The official name for Twitter’s automated ads program is Twitter Promote Mode. Here’s how it works: For a flat monthly fee of $99, Twitter will automatically promote your tweets according to your preferred targeting (interests or locations). This program is great for people who want to promote their brand or products on Twitter and want to save time and hassle from running Twitter ads manually.

According to Twitter, “accounts with up to 2,000 followers will see the most value”,and Twitter is working on higher price plans for accounts with larger following.

Here are more details on how the Twitter Promote Mode works, according to Twitter:
1. All you have to do is tweet as per usual.

2. Each day, Twitter will select up to your first 10 tweets that meet its quality requirement and promote them to your selected audience.

3. Retweets, Quote Tweets, or replies will not be promoted.

4. The ad creation is automated. You don’t have to create the ads yourself but you don’t get to choose the tweets to promote, too.

5. You can still run Twitter ad campaigns alongside your Promote Mode subscription.

6. On average, accounts will reach 30,000 additional people and gain 30 followers each month. (But performance may vary.)

Simplicity is the greatest benefit of Promote Mode. Traditionally, brands have promoted their individual tweets by selecting a specific audience through complex location, user behavior and demographic targeting, then paying for each unique campaign. Promote Mode simplifies this process by automating the promotion of your tweets and allowing a straightforward, flat fee. It’s a great way to save the time and hassle of manually boosting your tweets. But how effective is it? The audience boost Twitter gives each tweet is generally dependent on that tweet’s initial organic reach and engagement. In other words, if you’ve posted a good tweet that people are engaging with, it has a greater chance of being shown to more users. Overall, these are exciting results, especially for the $99 price tag. Plus, Twitter Promote Mode saved us roughly 10 hours of time running individual Twitter Ads campaigns.

Promote Mode is mobile-first. It can be accessed on the mobile Twitter app by sliding open the menu drawer and tapping the “Promote Mode” icon. From there, you’ll see a dashboard with the metrics you care about the most: how many additional people your Tweets reached, how many followers you’ve gained, and how many people have visited your profile that month. Performance will vary based on factors including account type, your targeting selection, and the type and frequency of your Tweets. Small businesses and individuals using Promote Mode can expect to gain followers and reach a broader audience each month, as long as they are actively Tweeting. The most successful people will keep Promote Mode toggled on while they focus on creating their best Tweets. But if they need to take a break, they can toggle Promote Mode off and pause all promotions. This doesn’t pause their subscription or billing.

How well businesses perform using Promote Mode will be influenced on various factors, such as their target market selection and the frequency and content of their tweets

There are these people on Facebook who have always gotten several dozen or even several hundred likes within 30 minutes of posting. But some people does not. And yes, it has been hurtful in a way for them. Seeing their posts lingering on their timeline with just a handful of likes was painful, at least for some. It made them feel unworthy, as if no one liked them. It created a feeling that no one cared about what they had to say, or even about them in general. Even worse, it made them believe that they think the things they’ve shared are just dumb. they literally felt like a no one. Do you know what that felt like? Surely some of you do. And that’s okay. Why?

1. We are our own critics. Why is it this way? Why do you feel so bad about yourself and doubt your worth when you don’t get a certain number of likes? Unfortunately, the answer is this: You determine your self-worth, the way you feel and perceive yourself, based upon on how worthy others find you. The more likes you get, the better you feel about yourself. It is as simple as that. If and when you don’t get many (or God forbid, any) likes, it devastates you. you are embarrassed. you tell yourself, “Damn, I shouldn’t have posted this one.” you regret sharing what you did, even though you shared it because you liked it, but no one else did, apparently.

2. As much as you hate to admit it, you have always cared about what other people think of you. you crave approval and you are highly motivated by rewards. At you very core, you are a people pleaser. you truly enjoy making people happy and you want people to like you. For many of the people this sounds like normal behavior. Most of the people care about how they are perceived. But what if this isn’t the best way to go about your life? What if people’s reliance on external sources of approval and happiness is interfering with our innate desires? Perhaps the secret to true happiness lies in your ability to stop worrying about what other people think and start living by your own rules instead.

