Digital strategists and marketing teams dream of creating the perfect cohesive multi-channel program from the ground up. However, the reality is that we are integrating tactics into an existing communications strategy more often than not.
Here are 6 Ways to Integrate Social Media into your Existing Marketing
You can not only create popular social platforms like Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Google+ for your brand, but they can be high efficiency platforms that serve as a hub for all your social media engagement. Content flowing through all the social networks increases SEO, awareness and credibility. you can engage your audience with well thought out content and rich media to amplify your brand.
Social media platforms should not be viewed as a standalone channels, but seen as a voice that that integrates and amplifies existing marketing communication strategies.
1. Create a Twitter Channel for Customer Service
- Twitter can be more than just a channel for product promotion, brand monitoring or content marketing. Twitter can provide instant gratification for customers by responding to customer queries, feedback and concerns.
- This is popular among larger companies like Verizon, Comcast and Taco bell, but it is one that smaller businesses can easily incorporate.
2. Integrate Email and Social Media
- Remember, Email is considered social media and reaches more people than other social media platforms.
FACT “email has nearly three times as many user accounts as Facebook and Twitter combined? That’s a whopping 2.9 billion.”
- Build email templates and include social media icons that link to your business
- Convert social followers to email contacts. Email marketing platforms like MailChimp, Constant Contact and iContact offer signup forms designed for use on Facebook Pages.
3. Google+ will strengthen your SEO with Good Content & Social Media
- Sharing content on Google+ has a direct relationship to higher Google rankings, and Google’s search crawlers use Google+ as a source of fresh content.
4. Start a Blog
- A blog can position you even more as an expert.
- Blogs typically focus on niche areas of a business or specific topics of interest.
- And announce your blog by tweeting, posting and using every social network possible.
5. Follow Journalists and PR Firms Using Social Media
- PR firms and journalists look for credible sources when conducting research for articles. One place they look is social media.
- Produce content of your own that establishes your thought leadership and expertise, which you publish via social media.
6. Hashtags – Integrate Social and Traditional Marketing with Campaign Hashtags
- This is a great way to segment and target your audience. It provides a filtering mechanism through which engaged customers identify themselves based on topics of shared interest.
- For example, Wendy’s campaign to promote its new Flatbread Grilled Chicken sandwich, Wendy’s is engaging consumers with an interactive mobile and social campaign, as well as advertising on Twitter.
- Taking advantage of the “popular food spotting trend,” Wendy’s customers are encouraged to tweet a photo of the Flatbread Grilled Chicken sandwich to @Wendys with hashtag #twEATfor1K. Each day a customer tweets a picture of the sandwich with the hashtag, they are eligible to win $1,000.
7. Distribute Existing Content to Social Networks
- All the content you have on your website can be reworked into your networks. Place it on social content networks where it can be found more easily. Put PowerPoint decks on SlideShare, videos on YouTube, photos on Instagram or Flickr and blog posts on LinkedIn, Twitter, Tumblr and Google+.