Demand Generation Blog

Social media marketing continues to evolve as preferences and algorithms change and shape our approach to reaching our audience.  Storytelling posts communicated through the means of microblogs and videos have started to dominate social media platforms.  Paid advertising and engaging with customers have become necessary ingredients to an effective social media marketing plan.  Trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t through experimentation and A/B testing can be exhausting and at times ineffective.  If your reach has begun to dwindle or you’re just getting started, take the following suggestions into consideration:

Continuing to enhance your skills is more important than ever for marketers as technology has expanded the knowledge base required to stay up to date with the latest techniques. Having at the very least a working comprehension of popular strategies and platforms will allow you to implement successful campaigns and choose the best agency to outsource your marketing efforts. Online marketing courses have become big business over the last few years, but thankfully there are some great free courses still available.

There have been a lot of changes to social media algorithms over the past several weeks leaving many marketers scrambling to adjust their strategy. Many of the changes have made it more difficult for marketers to reach their target audience, with an eye towards producing more paid advertising dollars. Thankfully, there is still a place for high quality content; you just need to know where and how to distribute it. Organic social media marketing can still be successful as long as you focus on educating and entertaining your audience, build real connections and ramp up distribution.

Social media algorithms have made it more difficult to lean on organic means alone. While organic messaging is still effective, in order to drill down to your target audience, your strategy should be supplemented with paid ads. There are several different types of LinkedIn ads. From sponsored content to sponsored InMail, there are a myriad of choices to reach your target audience. Regardless of which path, or paths, you choose, there are some key ingredients to every successful LinkedIn ad.

Rather than simply trying to build a following, build relationships. In many cases social media can depersonalize a conversation and it can be difficult to create a true connection. Getting stuck in a loop of connecting and pitching the same copy/paste excerpt from your sales library simply doesn’t work. Building trust and communicating the reliability of your solution is something that can take time, but the people you reach could become customers, brand evangelists and even partners. Developing real connections through social media requires being your true self and having something valuable to offer.