WHY RESEARCH IS SO IMPORTANT FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY
One thing every solid social media marketing strategy needs? Research.
But a lot of us forget the importance of research. Let’s face it - a lot of people believe that if they know something about a topic, read a few articles about it and have a bit of practice, they’re an expert.
And there are a lot of people who are like this about social media. You might even be wondering why I offer services in social media. How hard can it really be to plan an Instagram feed? How hard is it to schedule Twitter content for the week? Or upload a video to Facebook?
Well, you need to know what kind of content to share within your niche. And you need to know what kinds of content your audience relate to. Not to mention what platforms they’re on.
That all comes from research.
Basically, research is one of the biggest factors that makes a social media marketing strategy successful.
If you’re not sure whether you need a social media strategy, you can read more about that here.
Whether you realise it or not, you’re doing research every day on social media. When you’re scrolling through Instagram or chatting on Twitter - it’s all research.
So today, I want to show you what you can do as a blogger to start doing more research in order to maximise the impact of your social media marketing strategy.
P.S I've also made a free resource guide for you of the best social media tools you can use! You can download it below.
HOW TO DO RESEARCH FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY
#1 | LOOK AT KEYWORDS
Keywords are crucial for SEO and they’re super important for social media too. For each of my blog posts, I always pick a keyword and that underpins the overall context of my content.
Not sure whether you need keywords for social media? Look at it this way - whenever I upload a YouTube video, I always optimise that for SEO too using a keyword. Include my keyword in my:
Video headline
Description
Tags
Take the keyword I chose for this video: “How To Grow Your Blog | 5 Tips To Boost Traffic.” The keyword here was “grow your blog” and there were a few different things I did to pick this, including:
Putting those words in the search bar in Twitter and looked at the latest and most popular tweets.
Putting the keyword into Google’s Keyword Planner to see what other suggestions appeared.
Putting the keyword in Google’s and YouTube’s search bars to see what people were searching for.
But why would I do all of that work for social media?
Because you’re going to expand your knowledge of your industry. You’re going to come up with ideas you hadn’t thought of before. People might be asking questions about a topic you can answer - but you don’t know that until you do some research.
So how do you go about finding keywords to use for social media?
It’s simple - write down every word associated with your brand and industry.
Say you’re a beauty blogger. Your industries can include “health”, “wellness”, “beauty" and so on. Then go deeper. Keywords like “putting on make up”, “exercise routine”, “skincare tips” and so on would all be perfect examples. Then go even deeper to specific topics you’ve discussed like “foundation brushes”, “eyeliner tips” and “nail polish trends.”
The point is that you’re covering all bases. Keep them specific to your brand and your niche so your social media marketing strategy is aligned with what you blog about.
You should also be keeping an eye on what other bloggers are doing who are in your niche.
Look at how they communicate with their audience. Watch what kind of content create and how they share it on social media. Be aware of the words they use. Be interested in what they’re doing.
I’m a big encourager of a supportive community - but this is one of the best tactics to help you see success as a blogger.
#2 | USE SEARCH BARS
Notice anything that all the top social platforms have in common? A search bar. And it’s one of the best features you can use. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook Pinterest - they’ve all got one.
There are a few ways you can use bars:
To find new ideas
To join conversations
To see who’s talking about a certain topic
To see who’s mentioned your brand
To find alternative keywords
I could honestly spend hours on Twitter and Facebook searching users and groups to see what questions people are asking or what problems they’re struggling with. It’s a goldmine of information and a great tool to use for your research.
#3 | KEEP TRACK OF YOUR BLOG POST COMMENTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA MENTIONS
I’ve generated so many blog post ideas from what members of my community have said in blog post comments, social media mentions and my Facebook group.
Every single comment you get is valuable. Did they have a follow-up question? Did they say they’d like to learn more about a certain part of your post? Great! Use those prompts as ideas for future blog posts, because those are the things your audience wants to know about.
Plus, you also have the opportunity to reply to all your readers and tell them you’re here, you appreciate their voice and to watch out for a blog post in the near future.
#4 | USE QUORA
A forum where people ask questions on any topic at all? Quora.
This is a great tool where you can see what questions people have about the topics you blog about and what their biggest struggles are.
It’s a place thriving with people wanting answers to questions. And what should your blog posts aim to achieve? Answer a question or solve a problem.
You can also sign up to get a weekly round-up of the top questions people are asking in your industry, which is a really easy way of generating new blog post ideas.
So I hope you now know how important research is for your social media marketing strategy. Start implementing some of these research tips, keep a document of all your findings, monitor your progress and I promise you’ll start to see results.
Do you use research for your social media marketing strategy? Share your tips below in the comments!
P.S Don't forget to download your free resource guide of social media tools!
