A great social media strategy begins with tracking your competitors’ social media activity. Publish your blog posts, images, and videos on a variety of social networks, and then watch your business grow! You can also use a tool such as Sendible to measure engagement and provide reports to your clients to see how effective your marketing strategy is. By following these simple tips, you can maximize your social media presence and improve your ROI. The following are three essential components of a social media strategy:

Analytics. Social media platforms and management tools allow you to track key performance metrics. For example, you can measure organic social engagement and assign a monetary value to it. This measure, called earned media value, estimates how much organic social engagement would cost in paid ads. Earned media value (EMV), on the other hand, is a valuable measure of the engagement you generate through your social media presence. In addition to generating traffic, social media engagement builds brand loyalty and trust among your prospective customers. A recent study showed that people are almost three times more likely to trust recommendations from friends and family than they do from ads.

Consistent engagement is essential. Social media is becoming a vital part of business marketing, but it doesn’t need to be a headache. By creating a social media profile and engaging with your customers, you will increase your business’s conversion rate. Conversely, if you neglect to post consistently, you’ll lose potential customers. If you don’t engage in conversations and build a relationship with your customers, you will likely remain a shadow of your competition.

Training your staff is essential. Social media training will help your staff understand how to communicate professionally with the public, while protecting the brand image. It will also help your staff build a rapport with potential customers by providing thought leadership pieces and social proofing. By listening to what people are saying about your business, you’ll gain insight into where you need to improve. And once they get to know you, they’ll be more likely to trust you.

Developing a social media strategy requires the proper understanding of the various types of social networks, and the terms and features they use. You must also familiarize yourself with the most popular networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. You must also learn how to make use of hashtags, which are popular terms and tags that link to content. For example, you can hashtag keywords to identify products and services, or locations. When you create a social media marketing strategy, make sure to create an effective profile that reflects the brand identity of your business.

While social media platforms are similar, they are different. Depending on your audience, they each have their unique features. Creating a social media strategy based on a good understanding of the algorithm for each platform will help you optimize your profiles and marketing efforts. By leveraging different marketing tools, you can increase your visibility and boost your conversion rates. Incorporate these strategies into your business strategy to maximize your ROI. Your brand will be in the spotlight as your business grows and thrives.