3. In order to develop your own internal compass you needed to get in touch with what you truly wanted out of life. you need to be confident in your decisions and act according to your own beliefs without being clouded by the expectations of those around you. This all sounds great in theory, but how do you actually go about this? The solution is to change your source of motivation. Psychological research differentiates between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is closely aligned with your identity. When acting under intrinsic motivation, you are motivated to do something because you find it satisfying, not because you find the perceived results satisfying. Extrinsic motivation on the other hand, is more reactionary. When you are extrinsically motivated, you do things based on situations and other people. In these cases, you feel pressured to act according social norms instead of aligning with your true interests. The people pleasers of the world fall into the latter category.

More than that, learn how to fall in love with yourself, so you can stop being concerned with how many likes we get.

Content and social media marketing is undoubtedly a remarkable idea for reaching maximum audiences and creating customer foundation. Yet creating social media content without having basic knowledge is somehow challenging as well as risky. Getting to know the base is important for establishing a sound structure. These laws are going to serve from enhancing the quality till increasing the quantity of your entries. This will not only serve brand and customers but also cater your ground needs.

1. Focus on Value.

There is a common misconception that businesses should only promote their products and services on social media. The problem with employing this promotional strategy is that eventually people will stop listening. Social media is all about the conversations, and to be successful, you must add value to them. Focus on creating amazing content that will connect and resonate with your target audience.

2. The Law of Relationships.

The most basic element of social media should be obvious from its name. What’s the atom, the most essential thing of which social media is made? Social relationships. In any decision you make, your first consideration should be: How will this affect my relationships? Will it strengthen the ones I already have? Build more of them? All the other laws of social media marketing are related to this first law.

3. The Law of Listening.

It’s a common misconception that social media marketing needs to be all talk to be effective – that you need to post more, be present in all social channels,and make “noise”. The truth is, successful social media marketing requires you to listen more and talk less.

4. The Law of Quality.

Take the time to build quality relationships with your followers. Ten thousand, or even fewer, followers who are truly interested in your brand and your message are more important that 100,000 followers who connect on a whim but who have little-to-no interest or commitment to your company. Build a solid core of devoted followers, and give them what they need to grow their numbers organically.

5. The law of sitting with patience.

Marketing is not a nightly miracle to boost you in no time. You need to be patient and tolerant. Social media and content marketing demand time in creating worth don’t lose your patience in a week or so. Remember in this competitive world, time investment is imminent.

6. Be patient.

Social media success will not happen overnight. To achieve real results, it will require dedication, consistency and patience.

7. The Law of Compounding.

You know that investing money over time leads to compound interest. You can make interest on the money you made as interest. Because social media marketing can increase its reach through social sharing, a similar phenomenon exists. Think of it as social compounding. You make good content and share it with your network. Then someone shares it with theirs, and then it turn it gets shared again because of that sharing. When it works, it really, really works.

8. The Law of Accessibility.

Social media’s greatest advantage is its interactivity. Don’t be a one-way street, just publishing content to your audience. Be available to them, respond to them, and interact with them.

9. The Law of Influencers.

The growth of social media has led to the rise of a new class of brand ambassador, the social media influencer. Influencers generally have large, dedicated groups of followers who serve as a ready-made audience for the product or service the influencer has decided to support. Take the time to discover the largest influencers in your business sector, and work to build a relationship with those influencers.

10. The law of acknowledging everyone.

Social media demands you to build strong relationships. Make sure when someone reaches you out personally you must acknowledge them. Consider that the most important one because they have reached out for you personally. Give this personalize contact, a valued regard.

Keep these laws in mind and never forget what social media’s purpose is all about: connecting people and building social relationships.

A small business owner’s work is never done, is it? That goes triple for your online marketing. Since the interwebs is always growing and changing, your online marketing should too. Every business today, even for those who don’t conduct business online, needs to have strong online visibility. Having this increases accessibility to your business and supports brand awareness, audience building, and additional marketing efforts.

