Social media outreach can be an overlooked factor in digital marketing. Many people think that marketing is simply creating and executing eye-catching content to the mass media. However, there is actually a lot of behind the scenes action that goes into successful campaigns especially in social media.
A vital part of that is social media outreach.
Social media outreach is the practice of building relationships with people who have a powerful platform. Some examples are influencers, bloggers, and publishers. Once you establish a strong network with these individuals, your company exposure will continuously and organically grow.
Historically, companies have mainly focused on broadcasting (TV ads, billboards, and newspapers) rather than media outreach because a decade ago their options in gaining prospective clients and customers were very limited due to social media not being a part of our daily lives as much.
Ultimately, marketing was more of a gamble. Companies hoped that widespread exposure would develop leads and demand, but that practice has become outdated.
Now that technology has evolved, social media marketing has become essential in helping small businesses grow. It also plays a big part in the continuous success of major companies. Marketers are utilizing outreach in social media platforms to build brand awareness, B2B partnerships, and ultimately increase their SEO.
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What role does outreach play in social media marketing and what are its benefits?
You learn more about your target audience
One of the reasons why traditional mass marketing is not a very effective tactic for brand exposure is because they lack a target audience. Not everyone will have a demand for what your business sells, so why waste money and resources on advertising that’s ineffective? Social media outreach provides valuable information on who would be most likely to have an interest in your business.
People will recognize the value in your content and message
When your business is being promoted by influencers, bloggers, and individuals that already have an extensive audience, your exposure grow and platform will grow. Your social media page might have eye-catching content with a powerful and authentic message, but what good does it do if your social media outreach isn’t strong? Remember that your audience is actually where your social media power comes from.
Establish a position of power in your industry
Because your network and audience contribute to your social media power, consistently growing your relationship with them can build a position of power in your industry, especially amongst your competitors. When more people become aware of your business and the value it brings, you will start to stand out.
Build a stronger SEO presence
Finally, it’s no secret that when your content is liked and shared, ultimately producing high engagement rates, traffic for your social media page and/or primary website will increase. Thus, contributing to the growth of your search engine presence. It’s always important to remember that SEO plays a major role in social media marketing and the bigger presence you have, the more brand awareness.
The next time your business is planning out a new marketing campaign or content, think about how you can utilize social media outreach in order to increase the potential of being exposed to billions of social media users.
How to be effective with outreach in social media marketing
Social media outreach agencies, such as SEO Design Chicago, consider a lot of factors when it comes to determining the success of your social media marketing. Even though outreach largely contributes to your success in marketing on social media, it’s important to be strategic when trying to build your relationship with others. A common mistake that marketers make is spamming their audience or potential partners with direct messages, asking them to promote their content and this a huge no-no. Here are a few non-intrusive tips on how to effectively use social media outreach:
Have a clear goal on what you want to achieve
Think about what objective you’re trying to achieve before you organize and execute a social media outreach plan.
Are you trying to increase your followers, gain more website traffic, or increase engagement rates on your content? Once your goal becomes clear, you can then move forward with the logistics of creating a prospect list. Having a set objective will also help in deciding what specific audience you want to target.
Build and create genuine relationships
Having well-established relationships with a network of people that can help you in the future shouldn’t be news to a business owner. The same concept should apply to your social media marketing as well.
Social media outreach includes investing in connections with possible influencers, bloggers, or publishers and showing how you can become a valuable asset to their platform.
Once you build those relationships to a certain level of trust, you can then proceed in asking them to promote your content. Although, if your relationships are well-maintained, most of the time you won’t even have to ask. You’ll see your content being shared organically.
Find and create a list of prospects
When using Instagram or Twitter to find potential influencers and others to partner with, you need to do your research on who would be interested in working with your company. This task can be very time consuming without having the right resources at hand. Thankfully there are a few sites that can help:
Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo is an extremely helpful tool that crowdsources keywords and individuals online, such as influencers and bloggers, to help you find the people who would be interested in promoting your content. Depending on the platform you’re trying to increase engagement on.
Another great aspect of Buzzsumo is that it gives you important data and analytics such as follower count and re-tweet ratio. An important thing to remember is to look beyond follower count. The amount of followers is essentially useless without a high engagement rate.
Google Alerts
Another way to keep track of what’s happening online in your industry is Google Alerts. What’s great about this tool is it sends you email notifications about articles, blog posts, scientific research, and web pages. All in real time, too. This way it’s easier to stay up to date on what’s trending in your industry.
SEO Design Chicago
SEO Design Chicago is a digital advertising agency that also specializes in social media outreach. Our experts will look for and research your target audience, create strategies, regularly update your content, and continuously monitor your social media to ensure that your online presence is in tip top shape.
Make sure your profile is ready to be viewed by prospects
After you’ve found and created a list of strong prospects, it’s important to make sure your social media pages are set up. The content needs to be prime for good first impressions. Chances are your prospects will want to look through your social media to see what your business is about and if you’re legit.
This is where content creation finally comes into play. Despite the constant preaching about the importance of outreach, choosing the right social media content is just as, if not more, important.
A few things to consider when making sure your profile is outreach-ready are:
Have An Attractive Profile Picture
A profile picture is the first thing your prospects will see, starting right from the direct message you send them. If your profile picture has good graphics and looks professional, your prospects will most likely be initially interested in checking out your page.
Have A Descriptive Bio
Another important thing for good first impressions is having a bio that describes who you are and what you do. This gives your prospects a good idea on what your brand or company entails.
Include Contact Information
Giving visitors the accessibility to your contact info shows that your business is easy to reach out to. That will help your prospects and others outside of your network feel comfortable in contacting you.
Add A Link to Your Site
This one’s a no brainer. If you want to give your prospects more information on your company, adding a link to your website greatly helps. Don’t forget that this can also benefit your SEO.
Add your own little flair
When you’re building your brand’s presence on social media, your goal is to connect with your audience as a human, not a business. Adding personality to your profile, especially posts, can go a long way in attracting your prospects.
Engage with your prospects
Reaching out on social goes beyond direct messaging influencers/bloggers and expecting them to magically promote your content. Part of building a strong relationship with your network is engaging with their content as well. Commenting, liking, and sharing their content shows that you’re proactive about establishing a strong relationship with your prospects. It also provides a long-term partnership that can benefit you both.
The process of social media outreach can seem like a tedious and time consuming process. However, agencies like SEO Design Chicago can help take the load off your shoulders. Explore more about our services offered here to tend to your social media marketing needs!
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