Social media is so in right now! 72% of Americans are on at least one social media website. 

Odds are, you’re competing with dozens of competitors to get people’s attention on social media. Yet you shouldn’t overthink your professional marketing. You should examine a few social media marketing ideas to take your accounts to the next level. 

How can you interact with your followers? What should you do to promote your products? How can you make your brand more desirable? 

Answer these questions and you can turn social media into a goldmine. Here is your quick guide.

Run Contests

You can run many different types of contests on social media. You can ask your followers to respond or share your post, and whoever gets the most attention for your content wins a prize. 

But you can build your brand and your follower base in more interesting ways. You can ask your followers to make artwork related to your company in some way. They can make new logos, or they can design a company mascot for you.

After you get submissions, you can run community polls asking your followers to vote on the submissions you like. You can feature the winning logo or mascot on your website and give the winner free products. 

You can use your social media platforms to advertise contests at your store or headquarters. But don’t just share promotional materials. Give your followers something to do, or send links to your most loyal followers that give them advantages during the contest. 

Run an Alternate Reality Game

An alternate reality game (ARG) is a form of multimedia storytelling. You create a narrative that players experience through social media posts as well as websites, YouTube videos, and live events. The story takes place in real-time and it changes based on how and when players respond to it. 

An ARG can take time and resources to plan out and execute. But it can make your brand seem bold and creative. Microsoft and other companies have run ARGs to promote their products, gaining national attention for their work. 

You can start the ARG by writing social media posts or sharing links on your social media platforms. You can create a private group on Facebook or another platform so players can speak to each other. You can reward the players who finish your game with free products or discounts for your services.

Pass the Mic

You should be in charge of your social media accounts at all times. But you can pass the mic to someone else, letting them make posts on your account for a day. 

If you want to promote people at your company, you can ask them to make posts. They can write about what it is like to work for your company, or they can write about themselves. Make sure you share photographs of the employees so your followers know who they are. 

You can also ask someone outside of your company to write posts for you. You can ask someone in your industry to write about their thoughts on the industry. You can even help someone in your community write about community issues. 

You should prioritize curated content like listicles. Curated content is straightforward and easy for your followers to skim. Your guest writers can produce short listicles and link to them on your main website.

Share Interesting Images

Sharing images of your employees is one of many great digital marketing ideas that involve photographs. Many companies focus their digital marketing efforts on written materials. By sharing images, you can stand out from your competition. 

Infographics provide relevant information about your company, industry, and products. You can share facts about your company or industry. You can also share brief tutorials about how to use your products or solve important problems. 

You should always share high-definition images that you can make yourself. Stock photos can seem stilted or unintentionally hilarious. Sharing a customer’s images is okay, but make sure you are sharing them without violating their copyright protections. 

Answer Questions 

If you want to develop a loyal fanbase on social media, you need to interact with your followers. Many people follow companies so they can send them questions about their products and services. Whenever you get a question from a follower, you should answer it. 

If you get several related questions from your followers, write a post addressing the questions. You can also start an FAQ page on your website and link to it on your social media page. This will prevent repetitive questions and provide a natural backlink to your website.

Some people may send private messages and comments complaining about your company. Apologize for what happened, then take steps to prevent the mistake from happening again.  Touch base with the customer in the future and see if you’ve done what you need to do to satisfy them.

Use the Best Social Media Marketing Ideas

Social media marketing ideas can help you get thousands of new followers. You should make your accounts fun, running contests and games that your followers can play. 

If you want to make connections in your industry and your community, you can ask guest writers to produce content for you. You should share images of your key employees so your followers know the important figures in your company. Answer any questions that come in, including negative ones. 

Run these ideas by intelligent marketers. Drive Social Media helps hundreds of companies with their social media platforms. Contact us today.