Online visibility can be defined as the positioning or ranking of your website in organic search results. Or, in other words, how easy it is for consumers to find your business and your products or services online. Without strong online visibility, your business could be losing out on a ton of potential revenue. The following are 6 ways your business can improve online reach and visibility:

1. Collecting leads.

Before starting building things on the web or your website start collecting leads. This will make your visibility unique. You can do this by Aweber. This is a tool which builds your email list. You can manage your e-marketing by yourself without any charges or payments charges. You have a variety of options there with attractive templates and HTML widgets.

2. Claim your Google My Business.

If you have a physical business location, first you need to claim your Google My Business listing. This will make it easier for customers in the area to find you when they search. For instance, if a customer searches for “Italian restaurants near me,” on Google, the search engine will provide Google My Business listings for local Italian restaurants. By claiming your business listing and making sure your contact and location information are correct, you are making it easier for customers to find you on search engines.

3. Blog.

Your blog is the most essential marketing tool for a small business and the hub of your inbound marketing strategy. Your blog is where you can showcase your expertise and provide value to your target audience. The more content you provide that helps your target audience, the more visible your web presence will become. Did you know that every blog post is a unique web page? With every new page added to your website (your blog is part of your website right?), you increase your digital footprint and have one more opportunity to rank for a particular keyword phrase. Ideally you should strive to blog as often as you can, but even one blog post a month will increase online visibility and advance your website in the search engine results.

4. Tune-up your website copy.

You have just a few seconds to capture the attention of visitors to your website. They will quickly scan the page, and if they can’t locate what they are looking for, they move on just as quickly as they arrived. Due to the short attention span of most online users, every word on your website matters. To make it easy for visitors, incorporate attention-grabbing headings and break up text with bulleted lists. The copy on your pages should appeal to the wants and needs of your target audience, while making it easy for them to find answers they need.

5. Make it hot.

Do your research, and find out which keywords for your market are “hot” and frequently used on search engines. Websites like Wordtracker.com allow you to see the amount of times a keyword has been searched in the last 24 hours. Once you’ve figured out what those “hot” keywords are, incorporate them into your posts.

6. Visual storytelling on slideshare.

Brand yourself by creating a visually-appealing story on SlideShare. Serve up eye-catching imagery, creative copy and an intriguing presentation to captivate your audience.  Doing things and telling people about you inspires visitors to know, like and trust your personal brand. Tell stories that only you can tell. Brand advocates come to bat for the person who shares their authentic story through creative channels, such as SlideShare. Stories will always be popular if the story teller entertains, educates and inspires. Above all, SlideShare is a great medium for all the introverts out there or immigrants, whose first language is not English. Play with images and words, experiment, have fun. No excuses. On a side note, if you are struggling to get the confidence in public speaking or you are terrified speaking in front of a camera or a large audience, read this on Medium.

Small businesses often fall into the trap of updating social media pages sporadically. Try to make consistent social media engagement a priority, whether you interact online weekly or twice a month. Social search is gaining traction, and these social media engagements could really boost your visibility in 2018.

If you agree that the world is more connected than it was a few decades ago. Then bet you would win tons of money with your million dollar answer, the world is virtually connected on social networks. Strangely, though, the discovery has been gathering dust for a few years now; that businesses almost forgot the relevance of inhabiting social media sites. The discussion still rages on, however, on the significance of social media sites. Plainly, some entrepreneurs have been fortunate enough with social media while others can’t seem to get it right. Of course, you and I know that mounting a social media onslaught is not rocket science. But how comes the statistics don’t favor the larger population?  Let’s explore the top reasons why is social media important for business.

1. Affordable way to market your business.

When it comes to monetary investment for a business, social media is the most affordable way to generate quick revenue. They will give you a highly economical way to reach out the target consumers and increase brand awareness. So, any business tying its belts for marketing, social media is an affordable yet powerful option to thrive on. With a little budget, you cannot only build brand recognition but can enjoy the lucrative benefits in terms of: increased traffic, leads and ROI.

