments in treatments and product ingredients.
- Be personal: Take followers “behind the scenes” in your spa or massage practice. Talk about the background of your team members. If you are taking classes or attending seminars – probably online these days – share what you are learning.
- Include short videos: Social video is booming. They engage followers whether long or short.
Be Available
Don’t post and be absent. Followers may have questions and want to hear back from you. Be ready to answer any questions or concerns. This means that you want to think about best times for posting so you can be sure to be responsive. Increasingly, social media is the key channel for customers and clients to share feedback and raise issues. Among followers, 40 percent expect a brand to respond within the first hours of reaching out on social media, while 79 percent expect a response in the first 24 hours. [1]
Be Adaptable
Throughout the year, continue to assess what’s working and what isn’t relative to the channels you use and your content. Successful social media marketing is trial and error. Keep tweaking your program until you get the results you want.
It’s a new year. Make your social media marketing a priority, make the necessary changes and continue to adapt your strategy throughout the year.
[1] Barnhart Brent, “Why you need to speed up your social media response time (and how), sproutsocial, June 24, 2020. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-response-time/