Is Social Media the best way to reach your Digital Marketing Goals for 2022?
By Scott Donaldson
Author & Content Specialist
Some people think that setting up a new social media account is the silver bullet for their business or organisation, but there needs to be careful consideration given before hastily adding another channel to your marketing mix in order to achieve your digital marketing goals.
Social media is an amazing digital marketing tool. But unless it is used strategically, it can be a massive time vacuum, with a disproportionately high amount of time and resources allocated to it above other channels, for sometimes minimal results.
While your customers may think each social media post only takes five minutes to complete, by the time you research and write your posts, find relevant images or videos and then do any follow up comment moderating and answering of questions across each platform, it can take hours.
Posts need to get your key messages across to your target audience in a tone or voice they will understand, in order to achieve your business objectives and should align with your social media strategy.
With each post you should be trying to think of the best ways to maximise engagement, whether it is through using video rather than an image, stories rather than a post, the time you are posting and any relevant hashtags and tags/mentions.
Starting with a social media strategy
A good starting point is to develop a Social Media Strategy in order to form a road map of what you are trying to achieve.
According to Hootsuite: “A social media strategy is a document outlining your social media goals, the tactics you will use to achieve them and the metrics you will track to measure your progress.”
The New Zealand Institute of Education (NZIE) is offering a short-term Social Media Strategy Course in order to help your business use social media channels to create, manage, and engage strategically with potential and existing business opportunities.
In addition, you will also learn how to convert these opportunities into realised business outcomes.
How to choose the right social media platforms?
With 4.35 million social media users in New Zealand, one of the keys to reaching those desired business outcomes is which social media channel to use.
While Facebook which has traditionally been the go-to platform is still popular, it lost more than one million daily active users between Q3 and Q4 in 2021 according to the Business Insider.
Depending on your business and the audience you are trying to reach, it could be worth exploring other channels.
Each platform attracts its own demographic audience and functions in different ways. For instance, TikTok’s users are far different to what you would find on Linkedin or Twitter.
Remember, it is better to use fewer platforms well than having your business stretched across multiple platforms just in order to have a presence.
For example, if people only follow your business on Twitter, yet you haven’t had the time or resources to make an update on there, then your customers may be missing out on vital information.
Using other forms of digital marketing besides social media.
If you don’t have the time or resources to use social media to achieve your desired business outcomes or if your target audience isn’t on social media, then maybe it is worth exploring other avenues.
Traditional methods like word of mouth and newspapers can still be very cost-effective ways to reach your target audience. Especially if they are in the older demographics. To illustrate, getting a story or media release published about a retirement village. This may be better suited to a local community newspaper instead of Instagram.
However, if you want to stick with digital marketing tools then we recommend the following:
- Optimising your website with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). This makes it easier for users to find you on search engines.
- Investing in paid ads on Google
- Sending out a regular email newsletter via an email marketing system
- Looking into app and mobile marketing
These are all ways to still reach people online, without the need to set up social media accounts.
How to automate social media marketing
If you think that social media is still the go-to platform for your target audience and digital marketing goals. There are some hacks to make life easier.
If you have the budget and multiple channels, it could be worth paying to use an external tool. Such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite or Buffer. These can work perfectly as a one-stop-shop. As this is where you can create a calendar, schedule content and get analytics.
If you need help formulating a social media strategy, the NZIE Social Media Strategy Course has you covered. Tutor Stephen J Punter will run you through the seven-week online programme. Which is developed to meet the latest industry demands and help you meet your goals.
This Social Media Marketing course is an excellent starting point. Especially for those looking to develop their skills and hit their digital marketing targets. Moreover, you can have access to an experienced industry expert, who can oversee your strategy and help guide you. In addition, to showing you real-life examples of successful campaigns.
Filling in your digital marketing skill gaps
If you want to upskill further to widen your skillset or give yourself a qualification to back yourself with. Then you can find a range of courses at NZIE. From social media marketing strategy and SEO strategy to a full Digital Marketing Diploma. Our industry experts who teach the courses bring a wealth of knowledge and experience. Making sure you graduate with practical skills you can implement straight away to meet your digital marketing goals.