2. Allows you to go where the people are.

The three top social networks, Facebook, Youtube and Instagram, have over 3 billion monthly active users combined. That’s almost half of the entire earth’s population! Of course, your audience isn’t that large. But chances are that most of your audience is active on one or more of the major social networks. What’s the best way to get your business on people’s radars? Go where the people are and develop a presence and that place is social media!

3. Social media marketing helps to validate your brand.

A company’s social media presence, when done correctly, tells consumers that their brand is active and focused on thriving communication with consumers. 63% of consumers who search for businesses online are more likely to use ones with an informative social media presence.

4. Increased Brand Recognition.

Every opportunity you have to syndicate your content and increase your visibility is valuable. Your social media networks are just new channels for your brand’s voice and content. This is important because it simultaneously makes you easier and more accessible for new customers, and makes you more familiar and recognizable for existing customers. For example, a frequent Twitter user could hear about your company for the first time only after stumbling upon it in a newsfeed. Or, an otherwise apathetic customer might become better acquainted with your brand after seeing your presence on multiple networks.

5. Creating a loyal following.

Social media isn’t yet viewed as a marketing tool to most people. Your audience is more likely to be receptive to hearing about your business because they don’t view your post as an ad. People like being able to connect with others and by showing off your personality, you are putting a face to your brand.

Simply put, social media marketing is part of doing business in the new millennium. If your business isn’t already active on social networking sites, now is the time to start.

Many business owners feel like online marketing is rocket science. They pay money they don’t always have to make the challenge of finding customers someone else’s problem. But what about those businesses that can’t afford to hire a marketing consultant? Don’t they deserve to find ways to reach new customers? You don’t need a consultant to do your marketing for you, if you’ve got time to invest and the inclination to learn. Here are the ways to take your marketing campaign into your own hands.

1. Your website should be the primary target new or existing customers, but you can also measure total visits to any location relevant to your campaigns, such as landing pages or social channels. Measuring your total number of visits will give you a “big picture” idea of how well your campaign is driving traffic.

2. Build your buyer personas.

For any marketing strategy, offline or online, you need to know who you’re marketing to. The best digital marketing strategies are built upon detailed buyer personas, and your first step is to create them. Buyer personas represent your ideal customers and can be created by researching, surveying, and interviewing your business’s target audience. It’s important to note that this information should be based upon real data wherever possible, as making assumptions about your audience can cause your marketing strategy to take the wrong direction. To get a rounded picture of your persona, your research pool should include a mixture of customers, prospects, and people outside your contacts database who align with your target audience. But what kind of information should you gather for your own buyer personas to inform your digital marketing strategy? That depends on your businesses, and is likely to vary depending on whether your product is high cost or low cost.

3. Get involved in social media.

Social media isn’t a mystic language; it’s just networking. If you’ve ever attended a networking event, you can handle social media. Don’t let jargon like “retweets” and “likes” scare you off. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Ask questions. Engage. Don’t push your sales agenda. Secret Tip: Use a social media dashboard like HootSuite or SproutSocial to schedule updates to all your social platforms. You’ll save a ton of time and make it look like you’re constantly on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

4. Whether it’s email subscribers, eBook downloads, or a pure lead generation conversion, every campaign has a goal.

Once we understand how many people have visited our page in question we need to determine what percentage of them actually did what we wanted them to do in the first place. If your goal is a white paper download, and you had 1,000 visitors to the page,  and 100 of those did what you wanted them to (download a eBook, fill out a form, etc) then your conversion rate for that goal would be 10%.

Your strategy document will be very individual to your business, which is why it’s almost impossible for us to create a one-size-fits-all digital marketing strategy template. Remember, the purpose of your strategy document is to map out the actions you’re going to take to achieve your goal over a period of time, as long as it communicates that, then you’ve nailed the basics of creating a digital strategy.

