Does your company have a social media presence? Good. So do about 90 percent of the brands polled by the Content Marketing Institute. But do you have a strong social media strategy?

On the third day of our 12 Days of content series, we asked Senior Social Media Associate Kyle Gaw to share tips about how you should be promoting your content on social media to reach more leads.

Find the network that’s right for you

Before you can reach your target audience, you have to identify the channels where your prospects are active and most likely to interact with your business.

Marketers have a tendency to spread themselves too thin, casting a wide net with the hope that one or two networks will supply engagement, conversation and click throughs. However, they should be selective when investing resources in social media and find the gatherings that will prove most fruitful for their marketing strategies.

For a detailed field guide to each social network:

According to Kyle, there aren’t hard-and-fast rules to picking a network, but he has general guidance for companies starting their strategies:

“It depends on the industry, but if you’re a B2B, I generally recommend that you should be on LinkedIn. And if you’re targeting a B2Cs audience, I’d suggest Facebook and Pinterest. Check out Google+ if you’re trying to increase your web traffic, and Twitter is good across the board – no matter the industry,” he explained.

Start conversations with your target audience

You’re mistaken to underestimate the amount of thought that goes into a successful social media strategy. It’s unlikely you’ll build a big following and start meaningful conversations with customers if the only thing you do is set up a trigger that automatically posts content headlines. That’s why our social team increasingly encourages companies to build strategies around custom posting.

Our social team increasingly encourages companies to build strategies around custom posting.

When you have someone at the helm, who knows what your audience wants to hear and what they respond best to, you can pull those threads from the content you’re producing and get a bigger bang for your buck. You can repurpose content for social posts by sharing:

  • Statistics from news articles, blog posts and white papers
  • Quotes from experts
  • Data illustrations from infographics
  • Featured images from blog posts

But posting content on newsfeeds isn’t the only way to reach your leads. Smart marketers also hit the front lines and speak directly to their target audiences in Groups or Discussions. These are forums where people go to share insights and meet influencers – and they’re ideal destinations for brands looking to connect with new leads.

Engagement metrics prove you’re reaching more leads

The final piece of the puzzle is measuring your reach. Marketers are still largely unsure how to measure social ROI, which is perhaps why only 38 percent think they’re being effective.

There are two ways to track whether your social strategy is effectively widening your audience:

1. Google Analytics

You can check your traffic reports to see how many visitors are coming to your site from links they clicked on social media. Engagement metrics like time on page, bounce rate and exit rate will tell you how qualified those visits are, and whether they are clicking through to additional pages.

2. Social signals on each network

Look to reports on each network to see how many comments, shares, and likes you’re getting on your content. Pay special attention to Retweets and shares because they indicate your content is reaching twice as many people.

Let social strategies pave the way for more leads

Social media is where conversations are already taking place. By sharing your content on these networks, you’re giving those resources the audience they deserve and seeding conversations with customers. Social signals are also part of a healthy search strategy as an indicator that people find your information valuable, and can in turn help you reach even more prospects online.

For more specifics on content strategies to fuel other goals, get in touch with a member of our team.

Check back for more answers in our 12 Days of Content!

Lauren Kaye is a Marketing Editor at Brafton Inc. She studied creative and technical writing at Virginia Tech before pursuing the digital frontier and finding content marketing was the best place to put her passions to work. Lauren also writes creative short fiction, hikes in New England and appreciates a good book recommendation.