Digital Media

Digital media is an ever-growing source of entertainment, news, updates, shopping and social interaction. Now, customers are more than ever influenced by not only your ads but what the media, friends, and peers are saying about your company and brand. Now consumers have access to information through digital media on the go, anywhere and anytime. Digital media is a strong marketing tool and your customers will know not only what you tell them about your products but more importantly the comments which anyone can post.

Importance

Today, it is more important than ever before, to offer best products and services to your customers so they have nothing but a pleasant experience to share. Customers today also dictate what quality, price and time they need and you must cater to their customized needs and preferences to stay on top of your business and competition. Whether you’re launching a new product or location or bringing in new business clients, social media campaigns work wonderfully with pivotal moments in a company’s life. Anytime you need to generate goals or generate buzz, social media is the foundation of your success in today’s world.

Freelancing

The trend of entrepreneurship and business has risen more than ever today. We have seen an increased growth in freelancers today. Every third person we meet these days is into one business or another. Due to my work, I was fortunate enough to participate in National Freelancers Convention and Herself Women’s Convention this year which took place in Lahore. I got to converse with a number of entrepreneurs/freelancers who are really successful today.

Social media

Social media has given a whole new perspective to advertising. It has a fantastic reach and costs nothing compared to traditional forms of marketing. Now we can reach thousands of interested audience at the click of a button, without investing a single penny. We don’t even need to get professional training for this. We can do so by just a little common sense and looking out for current trends.

Purpose of this post

Through this series of blog posts, I wish to educate beginners on the basics of Digital Marketing.

My Background

I completed my Masters in Business Administration, Majors in Marketing in 2007. I am currently working as Marketing Manager in an IT company BroadPeak Technologies, Lahore. I have experience in Sales & Marketing of over 10 years now from London, Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Apart from work, I am also a lifestyle blogger and share my thoughts on different aspects of life on my blog ‘A Little Bit of Everything’. Through this post, I would like to encourage young entrepreneurs to make full use of Social Media Marketing to promote their business.

Business Strategies

You must know the answer to the following before you start:

Company name and purpose
Attractive logo, catchy slogan (consider hiring a professional for this)
Who is your target audience?
What social media platforms will you be using?
Business profiles or personal profiles

1. Content Management

Before you start, you must have at least 10 posts content ready. Have a 80/20 content rule. 80% work related, 20% casual (personal, weather etc) posts. Whatever you post must offer value to others, attractive, different, videos, text, colors, paint, doodle. Share different types of content to engage attention. Following are some ideas on what content to share on your social media pages:

1. Profiles/About

The first and the most important thing you need to sort out is to have a perfect profile or about section. Make sure you cover all aspects of your business in the shortest form. Make sure you re-read it a number of times to make sure there are no errors. A single typo can put your company reputation at stake. Check out competitors About sections and make sure yours competes and is attractive for your audience.

2. Links

Social media in most cases is promoting your website, page or blog. Make sure you have quality content there or the whole social media campaign is pointless. Your audience must have something worth visiting.

- Website (You can create your own on WordPress and buy domain)
- Blogs
- Articles

3. Images

All images used on social media esp Instagram and Facebook must be attractive quality images. Thoughtless, blurry posts can ruin brand reputation forever. Include colorful photos on your social media to attract audience.

- Company
- Product
- Services
- Collages
- Pictures from events (Tag employees)
- Screenshots
- Graphic image of Testimonials from Employees
- Graphic image Testimonials from Clients

4. Text

- Quotations (business/company related)
- Technology updates
- General knowledge information. Facts & figures
- News update
- Ask questions/Enticing conversation to engage comments
- Try to keep text short. Use bullet points instead of paragraphs

5. Videos

They have the best reach out of all content.

- Focus on short 1 minute videos
- Brain storm about Time lapse short videos related to your business as they’re catchy
- Introductory 2 minute company video (slides, images, videos and music)
- Short Boomerang interesting videos
- Videos with writing/doodling and emoticons as in Snapchat/Insta-stories
- Sharing informative and entertaining videos.

6. Create Events

- Promote upcoming events
- Invite employees/guests on the event

7. Hashtags

- Hashtag is a single efficient way to increase your audience
- It basically links categories to make search easier
- Pair your hashtags with images
- Group your hashtags at the end
- Use trending hashtags that compliment your content
- Run hashtag connected campaign/contest
- Explore hashtags related to you first (on Google) and use multiple hashtags
- Do not use incorrect hashtags, abuse them, or use only hashtags in captions

8. Audio content

- Audio news
- Related podcasts
- An update in your business

9. SnapChat/Insta Stories

Today, this is one of the most popular social media platform. It basically is an overview of what your typical day looks like. These stories vanish within 24 hours. I used to use Snapchat but recently moved to Insta-stories. This is a great way to promote your business by showing behind the scenes and show teasers of your upcoming posts. I think it is very engaging for audience.

10. Tagging/Check-ins

Tagging and check ins increase the reach of your posts esp on Facebook
Tag only people and places that are related to your post
Add the person to be able to tag him/her

2. Content Frequency

At least 2 posts every week. Consider 1 post every day but bear in mind the challenge of new interesting post every single day. Ideal times to post are early morning, late evening, Fridays and Mondays.

3. Engage with Influencers

- Actively communicate with audience
- Comment on related forums
- Reply to all messages in time
- Follow your competitors. Study their campaigns. Follow their followers