Social media is a key method for encouraging brand engagement, and in an increasingly dense online world, innovative and inventive means are required to generate that engagement. So whether you’re looking to increase brand awareness, build a customer database, or collect rich content, social media contests can be an effective way of achieving your marketing objectives. Here are 12 tips on running a successful social media contest:

1. Appeal to prospective customers, not just entrants.

The first step in creating a profitable social media contest campaign is designing one that’s attractive to your target market. Add labels to your contest copy to address your target audience. Tie your promotion to an event relevant to your target market. Choose prizes of value to your target market.

2. Start with the end in mind.

Before jumping into a social media contest, there are several important questions to ask: What are your marketing objectives? What is your budget? Where are you on the consumer engagement pyramid?

3. Review the terms of service.

Periodically the rules and regulations about contests and other promotions changes. Be sure to check the guidelines page before you launch your contest.

4. Define your goals. What do you want to gain from this contest?

It’s easy to determine what other people will want to win, but the real point of holding a contest is to gain something. Do you want more followers? To grow your email list? To gain more analytics resources to pitch to companies you want to partner with? Pick one or two goals and then build the design of the contest around achieving them. If you fail to do this, it’ll be impossible to determine the true value for your brand of holding a contest, which will reduce the potential benefit in the long run.

5. Considerations for hosting a contest.

When a company wants to host a successful contest, there are several things to consider. Almost all modern businesses can benefit from a well-designed contest, so we encourage everyone to take advantage of this free marketing move with proper preparation and strategy.

6. Set a clear goal for the contest.

Companies don’t run giveaways for no reason. There has to be a return on the investment (product or service being given away) for it to make business sense. The first step to hosting a successful contest is to identify the end goal and what the best avenue is for accomplishing that. The goal for many businesses is new followers, more email subscribers, or increased activity on social media sites. Entrepreneurs should also target specific platforms. To get your business noticed on a platform, consider creating a contest geared to those users.

7. Complying with the rules of the platforms.

Where do you want your contest to take place? Each platform has its own set of guidelines regarding contests and promotions. Familiarize yourself with them before making any major plans. One contest isn’t worth getting banned from the network altogether.

8. Choose what type of contest you want to have.

Sweepstakes contests are the easiest to enter, with the lowest barrier of entry. Photo or video contests with fan votes get the most engagement. Caption contests or quiz contests are other options. Winners can be randomly selected, picked by you or a panel of judges you select, or voted on by other readers.

9. Understand your audience.

Your target demographic and their social media behaviour will somewhat dictate their level of activity and engagement, so be sure to understand your audience in order to get the best results.

10. Offer an incentive for social sharing.

A great way to spread the reach of your contest and increase your social media following is through incentivized sharing and liking. The process is simple: give contest entrants an increased chance of winning in return for a share of the contest, a tweet, or a like of your social media page.

11. Consumer engagement model for promotions.

As you move up the pyramid, you’ll see a decrease in the number of participants but a deeper level of engagement and richer content. It’s also important to remember that the number of entries is not a sole benchmark of your promotion’s success. If you run a promotion with public voting, you’re likely to see at least 10 times the number of voters as entrants.

12. Set a S.M.A.R.T. goal.

A S.M.A.R.T. goal is one that’s specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Make sure you clearly define your contest’s goals before you start planning. Do you want to promote a new product? Grow your email list? Perhaps you’re looking to gather a bunch of user-generated content such as photos and videos.

Organizing a successful social media contest involves far more planning than many people realize when they initially decide to undertake such a task. In order to create an event that adds value for your existing audience, brings new people in, and increases your reputation, you’ll need to carefully consider each aspect of the process. Make it a fun, engaging, community building event, with an added bonus of possibly winning an awesome prize at the end, and everyone will walk away a winner.

In an attempt to boost its social media presence as part of a cross-channel campaign. If you are seeking increased engagement, likes, shares, and followers from your social media content, ask yourself what kind of content gives you the most value. By value we mean a return on investment (ROI). In other words, you want to invest in content that will provide a return on the money you spend. Otherwise, there’s little point in investing in social media content or management. Here are the different social media content types to choose from to delight your audience and bring the most value to your business.

1. Interactive content.

People often forget, but social media is two-way form of communication. We have the ability to interact with our followers in several different ways. What’s even more impressive is that within this interaction with our followers, we can gain valuable insight that can help us learn and improve for the future. You can have polls and quizzes as part of it.

2. User generated content.

UGC, also known as User-Generated Content, is a brilliant way to increase engagement and reach. It can also be the source of a warm-welcoming feeling for new and existing followers. Through user-generated content, they’ll see that you care about your audience and engage with them by sharing their created content.

3. Share Videos To Take Your Part Of The 100+ Million Hours Watched On Social Media Every Day.

Facebook users alone watch 100 million hours of video every single day. And 82% of Twitter users watch video on that network. It’s safe to say that sharing videos will help you engage your fans and followers.

4. Visual media.

People engage with visual content better than non-visual content. Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images. Likewise, Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images. It is evident that images receive more likes, shares and comments. You can incorporate images into your social media content calendar. Ensure your images are relevant to your post and always use high-quality images, whether using stock images or your own images. Whether using humorous memes, educational infographics, quirky illustrations, or simply photographs, get creative and experiment with what works best to reflect your brand values and resonate with your audience.

5. Questions are also good.

How do you start conversations in real life? Generally by asking questions. The same works on social media. Keep it business related for the most part, but include some topical questions too.

6. Educational content.

A study by BuzzSumo and OkDork discovered that long-form content gets more social shares than short-form. They found that educational content, especially infographics, receive a lot of shares, along with how-to and list-type posts. The New York Times also found that readers were more likely to email longer articles than shorter ones. Types of content you can use include free resources, video training, infographics, FAQs, industry research, case studies, tips and tricks, and how-to posts.

7. Incentive content.

Who doesn’t like free stuff? Incentives are a great way to drive engagement when done right. By offering an incentive in exchange for more engagement, you may not see sales right away, but it is a long-term play. A long-term play where you can get more followers and viewers, which you can sell to later. It also gives the participants a chance to become a true fan of your brand. Some people have great content, but they struggle to distribute. Incentives are a great way to fix this issue and get your content across more eyes. You can use giveaways and contests to go with this one.

8. Podcasts.

Podcasts have been around for a very long time, but recently they’ve gained momentum. Some say they are the new radio (since they are on-demand). Due to how popular they are, and the benefits of doing them, you should focus on marketing your podcast to get more listeners.
9. Tag Your Guest Bloggers Or People You’ve Quoted In Your Social Messages. It’s human nature to want to be recognized for doing something amazing. So tag the peeps you want to recognize in the social messages you write.

10. Datejacking.

Datejacking is a new concept developed by Bowler Hat. Inspired by newsjacking, in which you inject your brand into the day’s news and jump on the popularity of current stories, Datejacking involves creating content that taps into the interest of a given date.
These types of posts will generally help you increase your engagement, no matter how much your spend or don’t spend on advertising on social media. Have you tried any? What works for you?

The wonderful world of Twitter has unlocked business opportunities for almost every type of user – from emerging artists, celebrities, big brands, news sources, and (most importantly for you) B2B marketers. With the mission to give users the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, this social media platform allows B2B marketers to better connect, converse and engage their audiences. Twitter offers B2B marketers the chance to attract prospects, interact and engage with clients, increase brand awareness, better understand their audience and much more. But, what’s the “much more”?

1. Twitter chats.

Networking and speaking with other people from within your respective industry is key for growing your online presence. Twitter chats give you the ability to speak with peers, customers, and thought leaders in an organized way.

2. Share control

One way to ensure a steady flow of messages from your company Twitter account is to employ not one, but multiple users to represent the brand. Doing so extends the amount of content and conversations from one person’s view, to multiple people’s views and ideas. In addition, having multiple people messaging on Twitter will insure an ongoing, steady stream of tweets  in the event a team member transitions to a different role/company.

3. Position your company as a thought leader.

If you have any employees who are considered industry experts, give them some Twitter love when they speak at conferences, publish an article or blog post, or get recognized for an award. Tweet links to current news in your industry. This shows you stay up-to-date and know what’s going on outside your own four walls. Tweet content that makes you look smart and well-connected.

4. Identify and engage influencers.

There are many ways that B2B marketers can use Twitter to find influencers and start interacting with them to establish valuable relationships. Twitter Search has really stepped up its game when it comes to filtering and being able to sort through more than 300 million users. There are also third party tools that you can use to find influences in your industry. Once these influencers are identified, follow them and start getting noticed by liking their tweets and replying to them on a regular basis.

5. Understand your audience.

After identifying your target audience, it’s time to start interacting with them. However to ensure that your efforts are fostering engagement, it’s important you truly understand your audience and create a plan that is focused on content that they want to see.

6. Timing is everything.

Understand the specific days and times your company’s messages are more likely to be read and shared.  If, for instance, analytics indicates that your community tends to retweet and share content more frequently early in the day, or early in the week, time your most compelling content to hit the stream during those times.

All work and no play makes your Twitter feed a dull read. Don’t be afraid to have a little fun. Try a weekly impossible quiz, a photo bomb, employee-of-the-week photo, customer-of-the-week, a weekly poll, fill-in-the-blank, etc. The possibilities are endless. The key is to be consistent. If you start doing a customer-of-the-week recognition tweet, you have to commit to doing it every week. Get creative!

Just a few years ago, you could get away with building a social media marketing strategy on the fly. As long as you were present, you were doing more than your competitors–right? Well it’s 2018 and not much of the same logic applies today. Brands must be fully invested in their social media marketing strategies and focus on engagement. Otherwise, you’ll lose out on real customers, which means serious effects on your bottom line. This is not here to scare your brand into the world of social media. Instead, this is to provide your marketing team with the right steps to take toward a successful social strategy so your brand isn’t left in the dust. Here are the some steps to create a winning social media marketing strategy in 2018:

1. Social Media Monitoring and Listening.

Social listening enables social media specialists to track and review the social buzz around your brand, industry or competition. By listening in, you can look for trends in moods and behaviors while also looking for opportunities to promote your product.

2. Identify Business Goals.

Every piece of your social media strategy serves the goals you set. You simply can’t move forward without knowing what you’re working toward. Look closely at your company’s overall needs and decide how you want to use social media to contribute to reaching them. You’ll undoubtedly come up with several personalized goals, but there are a few that all companies should include in their strategy increasing brand awareness, retaining customers and reducing marketing costs are relevant to everyone.

3. Create Social Media Marketing Goals That Solve Your Biggest Challenges.

Understand what you want out of your efforts. Social media marketing isn’t about flipping a switch and calling it a day. Instead, social media planning should be looked at like cooking your favorite dish. Once you have your ingredients, you follow a recipe and presto! But that’s not always the case. What if you have guests and need to feed more people? What if someone is allergic to one of the ingredients? Suddenly, your goal goes from making a meal to ensuring it will feed enough people and be edible by all.

4. Analytics and Reporting.

Your social media tool should enable you to export reports on the data that has been collected. Look for quick reporting and analytics to share with your team or clients. Use reporting to make intelligent, informed decisions about your social media strategy.

5. Assign roles.

Knowing who’s responsible for what increases productivity and avoids confusion and overlapping efforts. Things may be a bit messy in the beginning, but with time team members will know their roles and what daily tasks they’re responsible for. When everyone knows his or her role, it’s time to start planning the execution process. You can either plan daily or weekly. I don’t advise putting a monthly plan together because lots of things will come up and you may end up wasting time adapting to the new changes. You can use tools like Basecamp or ActiveCollab to manage your team and assign tasks to each member. These tools save you tons of time and help you stay organized.

If you work at building lasting relationships, there’s a lot less room for failure with your social media marketing strategy.